Drying out Basjoo and Ensete
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:13 am
hi everyone
I am looking for some advice from some of you more experienced banana people please
The winter before last I lost a couple of maurellis (didnt have basjoo then). Last winter I put all of my bananas (except one) into pots and kept them quite dry in the greenhouse. Apart from the fact I lost most of them due to putting them out too early in spring and catching a frost, I wasnt able to do anything else in my greenhouse as it was head to toe in bananas!
This year, having read a lot of stuff on the forums, I decided this year to take my Basjoo Zebrinas and Ensete Maurellis out of their soil and dry out to pack away. Looks like a good option. I have taken them out, thoroughly washed off all the soil, and dried them out in my currently unheated greenhouse for a week.
The thing I am not sure about is how and where to store them. I am in derbyshire, and it really looks like being a cold one this year - we can get temps of down to -16 where I am.
The greenhouse is cold now, but will be heated later for canna seeds etc, the shed I think will be a bit too cold, the house is really the only option I think.
I was wondering if maybe I should wrap them and put in an understairs cupboard. Does anyone have thoughts on that? Will it be too warm? What if they start sprouting? does that even matter? I could maybe put them in the attic, but it gets very cold there (the pipes can freeze sometimes up there), so I worry they will be too cold.
When I have decided on where to store them, what should I store them in? Newspaper and a cardboard box? Does anyone have experience of this or anything else that has worked for them?
Sorry for the long email, but I really hope someone can help me so that I can put them all to bed this week
thank you!
Kath
I am looking for some advice from some of you more experienced banana people please
The winter before last I lost a couple of maurellis (didnt have basjoo then). Last winter I put all of my bananas (except one) into pots and kept them quite dry in the greenhouse. Apart from the fact I lost most of them due to putting them out too early in spring and catching a frost, I wasnt able to do anything else in my greenhouse as it was head to toe in bananas!
This year, having read a lot of stuff on the forums, I decided this year to take my Basjoo Zebrinas and Ensete Maurellis out of their soil and dry out to pack away. Looks like a good option. I have taken them out, thoroughly washed off all the soil, and dried them out in my currently unheated greenhouse for a week.
The thing I am not sure about is how and where to store them. I am in derbyshire, and it really looks like being a cold one this year - we can get temps of down to -16 where I am.
The greenhouse is cold now, but will be heated later for canna seeds etc, the shed I think will be a bit too cold, the house is really the only option I think.
I was wondering if maybe I should wrap them and put in an understairs cupboard. Does anyone have thoughts on that? Will it be too warm? What if they start sprouting? does that even matter? I could maybe put them in the attic, but it gets very cold there (the pipes can freeze sometimes up there), so I worry they will be too cold.
When I have decided on where to store them, what should I store them in? Newspaper and a cardboard box? Does anyone have experience of this or anything else that has worked for them?
Sorry for the long email, but I really hope someone can help me so that I can put them all to bed this week
thank you!
Kath