I am in zone 8a, Germany. It's incredibly wet here during winter. One thing I learned with Musa Basjoo is, that they just won't ever die. They have layers like onions and down to the last layer they are resilient as long as they don't freeze through. So I personally cut them low and put straw filled clay pots over them and cover with a moisture barrier on top and all the fallen leaves from the garden. This Methods works even in -20 °C . We had super low Temps few years ago, no problem, it won't freeze under the big pile, as it generates heat due to biological activity.
Just wanted to say THANX! For this video. In zone 8a NrthEast TX, and we had that epic rare freeze and I used this technique after watching your video. My basjoo is alive and spreading her wings.
This may work just fine in your zone 9A, but I used your bubble wrap method last season in 7b and it was rotten and slimey down to the base. I attribute that to not keeping heavy winter rain water out of the top... IN MY ZONE, in Western Arkansas. Whoa whatta stink too. LOL
@@BananaJSSI Yeah, I was really hoping it would. They did come back from the corm though. I even put cages around them and filled it with leaves after bubble wrapping, so I thought for sure I would get some good height to start off with. LOL Too rainy in the winter here I suppose followed by a few stretches of nights in the 20's . Love your videos!
@@Tiki71 My pal Austin in Arkansas grows King size Bananas and Musa velutina as ell. You have the high heat units they love. Winter here are wet as well but never to cold however once in a while they can dip down to near 20 F Thanks for watching
For the last four or five years I've not protected my basjoos at all. I don't do anything to them. I live in North Georgia, zone 8A. The frosts take the leaves down and they kind of act as insulation around the upper trunks. They generally start putting on leaves 4-6 feet up the trunks in early Spring. I used to put fence around them and fill those with leaves, but found I really don't need to, they are so hardy. The only maintenance I do is in Spring I cut off dead leaves and put them around the base of the trunks, I also cut out the spent trunks that flowered the year before.
That is great! Yes, in the deep south they are fool proof and you can never kill them. Even here on our island Musa basjoo are bullet proof. Most people I know don't bother protecting them. I have ben growing them since 1989 and have never lost a banana from cold weather. They can freeze to ground in a bad winter, but will always bounce back. Cheers
Ok i did a new experiment, basically putting mulch on the ground, cutting of the leafs, wrapping a 1.5 m chunk with fabric to provide better aeration against fungus. In April it has started to grow very large leafs. So basically the larger pseudo-stem you have the faster it will recover, not much dependent whether leafs survive, except for the first two weeks, since initial photosythesis will of course boost the process. I will try this next time to see what happens. A notable thing is that the upper part was frozen in winter and it destroyed only the outer layer.
I did the cage methods in upstate new york. When I unwrapped them in May I had what looked like rotten wilted slimy frozen celery down to the ground. The tree did survive and re grew from the roots
The bananas look fantastic and if you get a mild autumn/early winter you can enjoy them longer by leaving the leaves on. Have you ever tried fleece Joe instead of bubble wrap (as an experiment)-I find there are different grades of fleece and the fleece you can buy now doesnt get a soggy as the old softer fleece.
Many moons ago late 1980's and early 1990's I would cage them in with dry leaves then tarp over top. Then 30 years ago I started using bubble plastic only. It works well
I'm in zone 7 and don't think it would work here(central europe). The winter is not problematic. Spring time is! Low temperatures and a lot of water. I cover the ground around the stems with tree bark, so it doesn't freeze and wrap them with winter protection garden fabric.
Palmy & Palmy UK, I know the climate well there fo sure. Lots of friends that live and grow palms there. My daughter lived in Taunton and then moved to South Cornwall. Tons of palms and exotica everywhere because of the Gulf Stream
This works just fine, been doing it this way for 30 years and growing these bananas since the 1980's. Trunks are a bit slimy when bubble plastic is removed late winter but they are never rotten
I would share my experiment. I had a nice big growing one in zone 7B. I didnt use this wrap technique, instead came up with the idea to contain the whole in a 2 m high/wide plastic bag with wire heating. It was fine until mid January, outside it was snowing -10 C (14F), inside it was over freezing point. The banana was still growing. Then in February the leaves turned slightly black at some parts and started dieing. It was a game over, had to cut it, but got rotten till the ground. Some of the plantroot survived, but the new offsprings were growing very slow. So I guess the leaves can only survive cold temperature for many weeks, but not a season. My suspicion is that moisture maybe fungus killed large part of the root? Maybe it releases hormons if you let it die? I dont know. But cutting and covering worked this year.
Great experiment no doubt about it. Thanks for sharing. I have a friend who lives in Ottawa that grows Bananas in his zone 5 location, but he cuts them down and heavily mulches and then puts a tarp over the clump. They always seem to bounce back. They certainly are tough and root hardy down to near -20 C . Cheers to you
I live in New York State I cut them down to about 4 feet ,dig up a few and put in my basement water twice a month and put back in the ground in mid to late April just so I can have 15 footers ,the ones left in the ground come back up with no mulch but only reach about 10 feet I’ve had bananas fur the past 4 years …
The cage method will work perfectly fine in yoru zone. I use to use the cage method at my last growing zone 8a/8b . Here the bubble plastic is good because our min temps don't ever get so low Cheers
@@BananaJSSI yeah cant believe there growing like crazy upper 30s lower 40s at night. just kept the tops off and put straw and leaves grass etc. around them
No idea what you mean by zones as I live in the UK. What temperature range are you and wind strength. We have summers of 18-20 with highs if say 30 Winters low single digits but only freezes a few odd occasions in winter. If lucky then hardly any as I'm in Cornwall
I'm not sure what I'll do with mine this year. We just had a very frosty night last night, -3°C / 26.6°F and much colder than typical for this time of year. I'll assess the damage which is likely just the leaves and go from there. The temperature has rebounded and is 10°C / 50°F currently.
I would say -3°C doesnt really hurt them. At around that temps my newly planted Basjoos got some leave damage but the trunk should be fine to around -5 if not less. The Ensete ventricosum also handled 0 to -3 over night pretty well.
Your videos are fantastic. Thanks for your sharing. Just purchased what is literally a rain forest property up here in Comox. Has a huge Musa basjoo banana which I lopped at about 6 ft high and covered with tarp in the fall. Next fall definitely going to try your bubble wrap method. Just uncovered, and not sure what to do. Cannot find any videos on cleaning up the stalks. Some new growth coming out already, but because maybe I left the tarp on too long, the tips are quite brown. Do I cut them off? That will cause cuts in the leaves? And what do I do with the stalks? How much of the brown outer part do I peal off? Funny I can't really find any videos on this on the web. Was hoping you had one. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Do nothing man. The banana will use old brown leaves as a protection just like trees use bark to protect their soft wood. As soon as it gets warmer and the growth speeds up it’s going to get normal. Just don’t forget to fertilize it a lot (like bananas can’t overdose on fertilizer) and if dry, water them.
Besides the bubble wrap,where do you stand on an antifreeze cover cloth for plants? Its common here in North Greece for gardeners to dress lemon trees for instance with such plant cover! Could this be possible to work on a banana tree?
I have seen people use like a fleece cloth to put over plants in light frost. We have used it at the nursery years ago to cover annuals. It really depends on how low the temperatures go. This bubble wrapped has worked at temperatures just below 20 F (-6.5 C)
I'm in Maryland too! I'm wondering why my plant that had all the babies and was the biggest, isn't the biggest anymore... 🤔 should I separate the pups to make it grow? Do you chop yours down at all for winter? What part of MD are you in? I'm right on the 7a/7b line... it's literally going right across my backyard!
@@krikit96 eventually the older part of the plant loses vigor and all the energy goes into the new shoots. I wouldn't cut off thr pups unless you wanted to divide them or the clump was getting too big. I'm in the Eastern Shore which supposed to be 7b. I cut them back to about 4/5 feet after the first frosts. In April I start peeling back the mushy parts to expose the new growth.
In this area one of the first but maybe not the first. I first used bibble wrap in the early 1990's . I read an Orangic Gardening magazine and a guy in Northern Texas tried it on his bananas, so I decided to give it a try. It works well in our zone
Do you think the bubble wrap would work on Papaya trees in zone 8b? San Antonio Texas. Didn’t survive big freeze last year. I wrapped in blankets but the whole stem rotted. Was actually starting to sprout news leaves first week of February 2020, then the big freeze hit.
Going to buy some banana seeds and try to grow them here, my plant is to go around the city and plant them in various locations, so this wrapping method will save me a lot of time! I have been looking into both Musa sikkimensis and basjoo, which one would be best for me? would love to have a fast growing plant in this cool climate. I live in a Norwegian costal city, and the martime climate here is very similar to Vancouver. Most summer days are just above 20 degrees, and winter days around 3-4 degrees, so possibly a bit colder than where you live. Im in zone 7b since there tend to be arctic cold spells sometimes in the winter but its very rare to go below -10c. Hopefully this will be the northernmost city to have "wild" bananas growing around!
There are certainly some Trachycarpus palms in southern Norway. People don't realize how mild parts of Norway are. Huge old Monkey trees too. Bananas won't have a problem at all
@@BananaJSSI thanks! Yeah i have a trachycarpus myself. There was a guy in a town where i used to live that had a monkey tree. Way over 15 meters tall maybe Even closer to 20. My father said that it has been there as long as he remember, so for at least 50 years! Heard rumors about when he sold the house. The county protected the tree so the new owner could not try to chop it down even if he wanted
Do you think this will work in the DC, Maryland area? This is considered zone 7Aand 7B. The zone is literally split between these two zones in my neighborhood. This is my first year with my bananas and I'm sprouting 6 babies under the biggest tree... what do you suggest we do?
Do you think the mylar (shiny silver stuff) covered bubble wrap would work? I'm in the Fraser valley of bc so looks like I'm zone 8b. I've been using the cage method last few years but I think I want to try this but only have the shiny stuff on hand at the moment and want to know if its suitable. Thanks.
@@BananaJSSI I might even try the cage method with leaves and the mylar bubble wrap, and some Christmas lights for one of the Cavendish's just to give it the best chance. And then same but no lights for the other.....if they both survive amazing, if just the one does, that's still a victory for me. Happy for you guys moving to Costa Rica, it's something me and my family have actually been pondering for a while, but looks like with all the crazy stuff going on with our government might not be able to do that.
Great technique! I've tried the wrapping , and the cage method. I finally just started cutting them to the ground. Mulch with leaves, maybe a foot deep. And the next year they grow rather quickly come spring. Plus all my livestock get to eat all the banana stocks ,and leaves!
I am in zone 8a, Germany. It's incredibly wet here during winter. One thing I learned with Musa Basjoo is, that they just won't ever die. They have layers like onions and down to the last layer they are resilient as long as they don't freeze through. So I personally cut them low and put straw filled clay pots over them and cover with a moisture barrier on top and all the fallen leaves from the garden. This Methods works even in -20 °C . We had super low Temps few years ago, no problem, it won't freeze under the big pile, as it generates heat due to biological activity.
Yes, you are right. Musa basjoo are very cold tolerant plants. Mulch to roots for winter and they will not die
This is great .... 🌟
You appreciated Mother nature care that's the important point ...keep it up ..👍from Pakistan
Cheers
Just wanted to say THANX! For this video. In zone 8a NrthEast TX, and we had that epic rare freeze and I used this technique after watching your video. My basjoo is alive and spreading her wings.
That is awesome!
This winter in the south of England i used scaffold pole protection foam. Worked a treat
Wow, amazing! Very cool
This may work just fine in your zone 9A, but I used your bubble wrap method last season in 7b and it was rotten and slimey down to the base. I attribute that to not keeping heavy winter rain water out of the top... IN MY ZONE, in Western Arkansas. Whoa whatta stink too. LOL
Well it is good to experiment with it in slightly slower zones. Sorry to hear it didn't work out
@@BananaJSSI Yeah, I was really hoping it would. They did come back from the corm though. I even put cages around them and filled it with leaves after bubble wrapping, so I thought for sure I would get some good height to start off with. LOL Too rainy in the winter here I suppose followed by a few stretches of nights in the 20's . Love your videos!
@@Tiki71 My pal Austin in Arkansas grows King size Bananas and Musa velutina as ell. You have the high heat units they love. Winter here are wet as well but never to cold however once in a while they can dip down to near 20 F Thanks for watching
Im in zone 9b SW Florida. Im gonna try the bubble wrap on my trees for the up coming 36 degree weather we're gonna get this weekend
For the last four or five years I've not protected my basjoos at all. I don't do anything to them. I live in North Georgia, zone 8A. The frosts take the leaves down and they kind of act as insulation around the upper trunks. They generally start putting on leaves 4-6 feet up the trunks in early Spring. I used to put fence around them and fill those with leaves, but found I really don't need to, they are so hardy. The only maintenance I do is in Spring I cut off dead leaves and put them around the base of the trunks, I also cut out the spent trunks that flowered the year before.
That is great! Yes, in the deep south they are fool proof and you can never kill them. Even here on our island Musa basjoo are bullet proof. Most people I know don't bother protecting them. I have ben growing them since 1989 and have never lost a banana from cold weather. They can freeze to ground in a bad winter, but will always bounce back. Cheers
Ok i did a new experiment, basically putting mulch on the ground, cutting of the leafs, wrapping a 1.5 m chunk with fabric to provide better aeration against fungus. In April it has started to grow very large leafs. So basically the larger pseudo-stem you have the faster it will recover, not much dependent whether leafs survive, except for the first two weeks, since initial photosythesis will of course boost the process. I will try this next time to see what happens. A notable thing is that the upper part was frozen in winter and it destroyed only the outer layer.
Excellent! That is a great experiment for sure. That is the way to do it. Cheers
I did the cage methods in upstate new york. When I unwrapped them in May I had what looked like rotten wilted slimy frozen celery down to the ground. The tree did survive and re grew from the roots
The first time I started growing them in the 1980's I did the cage method as well
I always use this method but cut the leaves off and use them as a mulch around the banana plants along with shredded autumn leaves.
Yes, that works too and many people do that
The bananas look fantastic and if you get a mild autumn/early winter you can enjoy them longer by leaving the leaves on. Have you ever tried fleece Joe instead of bubble wrap (as an experiment)-I find there are different grades of fleece and the fleece you can buy now doesnt get a soggy as the old softer fleece.
Many moons ago late 1980's and early 1990's I would cage them in with dry leaves then tarp over top. Then 30 years ago I started using bubble plastic only. It works well
I'm in zone 7 and don't think it would work here(central europe). The winter is not problematic. Spring time is! Low temperatures and a lot of water. I cover the ground around the stems with tree bark, so it doesn't freeze and wrap them with winter protection garden fabric.
This past December freeze the Banana froze down good here
Great video thanks . You mentioned zones re temperatures. I’m coastal in the south of uk temperatures rarely go below -2 is that bearable ?
Palmy & Palmy UK, I know the climate well there fo sure. Lots of friends that live and grow palms there. My daughter lived in Taunton and then moved to South Cornwall. Tons of palms and exotica everywhere because of the Gulf Stream
Any plastic winter protection should be avoided if there is not sufficient ventilation as this encourages rot!
This works just fine, been doing it this way for 30 years and growing these bananas since the 1980's. Trunks are a bit slimy when bubble plastic is removed late winter but they are never rotten
You wonderful man, thank you so much for this amazingly valuable information.
Thank you for watching my friend. Cheers
I would share my experiment. I had a nice big growing one in zone 7B. I didnt use this wrap technique, instead came up with the idea to contain the whole in a 2 m high/wide plastic bag with wire heating. It was fine until mid January, outside it was snowing -10 C (14F), inside it was over freezing point. The banana was still growing. Then in February the leaves turned slightly black at some parts and started dieing. It was a game over, had to cut it, but got rotten till the ground. Some of the plantroot survived, but the new offsprings were growing very slow. So I guess the leaves can only survive cold temperature for many weeks, but not a season. My suspicion is that moisture maybe fungus killed large part of the root? Maybe it releases hormons if you let it die? I dont know. But cutting and covering worked this year.
Great experiment no doubt about it. Thanks for sharing. I have a friend who lives in Ottawa that grows Bananas in his zone 5 location, but he cuts them down and heavily mulches and then puts a tarp over the clump. They always seem to bounce back. They certainly are tough and root hardy down to near -20 C . Cheers to you
I live in New York State I cut them down to about 4 feet ,dig up a few and put in my basement water twice a month and put back in the ground in mid to late April just so I can have 15 footers ,the ones left in the ground come back up with no mulch but only reach about 10 feet I’ve had bananas fur the past 4 years …
And that is why I like Joe so much. He clearly stated that it works in his climate zone. Sadly enough not in mine 7 zone
The cage method will work perfectly fine in yoru zone. I use to use the cage method at my last growing zone 8a/8b . Here the bubble plastic is good because our min temps don't ever get so low Cheers
i did the same but covered the too. well im with you now leaving it open on too. the dam things keep growing still and popped the top off lol
They sure are amazing plants, so tough
@@BananaJSSI yeah cant believe there growing like crazy upper 30s lower 40s at night. just kept the tops off and put straw and leaves grass etc. around them
@@scottrobert2724 They are the toughest Banana plants for sure!
No idea what you mean by zones as I live in the UK. What temperature range are you and wind strength.
We have summers of 18-20 with highs if say 30
Winters low single digits but only freezes a few odd occasions in winter. If lucky then hardly any as I'm in Cornwall
I have the big red leaf bananas tree would it work or do I have to bring it inside to make it go dormant
Yes, I use to do that many moons ago when I lived at my last location and I would cut all of the leaves off
I'm in the UK, temperatures typically don't fall below 5 degrees Celsius here but winters are very damp. What would recommend?
Bubble wrap will work just fine where you are
Im in zone 5b, and I’m going to get a greenhouse for my yard. I’ll heat and ventilate and see what happens.
I'm not sure what I'll do with mine this year. We just had a very frosty night last night, -3°C / 26.6°F and much colder than typical for this time of year.
I'll assess the damage which is likely just the leaves and go from there. The temperature has rebounded and is 10°C / 50°F currently.
Well at least you know they will always bounce back in Spring even if there is no protection
I would say -3°C doesnt really hurt them. At around that temps my newly planted Basjoos got some leave damage but the trunk should be fine to around -5 if not less. The Ensete ventricosum also handled 0 to -3 over night pretty well.
Your videos are fantastic. Thanks for your sharing. Just purchased what is literally a rain forest property up here in Comox. Has a huge Musa basjoo banana which I lopped at about 6 ft high and covered with tarp in the fall. Next fall definitely going to try your bubble wrap method. Just uncovered, and not sure what to do. Cannot find any videos on cleaning up the stalks. Some new growth coming out already, but because maybe I left the tarp on too long, the tips are quite brown. Do I cut them off? That will cause cuts in the leaves? And what do I do with the stalks? How much of the brown outer part do I peal off? Funny I can't really find any videos on this on the web. Was hoping you had one. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Do nothing man. The banana will use old brown leaves as a protection just like trees use bark to protect their soft wood.
As soon as it gets warmer and the growth speeds up it’s going to get normal.
Just don’t forget to fertilize it a lot (like bananas can’t overdose on fertilizer) and if dry, water them.
Thank you Cheers
Besides the bubble wrap,where do you stand on an antifreeze cover cloth for plants? Its common here in North Greece for gardeners to dress lemon trees for instance with such plant cover! Could this be possible to work on a banana tree?
I have seen people use like a fleece cloth to put over plants in light frost. We have used it at the nursery years ago to cover annuals. It really depends on how low the temperatures go. This bubble wrapped has worked at temperatures just below 20 F (-6.5 C)
Is burlap as effective?
No, unless you can keep it dry
Can I grow this In the high Sierras?
I think you can
I live in zone 7 maryland. I have never protected my musa basjoos and they put on 12ft every year. In fact it flowered and fruited this year.
I'm in Maryland too! I'm wondering why my plant that had all the babies and was the biggest, isn't the biggest anymore... 🤔 should I separate the pups to make it grow? Do you chop yours down at all for winter? What part of MD are you in? I'm right on the 7a/7b line... it's literally going right across my backyard!
@@krikit96 eventually the older part of the plant loses vigor and all the energy goes into the new shoots. I wouldn't cut off thr pups unless you wanted to divide them or the clump was getting too big. I'm in the Eastern Shore which supposed to be 7b. I cut them back to about 4/5 feet after the first frosts. In April I start peeling back the mushy parts to expose the new growth.
Pretty confident you were the first to use bubble wrap huh??
In this area one of the first but maybe not the first. I first used bibble wrap in the early 1990's . I read an Orangic Gardening magazine and a guy in Northern Texas tried it on his bananas, so I decided to give it a try. It works well in our zone
Do you think the bubble wrap would work on Papaya trees in zone 8b? San Antonio Texas. Didn’t survive big freeze last year. I wrapped in blankets but the whole stem rotted. Was actually starting to sprout news leaves first week of February 2020, then the big freeze hit.
In the deep south I would certainly give it a try, This far north no way
Will this method work in zone 6?
I don't think so. Best to use the cage method in zone 6
Going to buy some banana seeds and try to grow them here, my plant is to go around the city and plant them in various locations, so this wrapping method will save me a lot of time! I have been looking into both Musa sikkimensis and basjoo, which one would be best for me? would love to have a fast growing plant in this cool climate. I live in a Norwegian costal city, and the martime climate here is very similar to Vancouver. Most summer days are just above 20 degrees, and winter days around 3-4 degrees, so possibly a bit colder than where you live. Im in zone 7b since there tend to be arctic cold spells sometimes in the winter but its very rare to go below -10c. Hopefully this will be the northernmost city to have "wild" bananas growing around!
There are certainly some Trachycarpus palms in southern Norway. People don't realize how mild parts of Norway are. Huge old Monkey trees too. Bananas won't have a problem at all
@@BananaJSSI thanks! Yeah i have a trachycarpus myself. There was a guy in a town where i used to live that had a monkey tree. Way over 15 meters tall maybe Even closer to 20. My father said that it has been there as long as he remember, so for at least 50 years! Heard rumors about when he sold the house. The county protected the tree so the new owner could not try to chop it down even if he wanted
@@davidfoss7721 Where abouts again? Are you on the Pacific Coast? Sounds like those are aamazing plants
This doesn’t work with the esteti banna tree
No, they are to tender
Do you think this will work in the DC, Maryland area? This is considered zone 7Aand 7B. The zone is literally split between these two zones in my neighborhood. This is my first year with my bananas and I'm sprouting 6 babies under the biggest tree... what do you suggest we do?
You should certainly experiment for sure. Try a cane or two with bubble wrap and mulch the ground heavily with leaves or straw and see what happens
WHAT FERTILIZER should i use for my banana
Thanks for that advise going to try it I’m in zone 6b 7 how many turns you go in the bubble rap
Just two wraps is good here
Will not work sorry to say as I am in the same zone
Do you think the mylar (shiny silver stuff) covered bubble wrap would work?
I'm in the Fraser valley of bc so looks like I'm zone 8b. I've been using the cage method last few years but I think I want to try this but only have the shiny stuff on hand at the moment and want to know if its suitable. Thanks.
Yes, that silver stuff should work good too
@@BananaJSSI thanks, put some on today my experimental in ground dwarf Cavendish's. When temps drop a bit more I'll do my musa basjoo's.
@@letsgrowveganic3889 That is great! Please keep us updated. Cheers
@@BananaJSSI I might even try the cage method with leaves and the mylar bubble wrap, and some Christmas lights for one of the Cavendish's just to give it the best chance. And then same but no lights for the other.....if they both survive amazing, if just the one does, that's still a victory for me.
Happy for you guys moving to Costa Rica, it's something me and my family have actually been pondering for a while, but looks like with all the crazy stuff going on with our government might not be able to do that.
Sounds great! It may just work fine for you. I guess it just depends on how cold the winter gets. Let us know
water can escape out the bottom anyway couldn't it?
Yes indeed it can
Great technique! I've tried the wrapping , and the cage method. I finally just started cutting them to the ground. Mulch with leaves, maybe a foot deep. And the next year they grow rather quickly come spring. Plus all my livestock get to eat all the banana stocks ,and leaves!
@@alabamatropicals506 Good stuff! Whatever works best is what really matters. Cheers
Never enough mulch got it 👍
Thanks. Cheers