Over wintering Musa, Musella and Ensete in the loft.

[Palmer]

I would like to establish if this is going to be a viable method of over wintering Musa, Musella and Ensete. If you are going to try it with any of the said plants could you say so in this thread so I can ask for your results in the spring, we can then establish if this method is going to work or not.
A simple list of the species you are going to try would be enough info for now; we could go into more detail later about the size of the plant and if its bare root or not.

Some of the plants I’m going to try…
1 Ensete tandara red
2 Thomsonii
2 balbisiana gigantea
2 Zebrina
1 Musella
1 Basjoo
1 Zaifui
2 Yunnanensis

All these plants are Spares but if you only have the one plant to try you will still be making a valuable contribution to the experiment.



Thanks,
Tony

[mushtaq86]

Hi Tony

I have not had problems storing ensete maurelii at temps around 10c bare rooted,musa or should i say musa basjoo i have had no luck,p-stems on basjoo have been around 1 meter,what i found with basjoo was while the p-stem and the corm stayed solid for 5 to 6 months, as soon as i planted them in the ground or potted up,around end of April and beginning of May they just rotted.

What i'm trying different this year is i am putting a basjoo bare rooted in bright light rather in a room or garage which is pitch black and see if there will be any difference.

I have not tried other musa bare rotted as i have assumed,if Basjoo deteriorates there will be no chance with others.

I see you will be trying Zebrina as one of your experiments,what i have found with red musa that have a lot of red either on p-stem or leaves like to be kept growing,as i
have found out with musa red iholena,mus kru,musa dwarf red, musa African rhino horn.musa siam ruby,musa cavendish family and musa zebrina,these nanas are not very cold tolernt and even at a temp kept at 10c around 5 to 6 months over winter these will deteriorate and die.These nanas stop growing when temps dip below 14c.

[Palmer]

Hi Mush,
I’m only going to try the ensete bare root and I’m thinking of trying the musella too
But the others are going to remain in their pots.
I find basjoo a very fickle plant to over winter in pots I would often over winter small
Basjoo in pots in my un-heated greenhouse and they would rot when my other nanas like sikkimensis yangtse yunnanensis and musella would all be ok, I guess small basjoo’s needs very good air circulation around them.
It is very dark and dry in the loft and doesn’t go below freezing so it’s going to be interesting to see if they can cope with those conditions for just over three months.
I would like to keep them up there for as little time as possible, so if still alive, I will take them out of the loft at the beginning of March and place them in the poly with some night heat!


Tony

[musa_monkey]

Interesting your comment on Basjoo rot Tony my experience is totally the opposite.
I have about 50 of them in the garage and would expect a 99% survival rate as per previous years. For me its always the sikki and its hybrids that rot. The garage is unheated and was just above freezing last year. They are all left in pots and dry out naturally as they get no water over winter. Humidity is left to nature to sort out .

I am trying a few stored in there bare root this year to simulate the US under house storage method. i figure if it works it could save me a lot of space.

I did considered loft space storage but i know the temps get very low up there and its in total darkness with so i decided against it. I will put a couple of potted basjoo and a musella up there now though - just to see what happens....may even try a Maurellii

[Palmer]

Hi Alan,
It was odd when the small basjoo in my greenhouse died and other more tender nanas survived but that’s the way it was.
Depending on the winter it would down to –3 to –5 last winter was the great leveller because they all died.

I have placed all the nanas in the loft today so fingers crossed it works and thanks Alan and Mush for giving this ago! It wouldn’t be much of an experiment if only one person tries it


Tony

[Vagetarian]

This is how I intend to store my bananas in future so I'm very interested. Most of my plants are way too small or tender (Super Dwarf Cav) to store in the roof this year.

I am however looking at a 700mm P-stem Musa Sikkimensis which has just started to flop over in it's pot (below soil level). If it has a chance of survival in the roof then that's where it's going to go!

What do you guys think?

[Palmer]

Over wintering nanas in the loft is in it experimental stage, so no guaranties!
If you don’t mind if your sikkie dies.. then try it.
It doesn’t sound good though if your sikkie is starting to flop over in its pot.

[Vagetarian]

Don't worry, I've been wondering whether this method would work for a couple of months. It looks like it's time to find out!

The Sikkimensis in question actually looks perfectly healthy and it's still growing quite fast. I've just dug it up and the roots look fine too. I think it might have something to do with me using 50% perlite and potting up way too early into too big of a pot. Every time it then threw out a new leaf it would go slightly out of balance and gradually lever out the roots and break up the poorly formed root ball.

In other words, I think I should have allowed it to form a solid root mass before potting up, instead of a crumbly one.

Anyway, back to the point. I am going to risk this limp nana for the experiment!

Have you used a specific method or have you literally just chopped off the leaves, cleaned the roots and dumped them on the insulation?

[Palmer]

I cut the excess leafs of two weeks ago to give the cuts time to heal, most of the nanas have two or three leafs left on.
All the plants will remain in their pots except the ensete (that’s bare root) and to be honest I wish I had left its roots on now because I cant see the point in taking them off if it could have survived with them on… although it was in a very big pot!
Yesterday I placed all the pots in plastic bags to avoid any mess when taking them up into the loft but also I don’t wont the plants to totally dry out, so I’m going to water them to try keep the roots going! I would like the compost to become semi-dry though so they will get very little water.
I’ve laid some boards out on top of the rock wool for the plants to site on and that’s it.

My house and loft are very well insulated and it does get very cold in the loft but I have a vent in the ceiling on the landing that vents into the loft and I’m hoping that’s enough to stop the loft from going below freezing.

Tony

[Vagetarian]

Thank you Tony.

I'm going to cut all the leaves off my sikki, except the currently unfurling one. After healing I shall repot the plant into a perforated bag of fresh, almost dry compost. I might even sterilise it in the microwave first.

My house is also very, very well insulated. I will monitor the temps and probably put my nana over the airing cupboard area, which is conveniently right next to the hatch.

[Yorkshire Kris]

Interesting your comment on Musa basjoo rot Tony my experience is totally the opposite.
I have about 50 of them in the garage and would expect a 99% survival rate as per previous years. For me its always the sikki and its hybrids that rot. The garage is unheated and was just above freezing last year. They are all left in pots and dry out naturally as they get no water over winter. Humidity is left to nature to sort out .

I am trying a few stored in there bare root this year to simulate the US under house storage method. i figure if it works it could save me a lot of space.

I did considered loft space storage but i know the temps get very low up there and its in total darkness with so i decided against it. I will put a couple of potted Musa basjoo and a musella up there now though - just to see what happens....may even try a Maurellii

I have had exactly the same experience.

[Palmer]

What in a greenhouse with door and window open and temps at –3 to -5 I thought I was the only one daft enough to try that

Have done a video about it Kris

[Yorkshire Kris]

What in a greenhouse with door and window open and temps at –3 to -5 I thought I was the only one daft enough to try that

Have done a video about it Kris

No I closed the door and window when below 0 outside. Basjoo seems to come back from anything.

[mushtaq86]

Thank you Tony.

I'm going to cut all the leaves off my sikki, except the currently unfurling one. After healing I shall repot the plant into a perforated bag of fresh, almost dry compost. I might even sterilise it in the microwave first.

My house is also very, very well insulated. I will monitor the temps and probably put my nana over the airing cupboard area, which is conveniently right next to the hatch.

Any bananas that i overwinter i only cut the leaves three quarter,as i feel this causes less stress,rather than cutting all the leaves,petioles and just leaving the p-step.

[Vagetarian]

Cheers for the advice mushtaq, this is my first time overwintering nanas. Unfortunately it's too late for this poor nana, I've already hacked it almost flush.