asacomm

Here is in zone 9 and I want overwinter potted bananas under the eaves.
I will cut off all leaves and and protect the whole body with mat of vegetable
materials.

In this case, what should I do for watering? Absolutely no watering or is
occasional watering is needed?

bencelest

I am in zone 9 and I never cut the leaves of my bananas simply because I don't know that you should cut the leaves.I just follow my intuition. The way I do it I just put all my potted bananas in my open patio and enclosed it with clear plastics to protect my plants from harsh winds. I have other plants too like citrus and I also put them inside the enclosed patio together with the bananas and I put Christmas lights around each plant.
Regarding my watering, I just simply check the soil once in a while and when I see that the first 1 inch of top soil dry, I water them with warm water sparingly.
In regards with my planted bananas in the ground, I will follow the advice of the nice people here.
Here's one that someone posted in another forum a while back:

"I had my last winter citrus last year- they lived just fine. You should definitely check before you water, wet feet will be more detrimental than just about anything- its amazing how much longer they take to dry out indoors!

Mine didn't grow much during winter, but stayed mostly green. I get several hours of sun, and would put on a small fluorescent table light on for about 3-4 more hours. They get rotated around the light every few days. "

I think this idea can be applied to bananas as well.

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Banana Nut

Njoynit

I recieved a dwarf cavendish pup last year. So I chose to keep it growing in kitchen ver the window in front of french doors.I watered it with hot water when soil would move back from pot. Same with my dwarf prince.

D_&_T

i leave a jug of water sitting beside the pot and water it when needed, afraid of shocking roots too much using tap water, coz of temperature difference


Dan

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asacomm

Thanks all for your precious opinions and ideas.

The main reason why I cut the leaves off and try to minimize the volume of
the plants is that I have 9 pots of 60Lit/16gal and they should be settled
under the limited space of eaves. Otherwise I dare not to injur the plants.

As to watering, while they are dormant, I think they need no water and so
watering shall cause roots damages. Some one says no watering all in the
dormancy period. Is this not right?

bencelest

You can do either one. It's up to you.
The reason why I watered every so often was because I wanted growth even during the winter time. I did not want my bananas to go dormant all the way but grow and stay green and put up some spears no mater how slow they come.
But mind you, I live in zone 9 and we are closer to the ocean so we have no drastic change in temperature. Almost always the lowest tempt was over 40 degrees. And my patio was protecting my bananas from the wind plus they were protected from the sun's rays most of the time. So although the tempt maybe on the 40's there was no wilting or browning of leaves because they were not getting enough sun but indirect light .

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Banana Nut