Last Musa Super Dwarf Cavendish brought in coservatory

[mushtaq86]

Dave, the super dwarf cav you have dug up from your bed,is it from the mother plant.

[Dave Brown]

Dave, the super dwarf cav you have dug up from your bed,is it from the mother plant.

Yes I took some pups in May 2008, but were in small pots so did not grow to their full potential. releasd into the open ground it took off.

[Alexander]

Well odder bananas do not show that distorted growth in winter. And in our conservatory its arround 15 during the day, with sun up to 20 and more in winter.
So that super dwarf cavendish shows something not normal when it produces strange growth.

Alexander

[Dave Brown]

Well odder bananas do not show that distorted growth in winter. And in our conservatory its arround 15 during the day, with sun up to 20 and more in winter.
So that super dwarf cavendish shows something not normal when it produces strange growth.

Alexander

I can't comment, as that is the only one I've got to that size so far. I stupidly left all of my previous ones in the unheated covered area back in 2004/5, lost the lot, and had to start again. They seem to need 4 to 5 years to reach maturity here.

Perhaps you can tell us how your's grow in the Consevatory, and any pics

[Alexander]

Dave,

The banas are grown in the ground and are kept hot and with plenty water and light during the season when we are open. They grow very well there. Also several with fruit at the moment. They will be ripe next spring. I have no pictures of them but can take some. The advantage of this Musa is that it those not get tall and you get edible bananas. We have also 6 other species of bananas, M. Assam Red, M zebrina, M. basjoo, M. sikkimensis, M. velutina and M. ornata. The disadvantage of M. sikkimensis and M. basjoo is that they get so tall that the laves grow against the roof.
I guess on the dwarf cavendish you can get fruits as well in a conservatory when kept warm.

Alexander

[Steve May]

I've had my dwarf cavendish in an unheated greenhouse since early October. The pot is on wooden blocks and wrapped in foil-backed bubble wrap. The stem is wrapped in fleece and the pot filled with straw. It has thrown out two new leaves since then, but this week's siberian blast has finally blackened the leaves (just like the canna outside in a pot). Have cut the leaves of both and wrapped the stem of the Cav in more fleece and straw and brought the canna into the greenhouse and covered in fleece. I hope both will recover come spring. I wanted to see how long they would go without lifting and putting somewhere frost free. I was expecting they might make it to New Year, but winter seems to have come early this year! My baby CIDPs in pots in greenhouse are doing fine. Not sure they would've faired that well outside as they are quite small.

[redsquirrel]

steve,if it was my dwarf cav id have brought it indoors,might get too cold out there for it

[Dave Brown]

Steve, I think your chances of getting any Cavendish through a winter by wrapping, are very remote. They can take down to 2 or 3C for a very short period (few hours) with minimal damage, but they need to temps to rise back up to around 10C to be able to survive. A frost free greenhouse is too cold for these. These are tropical plants and don't do dormant, so if too cold to grow... it dies.

If by chance it does manage to pull through write a topic on it

This Super Dwarf cav was subjected to 2.9C for one night and looked fine..... for about a week, then all the pups started to die off. Most of the pups have now died completely so must have been too small to take the cold for even a few hours.

[Dave Brown]

All pups have now died and gone, all the roots have died back, as have the leaves. I cut all leaves and dead root off and it is now stored dry as an Ensete can be. Not sure if this type of Banana can take being left dry, but they do sell the Dwarf cavendish as bare pups with no root. I'll let you know how it goes.