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Advice for overwintering Banana and Citrous

JezbersJezbers Posts: 4
Hi

I have some banana (Japanese, hardy) and various citrous (lime, lemon, orange) all grown from pips and are in pots. Last winter I brought them all into the conservatory but the large banana became leggy, the small banana pups became sick and have since died, and the citrous seemed plagued by scale and small flying insects but have recovered outside over the summer.

The banana is a good 8 ft tall now and has 3 pups, none of which are yet large enough to separate.

The citrous range from very small plants (12 inches high) to small shrubs (~ 2ft high).

So I need some advice. Should I instead put them in the greenhouse with some heating, or is the conservatory still the best option? Note my greenhouse is a tad dilapidated so not ideal. I'm in rented accommodation and the landlord won't fix the broken panes in the greenhouse, so if anything I would need to patch and seal it with clear plastic/tape etc.

Any and all advice is much appreciated.

Regards

Jerry

Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    If the banana is musa basjoo and you're somewhere mild, wrap it in hessian,or "fleece" but not bubble wrap and it should be fine. 
    If you're somewhere colder, or it's not Basjoo, you can dig it up, even if you remove virtually all the roots and remove the leaves ( just leave the "trunk" ) and put it somewhere frost free, shed, garage ( dare I suggest spare bedroom , folk do !) and it'll be fine when you plant it out next year.
    Devon.
  • purplerallimpurplerallim Posts: 5,287
    The lime needs to be kept above 5° so conservatory for it, but others should survive in the greenhouse after you patch it, unless we get a very cold spell then fleece them too like the banana
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