Zacarias

Hey all,

I'm 'bout ready to put my smaller nanners (orinocos, basjoos, and one beccarii) in a new portable stand-alone 4x6+ greenhouse. I plan to have it heated to at least 60 degrees in the winter to keep the nanners slowly growing to be ready to plant in the ground come spring. I will have a fan in there as there is just the zip door that opens.
I'm REALLY worried about excess humidity and fungus problems. I've never done overwintered bananas but have always hated those little peat-pot seedling kits. (you know the kind they say have the plastic lid for that gets tons of condensation in them which lead to damp-off?) Well, I'm worried I'm gonna baby these bananas just to have them collapse on me from too much humidity. I'm in the PNW and we're getting a lot of rain in the winter with temps 40 to 50. Thanks.

Zach

Zacarias

bump

Taylor

I have been thinking about the small portable greenhouse. I am contradicting it though. Who knows what problems you will get with one. I have been getting temps of 60 degrees daily now, and my bananas arent growing quickly anymore. Where did you get your portable greenhouse from?

Zacarias

hey Taylor,

Yeah I know GH could introduce a whole new set of problems, but I hope it doesn't. I got mine from dealhaven.com It's a montego deluxe 4x6 greenhouse. They sell on ebay.
I got mine but they didn't send all the parts so I still haven't full set it up...grr...

Zach

Taylor

Well, when you get all the parts, take some pics!

mikevan

In the winter I water much less - let the soil dry out a little bit. So long as it's slightly moist a knuckle or two below the surface, the nanner won't desicate too much and you can monitor it too. You want it just above wilt level. As to coolness, I'd opt for 50's during the day - survival is more important than growing if you've uncertainties. In the 50's it will largely be dormant, tho with consecutive warm days you may still get a leaf a month or so. The humidity will be the saving grace tho - on cold nights. My unidentified nanner survived tempuratures down to 20F when the heater went out, namely because there was no desicating air movement and because the humidity was so high. A layer of ice even formed on the glazing and containers froze over - small cups of water froze solid but the nanner only suffered defoliation, which it replaced when it warmed back up.

Concentrate to keep it above freezing rather than to maintain an ambient tempurature. My heaters were aimed in a way that created a warming bubble around my tropicals where the rest of the greenhouse got chilly. Trying to create an ambient tempurature in there will be prohibitively expensive - glazing is a terrible insulator - an R-factor of .8 to a little less than 2 depending on the material and layers. I kept chocolate trees, coffee trees, taro, lemongrass, ice-cream bean trees, cashew trees, vanilla orchids, etc alive this way with only a single layer of poly and nights getting down into the upper to mid teens and didn't kill myself with heating bills. My new pit greenhouse will hopefully be even more efficient in tempurature moderation...

Don't neglect ventilation on clear days tho - even if it's cold outside, a little bit of sun can cause temperatures to skyrocket inside to over 100F very quickly! Only on the coldest days did I maintain temps below 100F without ventilation - and with ventilation the average high was in the 90's regardless of how cold it was outside! If you can stick a large bucket or barrel of water in there with the nanner tree, it will help moderate the temperature - absorbing warmth during the day and releasing it over the night.

In any case - I have zero fungal problems in my greenhouse. I don't over-water - keeping things a bit on the dry side, so that no doubt helped. I also kept the air around the plants moving at least some of the day - either with ventilation during the day, or the heater at night. But fungus can happen - keep an eye out for pockets that remain cool and dark and still and moist.

Have fun,
Mike

Zacarias

Mike,

Thanks for great information! Everything that you say makes total sense and now I definitely feel much more confident that I will be able to overwinter these nanners.
I will just keep the temperature around 50 as best as I can. The greenhouse will be in a partial shade location so hopefully that help on those clear days along with ventilation.
I will post pictures once everything is set up and give periodic updates throughout the winter.
Thanks again for your explanations.

BobbyinNY

Zac,

I second Mike for the most part - I'm just a little scared to let the temps dip that low.. I maintained night temps of about 60f during Jan/Feb in my greenhouse - It was a bit expensive. I used (2) 1500 watt thermostatically-controlled heaters and it worked fine. Cost me about $100.00/month in Heating - not too bad... The most difficult part is controlling the temperature when the sun comes out - it can get hot VERY quick. My greenhouses have a glazed coating (not clear) which helps a bit, but having a constant fan is a huge help too - very important. As far as bugs go, you just have to monitor the plants pretty regularly - watch for little black bugs on the bananas. Don't over-water and open the vents on warm days....


Bobby

mikevan

With the heater - a 1500watt model, it stayed around 40F on the cold nights - maybe a little cooler, but above freezing for the most part. Those are only on the cold nights - of which there aren't usually too many. Mostly it's in the 40's naturally, or high 30's, outside - tho with the occasional arctic blast it'll dip into the high teens outside and the heater will really kick in. So, the nanner has a mixture of warm nights and cool/cold nights but except for two cases of heater failure never below freezing. My goal wasn't to keep up vigorous growth, tho - but to keep it green and alive thru the winter with just moderate growth. The one in the pit greenhouse - unheated - actually did some surprising growing last year. This season I expect it to remain fairly consistantly warm in the pit greenhouse, fingers crossed...

Be well,
Mike

imdocrob

I just built a new greenhouse 6x10 and have put my nanners in there. They seem to be doing just fine. I guess the best thing to look for is moisture control. How often does one need or should fertilize during the winter when they are all but dormant in the greenhouse. I would anticipate trying to keep the temp around 50-60 degrees during the night if that sounds good. Any other suggestions from the forum?

mikevan

Unless it's been very warm for a protracted period of time and the nanners are actively growing, I don't feed. A whole winter can go by without feeding if it's pretty cold. If they're not growing, they're not going to need the ferts anyway - what is left in the soil is about all they'll use if at all. I also slow down fertilizing in the Fall when it gets cooler as well. I don't start until I see active growth and it's been reliably warm at least in the greenhouse.

Be well,
Mike