mart360

Quick Q for any of you green fingered lot out there.

I have a red Banana plant, which for the last 2 years has been growing well,

as usual this winter (haha) i wrapped it and after a brief check in Feb, unwrapped it when the clocks went forward.


All good so far, the outer leaves had died, but i had a good main leaf in the centre and another on its way inside that

Now obviously we had our little flurry (ha!) at the weekend, but by the afternoon, it had all but died away


you can see the banana on the left.

Then Sunday night / Monday morning we had a frost I checked the plant on my way to work, and it didn't look bad, a bit frayed, but they all do that.

Then we had another frost last night, and it did look a bit white on the outer edges, but no worse than Monday morning.

On my return home tonight, the main leaf has gone dark green / black and the inner leaf that was the next good leaf has gone that way as well
would the plant survive due to its core being well in the ground?

what do you reckon its chances of survival are?

I,ve rewrapped it tonight as the forecast is frost again

It would be a shame to loose it after all this time

mart

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

50/50 - I would try cutting it right back to remove any foliage that doesnt look healthy, then covering if frost is forecast. I think a lot depends on the soil with weather, and how cold it gets for how long - if the ground freezes where the roots are then the plant wont be able to get any water, and if this happens for a while it could dry up. Removing dead or dying foliage will stop the plant diverting water and nutrients to parts that dont need it and mean the healthy parts will get more.

With plants a lot of it is luck - you can fuss and fertilise and tend a plant and it can still die, or just leave it to it and it will grow fine on its own. Sometimes things you think have completely died can come back the next year with new shoots that were underground.

One thing you can do to protect against frost is to put plenty of mulch ( either bark or compost ) around the stem and about 18" - 24" around the plant. This will insulate the roots and stop them being effected so badly.

We didnt get much snow here and not too much frost, but having just spent £400 on trees I'm hoping they survive OK.

Leslie

Its had a bit of a hard time, good advice above. All you can do is to cross your fingers-good luck anyway.

Les

mart360

Well it survived for now,

the wind seems determined to shred its leaves though.




Mart

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

Not looking too bad, although as soon as the leaves start turning brown like the bottom ones I would cut them back to keep the other ones healthy and encourage some new growth.

Going back to my previous post, the trees we planted then are all doing well, put in 3 laurel bushes which have grown about 18" since planting, plus two cherry trees which have grown loads, and a japanese maple which has only grown about a foot, but is thickening up nicely and has loads of new growth.

The maple and cherries are along the side of the garden, which can be a bit of a wind tunnel down the side passage, so they get battered by the wind as well, but seem to be lasting OK.

If the wind is a problem for your banana you can always put in a windbreak, or plant some other more wind tolerant plants in the line of the wind to protect it.

53

iTrader: (41)

Well done that man

mart360

New growth, lol the big leaf facing you has another new leaf coiled behind it ready to unfurl, if you look inside that, the next leaf is allready there ready to go, on an average, its one leaf a week

how exactly do you mean cut them back? the stems are bloody huge and thick as your arm


Re a wind break, there is nothing i can do there, there is a hedge ther at the moment, and its channeling between the the hedge and the house.

its going to be fun wrapping it up for this winter


Mart

Leslie

We live on top of a hill and get the wind coming up the hill straight off the sea, so some plants just wont do well in our garden. Looks as though it will make it Mart and wrapping it up will do it good I think. Its amazing how the wind can undo wrapping though.

Hows the cinema coming on?

Les