nana straw protection

[Mr List]

i am curious how tightly (or loosely?) you should pack straw in around banana stems when protecting for the winter.

[Dave Brown]

Packing with straw will not make any difference unless the Banana is almost hardy anyway. Musa basjoo and maybe sikkimensis will be the only ones that might benefit.

The straw relies on trapped air to insulate, not the material itself, a bit like glass fibre loft insulation, and double glazing. Just make sure there are no big gaps, but loosely rather than tightly.

[Mr List]

not to sound ungrateful but could anybody other than dave offer input on the subject?

(soz dave )

he doesnt think highly of straw or protecting bananas even though that is the standard way of getting basjoo and sikkimensis pstems through the winter.
i'd like to hear from anybody that has actually done it ,at some point, with success.

[grub]

Not really helpful Ken but I've tried both ways with Musa Sikkimensis and still always lose the pseudostem .

[Mr List]

hmmm...

can you go into detail what you did with the sikkimensis (and failed) to see if i can come up with any last minute improvements in my plans.

they are my favourite of the two nanas and it will be a bit of a kick in the balls if i need to give up on them.

[grub]

Pack loads of straw around the lot, maybe about a foot to spare all the way around and fence it in. I've tried with plastic over the top to keep the wet out the top and with the whole lot wrapped in fleece, I'm just too cold here and I think it's largely to do with the garden seeing no sun at all in winter. I think if they had some sun they would generate a little warmth and hold on to it, but for me here it just doesn't happen.

[Las Palmas Norte]

I used straw once, what a mess to clean up in spring

Cheers, Barrie.

[Mr List]

Pack loads of straw around the lot, maybe about a foot to spare all the way around and fence it in. I've tried with plastic over the top to keep the wet out the top and with the whole lot wrapped in fleece, I'm just too cold here and I think it's largely to do with the garden seeing no sun at all in winter. I think if they had some sun they would generate a little warmth and hold on to it, but for me here it just doesn't happen.

how does airflow come into the equation?
if it is wrapped in fleece their can't be too much 'flow' to the air (but it is still breathable)
i have some black weed control mulch fabric which is breathable and lets water through.

i wonder if adding this on top of the fleece wrappings could help.
being black instead of white might draw in extra heat.
plus an extra layer of wrap will be extra insulation?

@barrie
what do you do with nanas these days?

[Yorkshire Kris]

This is my history overwintering basjoo in situ

2007, used a fleece bag only, result lost pseudostem
2008 used a tower of bricks around basjoo filled with straw and a board on top to protect from rain, result retained full height of pseudo stem
2009 same as above
2010 bulit a wooden frame and chickenwire around the now multiply basjoos, this was filled with straw up to around 2 foot then put a plastic cover on the top. I ran out of straw otherwise I would have filled to the top (6foot), result only kept 6inches to 1 foot of stem.
2011?

[Mr List]

with seeing your basjoo growing from the ground i just assumed you never protected them at all, kris.

how tightly do you pack the straw in?

[Yorkshire Kris]

with seeing your basjoo growing from the ground i just assumed you never protected them at all, Kris.

how tightly do you pack the straw in?

Yeah they got hammered last winter without the proper amount of straw.

It's hard to explain about how much to pack the straw in, but not really packed in that much would be my answer.

You don't want big gaps but neither do you want to compress it that much that you press out all the air (and would cost more in straw)

[AndyC]

I've been using straw to protect basjoos for the last ten years and for all except the last two years I've saved most of the Pseudostem height. If it is cold enough for long enough it doesn't matter how much insulation you provide the cold will eventually get through and wack the pseudostems which is what happened the last two winters.
I pack the straw quite tightly and provide about one foot of thickness on all sides (even tightly packed dry straw will hold a lot of air spaces. Fortunately I can get straw quite cheaply (£2 a bale) and I'll use at least one bale on a stand of pseudostems. It is essential the the raincover works, you don't want any chance that the straw will get wet and start to rot.

[Mr List]

andy,

would you say that when you have packed the straw around the pstems it is as tightly packed as it comes in the bale or less?

[AndyC]

At a guess I'd say about half the density of the bale. The straw springs open when you cut the binding string and I just take handfuls of it to stuff inside the chicken wire hoop.

[Mr List]

i think i have a good understanding of how tightly i will pack in the straw.