Rotten Musa Basjoo
 

I have a large banana plant in the garden it has been protected with straw
then wrapped with fleece.No water has got to the plant as the straw is bone
dry but the stem has completely rotted to ground.
Will the plant regrow from the roots ?
Keith
Nottingham,UK

Rotten Musa Basjoo
 

On 25/2/08 20:50, in article ,
"keith kent" wrote:

I have a large banana plant in the garden it has been protected with straw
then wrapped with fleece.No water has got to the plant as the straw is bone
dry but the stem has completely rotted to ground.
Will the plant regrow from the roots ?
Keith
Nottingham,UK


You have nothing to lose by waiting to see what happens. There's always a
slim chance the roots have survived. However, a lot depends on what has
happened to the roots, not the stem. If they've been sodden and cold your
chances aren't good.
I started to answer this and then spoke to my husband about our Musa
Basjoos. We grow none in the garden and we're in S Devon though not too far
from Dartmoor so it's very wet here. We have several, in pots, in a
polytunnel and despite temps that have not gone much below -2 for long, Ray
thinks - thinks - we've lost ours. This could just be the horrible, damp
weather we've had because heaters come on during the cold nights, if needed
and of course, such plants don't get watered in winter. Who knows? The
Ensetes ventricosum, which we also take in over winter, look just fine...
It's lovely to experiment with plants if one can afford to do so but
sometimes you really do have to play to your strengths or accept that plants
will be lost in wet and cold.
I do hope you find yours have survived.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Musa Basjoo is pretty root hardy, and commonly they do resprout, unless the soil has suffered an unusually sharp frost by the standards of lowland Britain. I hope you mulched well around the base.
Keeping a banana pseudostem alive in your garden through the winter in Britain can be done, but it isn't easy, and depends on you being somewhere well sheltered from frost. Another option is to lift them and over-winter in a heated green house, which is what they do at a municipal garden near where I am writing from (Charing Cross, London). But that can be a big job.
But at least if they do regrow each year, and you feed and water them well, you should get an expanding clump of them, and that can be very attractive. Some people prefer it like that. If you keep the pseudostem alive for a few years, it will flower and die.

Rotten Musa Basjoo
 

"echinosum" wrote in message
...

Keeping a banana pseudostem alive in your garden through the winter in
Britain can be done, but it isn't easy, and depends on you being
somewhere well sheltered from frost. Another option is to lift them and
over-winter in a heated green house, which is what they do at a
municipal garden near where I am writing from (Charing Cross, London).
But that can be a big job.


I've had mine unwrapped this winter (Sheltered spot, but by no means frost
free, London SW19) and the four stems are just beginning to grow away.

I've kept them that way since the clump size/multiple stems made wrapping
impractical - they tend to look pretty scrappy in the spring and the outer
rotted leaf bases need to be stripped away, but they survive. I did it the
first time when the original stem got too large, I left in un wrapped with
the intention of cutting to ground level, but is just grew away as normal
and flowered!

pk

Rotten Musa Basjoo
 

"PK" wrote in message
...
"echinosum" wrote in message
...

Keeping a banana pseudostem alive in your garden through the winter in
Britain can be done, but it isn't easy, and depends on you being
somewhere well sheltered from frost. Another option is to lift them and
over-winter in a heated green house, which is what they do at a
municipal garden near where I am writing from (Charing Cross, London).
But that can be a big job.


I've had mine unwrapped this winter (Sheltered spot, but by no means frost
free, London SW19) and the four stems are just beginning to grow away.

I've kept them that way since the clump size/multiple stems made wrapping
impractical - they tend to look pretty scrappy in the spring and the outer
rotted leaf bases need to be stripped away, but they survive. I did it the
first time when the original stem got too large, I left in un wrapped with
the intention of cutting to ground level, but is just grew away as normal
and flowered!

pk

Thanks all , i will keep my fingers crossed ,it is a big plant with big root
system hence it being in the garden.I got it from one of the show garden
sell offs at gardeners world show last year it was in a 2ft min pot which
was full of roots & very heavy.
Thanks Keith
Nottingham

Rotten Musa Basjoo
 

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 25/2/08 20:50, in article ,
"keith kent" wrote:

I have a large banana plant in the garden it has been protected with
straw
then wrapped with fleece.No water has got to the plant as the straw is
bone
dry but the stem has completely rotted to ground.
Will the plant regrow from the roots ?
Keith
Nottingham,UK


You have nothing to lose by waiting to see what happens. There's always a
slim chance the roots have survived. However, a lot depends on what has
happened to the roots, not the stem. If they've been sodden and cold your
chances aren't good.
I started to answer this and then spoke to my husband about our Musa
Basjoos. We grow none in the garden and we're in S Devon though not too
far
from Dartmoor so it's very wet here. We have several, in pots, in a
polytunnel and despite temps that have not gone much below -2 for long,
Ray
thinks - thinks - we've lost ours. This could just be the horrible, damp
weather we've had because heaters come on during the cold nights, if
needed
and of course, such plants don't get watered in winter. Who knows? The
Ensetes ventricosum, which we also take in over winter, look just fine...
It's lovely to experiment with plants if one can afford to do so but
sometimes you really do have to play to your strengths or accept that
plants
will be lost in wet and cold.
I do hope you find yours have survived.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'



I have several in the garden here in 'cold' East Yorkshire and I always get
several new shoots from the base every year. I usually pot a few up and keep
them in an unheated polytunnel as well as insurance with added fleece in
cold spells.

Rotten Musa Basjoo
 

On 28/2/08 17:38, in article
, "Trevor"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 25/2/08 20:50, in article ,
"keith kent" wrote:

I have a large banana plant in the garden it has been protected with
straw
then wrapped with fleece.No water has got to the plant as the straw is
bone
dry but the stem has completely rotted to ground.
Will the plant regrow from the roots ?
Keith
Nottingham,UK


You have nothing to lose by waiting to see what happens. There's always a
slim chance the roots have survived. However, a lot depends on what has
happened to the roots, not the stem. If they've been sodden and cold your
chances aren't good.
I started to answer this and then spoke to my husband about our Musa
Basjoos. We grow none in the garden and we're in S Devon though not too
far
from Dartmoor so it's very wet here. We have several, in pots, in a
polytunnel and despite temps that have not gone much below -2 for long,
Ray
thinks - thinks - we've lost ours. This could just be the horrible, damp
weather we've had because heaters come on during the cold nights, if
needed
and of course, such plants don't get watered in winter. Who knows? The
Ensetes ventricosum, which we also take in over winter, look just fine...
It's lovely to experiment with plants if one can afford to do so but
sometimes you really do have to play to your strengths or accept that
plants
will be lost in wet and cold.
I do hope you find yours have survived.



I have several in the garden here in 'cold' East Yorkshire and I always get
several new shoots from the base every year. I usually pot a few up and keep
them in an unheated polytunnel as well as insurance with added fleece in
cold spells.


If they're kept dry at the roots and don't rot. That's the key. Still
hoping we haven't lost ours! We're so much milder here but perhaps much
wetter over a long period?

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

I'm with Sacha on this one: I split up a newly-bought plant last spring, brought on the offsets, sold off a couple of them (and got my money back, hooray!) and the other four have been in my unheated tiny plastic greenhouse.

They look pretty rotten to me. I think my mistake was in keeping their compost moist?

But as she says, you lose nothing by waiting a few weeks to see if anything will sprout again, so that's what I'm planning to do.

Rachel

Rotten Musa Basjoo
 

On 29 Feb, 13:21, Rachel Aitch Rachel.Aitch.
wrote:
I'm with Sacha on this one: I split up a newly-bought plant last spring,
brought on the offsets, sold off a couple of them (and got my money
back, hooray!) and the other four have been in my unheated tiny plastic
greenhouse.

They look pretty rotten to me. I think my mistake was in keeping their
compost moist?

But as she says, you lose nothing by waiting a few weeks to see if
anything will sprout again, so that's what I'm planning to do.

Rachel

--
Rachel Aitch

Dormant (as opposed to dead!) banana corms will respond to bottom
heat, i.e. if you stand the pots on a heated propagator base/heated
bench, they will usually sprout, in my experience. (What an odd,
long sentence I've just typed - I must be hungover.)