Kostas

Hello,

I have been reading about many of you protecting your bananas for the winter now as cold weather approaches you and have been trying to find out if i need to protect my sole ground planted banana,my Ice Cream with about 6ft of pseudostem now. Most of the people whose winterizing methods i have been reading here are in zones a little worse or better than mine and i would like your help decided wether i need to protect my banana or not to hopefully get bananas the coming year. I have my Ice Cream planted from last May/June,in Melissia,Athens where we get a few -2C to -3C random nights in the winter and half a week of below 0C night temprature days with snowy weather on some of them. We get a good deal of snow that week and see tempratures from 0C to -3C most often(a little above 0C during the day) but we can also see -6C in bad years once every 4years and i think we have once seen close to -10C,-12C. I do have warning when its gonna get that low so i can protect the last minute if we get a bad winter this year. But in a normal winter with tempratures down to -3C or -4C only,do i need to protect and how,for the pseudostem to survive and produce bananas next year?
What should i do in the case of a bad winter? The less time it takes to protect and the less ugly it is,the better!

Thank you very much in advance!

__________________
''To try,is to risk failure......To not try,is to guarantee it''

Jack Daw

Depends on the size and cultivars. I would at least mulch the bananas and put aside some pups just to be sure.

__________________
Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



Zeitgeist - Corporatocracy 101 (~2hrs)

Zeitgeist - Moving Forward (~2.5hrs)

Kostas

Thanks for your reply Jack!

Its an Ice Cream banana with almost 6 feet of pseudostem and no pups yet. I will mulch it heavily when cold weather is predicted and it already has 5cm of mulch but will that be all thats needed to save the pseudostem?

Thank you very much in advance!

__________________
''To try,is to risk failure......To not try,is to guarantee it''

Jack Daw

Well, if your nights are not as long as mine and the frost lasts much shorter + the following day is warmer than what I had in October frostorama, it will survive. Or all my nana pseudostems survived. However the leaves were burnt beyond recognition.
If there is not an extreme, sudden cold spell with lots of water, it should do just fine. Pseudostem survives much more drastic temps than leaves, circa 2 or 3 degrees less than leaves.

As I've said, I would save a pup as well.

Ice Cream is one of the hardier varieties from what I've read on the wiki, so it shouldn't be a great problem. Although 6' isn't that much for an IC baby.

__________________
Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



Zeitgeist - Corporatocracy 101 (~2hrs)

Zeitgeist - Moving Forward (~2.5hrs)

Dalmatiansoap

Thanks to this weather warm up last few days my IC is pushing again. Top of this leaf is about 4m high now and still pushing. Im not planing any special protection, just a bit of mulch and wind shalter.

__________________
https://abnb.me/AXJty518xib

Kostas

Thank you very much for your replys and help Jack and Ante!

What was the minimum temprature your bananas saw and the pseudostems survived?
Generally we get a little above 0C tempratures during daytime when we get snow and this weather with minus C during the night and plus during the day can last up to a week although it can also be much shorter in duration.
I dont mind leaf destruction in Melissia,i feel lucky i am even able to grow and possibly fruit them there! But in Pyrgos i consider leaf damage unacceptable as the climate is great there!
Its great to know the pseudostem is 2-3C hardier than the leafs! If i see the leafs damage and its predicted to fall even lower more than 2 degrees,i plan to wrap the pseudostem in a blanket and wraping film. Would that provide enough protection for -6C on a single night? Or should i used flexible tube Christmass lights wrapped arround the pseudostem and the blanket and wraping film? As always,the less the easier it is for me to construct on last minute along with a series of potted plant relocations...



Wow,thats a monster Ante,well done!!! Its a beauty!!! Mine is 1-1,5m shorter than yours
You will surely enjoy a flower next year from it and i hope i may enjoy one as well if the pseudostem survives!
What do you mean by wind shelter? Do you mean just that its location provides is sheltered from the wind or that you will add something to shelter it from cold winds? My Ice Cream is planted at the most wind protected place of the garden and i am enjoying mostly entire leafs from it


Thank you very much in advance!

__________________
''To try,is to risk failure......To not try,is to guarantee it''

Dalmatiansoap

Its just shaltered from the winds there. We rare go below 0C and snow is like public attraction. It does go to -2,-3 one or two night but never for whole 24 hrs below 0. Im aware that I ll loose most of the leaves but I counted on that one. This is first year for my edibles outside so I ll see at the end what will left and I ll be able to make a sort of hardiness list. I have some backup plants prepared for the Spring anyway

__________________
https://abnb.me/AXJty518xib