Overwintering bananas

AdRock · January 2020

Happy new year everyone

I've got some Musa Basjoo and Ensete Ventricosum Maurelii sheltering in a poly tunnel along with some canna lillies. All have been stripped of their leaves and were sitting nicely until the polytunnel started getting a lot of condensation. The plants have all become wet and I'm concerned about fungus/disease.

I would be grateful for any tips, I do have the option of bringing them into a wooden building but there is zero sunlight... would that be OK?

Thanks in advance!

Hostafan1 · January 2020

I have the same two bananas in my unheated tunnel. Why did you strip the leaves?
Bananas can survive perfectly happily with no light. I've heard of folk successfully storing them in their attic.

AdRock · January 2020

Hostafan1 said:

I have the same two bananas in my unheated tunnel. Why did you strip the leaves?
Bananas can survive perfectly happily with no light. I've heard of folk successfully storing them in their attic.

The musa basjoo are quite tall and the leaves got torn towards the end of the summer by wind so I cut them back... not sure why I did the ensete! The canna leaves died back naturally. Should I have left the bananas alone?!

That's good to know about storing them away in the dark, I'll do that tomorrow as I'm guessing the wet/cold environment isn't doing them any good.

Hostafan1 · January 2020

I leave my cannas and bananas with the leaves on until the weather naturally knocks them back, but I leave the old leaves in place as I believe this helps give them a tiny bit more protection from the cold .
My Ensete is about 4 or 5 years old and I pull the old leaves up and roughly wrap round the top if it's forecast to be really cold.
I've recorded -7.5C in there and it survived. No idea how, but it did.

Overwintering bananas

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