sunsetsammy

Hello,

This past winter I've attempted to store several bananas in a small heated shed.

5 Ensete Maurelli
2 Musella Lasiocarpa
2 Blood banana

I dug the plants up and trimmed all the leaves except the middle one. I stored the plants "vertically" and bare root with the temps in the shed held around 10 C (50F).

I lost a few due to rot:
2 of the Ensete
1 of the Lasiocarpa

These 3 plants were grown in pots the previous season and I'm thinking that I should've let them dry out more before storing. Maybe I should've stored them lying on their sides to let some of the excess water drain out. There was a lot of water trapped next to the trunk where I trimmed the leaves. These spots seem perfect for trapping water and causing rot.

One of the Blood bananas seems to have sent up a pup the other completely turned to dust.

The other plants seem to have made it thru the winter.

I live on Vancouver Island and although our weather is quite mild in terms of cold it doesn't really get hot here either. At least not for very long and definitely not very hot in the spring.

I would like to give these plants a jump start and get them going early as the growing season isn't long enough for my liking. So I've planted them in pots and I've bumped the temperature in the shed up to about 20 C (65F). There are 2 windows in the shed which give limited light. I'm moving the pots outside on sunny warm days, and when the temps drop I'm moving them back into the shed. I'm also trying to be careful not to water too much at this point.

In your opinion am I wasting my time here? Will these plants start pushing out new growth based on higher temps alone or do they need more light to get going. Even on sunny days the temps aren't really much more than 10 C so I'm not sure.

Hurry up summer!!!

Jack Daw

Well, it's some tough temps you have there.
I think that you've resolved your problem already, but I just wanted to let you know how I overwintered my DCs and SDCs. I simply let them dry out in the pots (the pot can be removed and the dry soil must keep its shape) and only then water it.
If you know, that the summer will come in 1 or 2 months, you can always prepare the plants in front of some sunny window, south-faced and when the time comes, put the plants outside. But beware, because the leaves are from interior, so some adaptation time is needed and they should be in full shade, then partial shade and only after that in the full sun.
Good luck.

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



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