Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelii yet?
Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelii yet?
Just wondering if anybody has decided to move their Ensete Maurelli into the warm indoors yet?
The temp in my back garden went down to about 1.8C last night. The predicted overnight lows for the rest of this week are: 7C for Tuesday, then 3C for wednesday and Thursday, then back up to 6C on Friday and 5C for Saturday and Sunday.
Am I worrying too soon, or would it be best to move it indoors? I have no greenhouse.
The temp in my back garden went down to about 1.8C last night. The predicted overnight lows for the rest of this week are: 7C for Tuesday, then 3C for wednesday and Thursday, then back up to 6C on Friday and 5C for Saturday and Sunday.
Am I worrying too soon, or would it be best to move it indoors? I have no greenhouse.
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
i haven't yet. my green ventricosum is coming in this weekend followed by the 'Montbeliardii' and maureliis. the garage is cold enough for them now. leaves less urgent jobs to do if the weather turns quickly.
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
They are unlikely to sustain any damage with light ground frosts like last night. Any leaf damage from colder temps should not affect them either as the damage is only superficial and those leaves would deteriorate in storage anyway. As eyefi said it's a matter f priority. Deal with the tenderest or most valuable stuff first.
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
Andrew,
I took mine into the garage last night along with E.Perri.
Cut off all the leaves and left them inverted to drain away any water.
It got down to 2°c here last night as well.
The rest will come inside this week end.
Alan
I took mine into the garage last night along with E.Perri.
Cut off all the leaves and left them inverted to drain away any water.
It got down to 2°c here last night as well.
The rest will come inside this week end.
Alan
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
Mine are still looking good and pushing out new leaves albeit slower now, will dig them up when I see any sign of the first frost.
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
Hi,
No, haven't dug them up yet. Normally I dug them up somehwere in November. I also don't have got that cold temperestures like you people, coldest here is something like 7-8C so far since somewhere April.
Robbin
No, haven't dug them up yet. Normally I dug them up somehwere in November. I also don't have got that cold temperestures like you people, coldest here is something like 7-8C so far since somewhere April.
Robbin
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
Still out I've got 3 Maurelli, 2 Ventricosum, 2 Perieri, 3 Thompsonii and about 10 Zebrinas all still looking good (I would have dug them up but I'm out of Compost and Perlite )
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
I'm in no rush either especially with milder weather forecast.daftbanana wrote:Mine are still looking good and pushing out new leaves albeit slower now, will dig them up when I see any sign of the first frost.
I hope to keep storage time down to less than 6 months
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
Mine's still in the ground and will probably stay there until bad weather is forecast. I wont be at home during half term week, so will look at the temps for the following week before I leave, and decide what to do then. With the sunny days we have been having, I'm sure there has been a tad of growth, so for the minute I'm leaving it. We've had one day at least where there has been ice on the windscreen and some nippy nights, but nothing to worry the plants.
Di
Di
I'm at an age where my back goes out more than I do.
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Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelli yet?
All mine are still outside.
I've been doing some research into the Ensete venricosum tribe, and and found some very interesting stuff. I'm going to write an article on the growing conditions they get in the indigenous areas, and you would be quite surprised. Unfortunately I'm having to do training courses at the moment, as well as getting all my normal days work done, so just not had time to write it so far
I'll say a brief bit about what I have found here.
Ensete ventricosum, The Abyssinian Banana comes from the highlands of Ethiopia. around 7 degrees north of the equator, so is a tropical plant. The wild green form grown from seed is the least hardy of the Ensete Ventricosum tribe, growing to an Altitude of 1600m This equates to temps between 10 and 30C..... seems to make a mockery of our temperatures for sprouting the seed
The Ethiopians use the corm as food, so over the centuries have bred more cold tolerant cultivars that grow higher up into the mountains. Unfortunately all the culivars we have are named after the European discoverers, rather than the Abyssinian cultivar name.... Shame really otherwise we would know exactly how hardy they are. Some cultivars have been bred to grow up to 3000m which is nearly double the altitude of the wild green one.
We all know that the Standard (wild, seed grown) ventricosum is less hardy than Maurlii, Mondbeliardi, Hiniba, Tandarra Red etc, this is probably due to them being the bred culivars for growing up in the high mountains. My small Montbeliardi survived -4C under cover kept bone dry still in its pot last winter.
Addis Ababa is at 2,400 m and the Esnete grow up to and beyond that height.
Here is the climate for Addis. Note the warmest average night temps are 10C with the coldest average nights 5C Record lowest 0C Also note the deluge summer and drier winter with low humidity. Seems they can survive warm days with 9 hours tropical sun with temps dropping down to around 5C while being almost completely dry. This is the tip for overwintering here. So if stored in a garage or shed dry, temps of 15 or 20C will not cause them to croak. Looking at that climate it is not surprising they do very well in our summer. but we have a major advantage over the Ethiopians, we have as much feed as it needs, where as they struggle. The time from a pup to harvest, just before flowering is 7 to 15 years depending on altitude..... can you imagine growing a crop for 15 years before you can eat it
I've been doing some research into the Ensete venricosum tribe, and and found some very interesting stuff. I'm going to write an article on the growing conditions they get in the indigenous areas, and you would be quite surprised. Unfortunately I'm having to do training courses at the moment, as well as getting all my normal days work done, so just not had time to write it so far
I'll say a brief bit about what I have found here.
Ensete ventricosum, The Abyssinian Banana comes from the highlands of Ethiopia. around 7 degrees north of the equator, so is a tropical plant. The wild green form grown from seed is the least hardy of the Ensete Ventricosum tribe, growing to an Altitude of 1600m This equates to temps between 10 and 30C..... seems to make a mockery of our temperatures for sprouting the seed
The Ethiopians use the corm as food, so over the centuries have bred more cold tolerant cultivars that grow higher up into the mountains. Unfortunately all the culivars we have are named after the European discoverers, rather than the Abyssinian cultivar name.... Shame really otherwise we would know exactly how hardy they are. Some cultivars have been bred to grow up to 3000m which is nearly double the altitude of the wild green one.
We all know that the Standard (wild, seed grown) ventricosum is less hardy than Maurlii, Mondbeliardi, Hiniba, Tandarra Red etc, this is probably due to them being the bred culivars for growing up in the high mountains. My small Montbeliardi survived -4C under cover kept bone dry still in its pot last winter.
Addis Ababa is at 2,400 m and the Esnete grow up to and beyond that height.
Here is the climate for Addis. Note the warmest average night temps are 10C with the coldest average nights 5C Record lowest 0C Also note the deluge summer and drier winter with low humidity. Seems they can survive warm days with 9 hours tropical sun with temps dropping down to around 5C while being almost completely dry. This is the tip for overwintering here. So if stored in a garage or shed dry, temps of 15 or 20C will not cause them to croak. Looking at that climate it is not surprising they do very well in our summer. but we have a major advantage over the Ethiopians, we have as much feed as it needs, where as they struggle. The time from a pup to harvest, just before flowering is 7 to 15 years depending on altitude..... can you imagine growing a crop for 15 years before you can eat it
Best regards
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelii yet?
mine is still in a pot. b&q have them reduced at the moment 50% off
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelii yet?
Interesting comment Dave, I was concerned that if I stored mine in the loft, under insulation to protect from frost, it may get too warm if the sun continuously heats the tiles. After reading this it may not be of concern after allSeems they can survive warm days with 9 hours tropical sun with temps dropping down to around 5C while being almost completely dry. This is the tip for overwintering here. So if stored in a garage or shed dry, temps of 15 or 20C will not cause them to croak.
I've cetainly got to store it where I've plenty of space and it's small enough at present to carry up ladders. If successful though, I'll have to get a winch ready for the following year
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelii yet?
I'm really annoyed with myself as this last Winter seen off my large one which I had overwintered for three years. I used to dig it up and put it in dryish compost, cut most of the leaves off leaving just the growing point and perhaps one more and just leave it then till Spring. But this last Winter I foolishly gave it water in very early Spring, and together with extremely low temps it just died. It had a big corm which had started to rot and I kept cutting away at it bit by bit, but rot kept setting in and it was smelly - until basically there was nothing left of it. I could have kicked myself after as I knew I shouldn't have watered it that early,and put it somewhere a little warmer. Why I watered it, I don't know, it was just an impulse thing. I'm potting mine up and putting it in the porch again this Winter, minus the water, and hope we have a milder Winter and it pulls through okay.(and everyone else's too )
Di
Di
I'm at an age where my back goes out more than I do.
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Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelii yet?
I know what you mean Di, I chose last year to leave mine planted out. I now don't think there is any way under normal circumstances that you can leave them planted out as the soil just stays too wet over winter, unless, I think Cathy said, it is left bone dry in a pot under something to keep the rain off.
Will Giles was saying he had someone look after all his Maurelii one winter, they were kept above 5C, but were watered, and he lost every single one of them to rot.
It was very difficult for me as I didn't cut the leaves off but watched them shrivel one by one at it dried out, but that is what they need here.
After reading the cultivation methods and the climate details it is not the cold and damp, that starts the rot, but the lack of heat during the day. If you look at the climate data, they get cold nights but warm sunny days in their winter. The 5C min they can hack, but the 5C days with any moisture does for them.
Will Giles was saying he had someone look after all his Maurelii one winter, they were kept above 5C, but were watered, and he lost every single one of them to rot.
It was very difficult for me as I didn't cut the leaves off but watched them shrivel one by one at it dried out, but that is what they need here.
After reading the cultivation methods and the climate details it is not the cold and damp, that starts the rot, but the lack of heat during the day. If you look at the climate data, they get cold nights but warm sunny days in their winter. The 5C min they can hack, but the 5C days with any moisture does for them.
Best regards
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Re: Anybody dug up their Ensete Maurelii yet?
Mine has been put away in the greenhouse.