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Drying out Basjoo and Ensete

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:13 am
by kathmarr
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

Re: Drying out Basjoo and Ensete

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:23 am
by Tom2006
It helps to put some Green sulphur around the base/roots to try and reduce the risk of rotting further. Try not to keep them too warm. I used my loft space last winter, put my two dried maurelii's in the box and left them there, but be aware that some lofts can drop below freezing, so this is a no go if it does.

Re: Drying out Basjoo and Ensete

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:45 pm
by Dave Brown
We're just having an extensive discussion on this subject here http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/v ... =1&t=18222 which covers quite a few options. :wink:

Re: Drying out Basjoo and Ensete

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:47 pm
by kathmarr
Fab thanks dave

Re: Drying out Basjoo and Ensete

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:49 pm
by kathmarr
And cheers Tom, I heard of that but not tried it, so I will!