Winterizing Your BANANA Plants On THE HOMESTEAD
Last spring we planted some banana plants on the homestead. There are a number of videos online with instructions of how people have learned to grow these very pretty plants up north and even get fruit from them. So this year, we decided to give it a go and see what happens. After all, we are still technically in the south and people north of us have done well with them.
And yes! It's True, you can get fruit from these plants if you winterize them. The variety we have on our homestead is called the California Gold which is actually a cold tolerant variety to begin with. They can sustain temps down to the low 20's or upper teens anyway. There are a number of banana plants on the market you can choose from but I wanted one that would have the best chance to survive the winter and still produce fruit.
There are other varieties that will not produce edible fruit but grow in lower temps. They are purely ornamental plants. If the California Gold variety seen here doesn't make it, we will try those.
Materials List:
- Machete or large field blade
- Large 55 Gallon trash bags
- Bubble wrap
- Lots of Insulating material (leaves, hay, straw, wood chips)
- Packing or Duct Tape
- Chicken wire or cage material to hold your insulation
First off you want to trim off your leaves. Cut each one down to the trunk of the plant.
Take the top off as well. All the leaves need to be gone so that you can get the plant properly wrapped with bubble wrap.
Begin wrapping the bubble wrap around the plant from top to bottom. Secure with packing tape but don't attach the tape to the plant.
Place your cage around the plant and begin filling with your insulating material. Any natural material can be used. We used straw, some sorghum scraps and some wood chips.
Use a shovel or some object to pack your insulating material down.
Fill your cage all the way to the top with your insulation.
Use a couple of 55 gallon trash bags to wrap around your cage. We had to split two of them in order to make them fit around the cage.
Tape together with duct tape or packing tape until secure.
And that is it!
The true test will be this spring to see if they survived and if we can expect some more amazing growth from these trees! Be sure to check back then and we will do an unwrapping and report back to you.
Have you ever had to winterize banana plants? Let us know your results!
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We grew banana plants for a few years. We couldn’t get those rascals to grow fruit for anything!! I finally just dug them up. Looking forward to seeing your results! #bananawine
I figure at the very least its cool landscaping!
I would like to grow a few banana trees as well. What variety are you using and where did you buy them?
These are a cold hardy variety called California Gold. We bought ours online.
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Ok Thank you.
This is exactly the sort of information we've been looking for! We are also looking into getting some banana plants (we're about three hours north of you, so I think we're in a similar enough climate), and this post will be a fantastic resource to look back on. Thanks for taking the time to document this so that folks like us can benefit, too! Looking forward to hearing how your plants were able to make it through.
Great, keep us updated on your progress.
Pretty cool. Never thought of growing banana trees here and trying to winterize them. We do have a avocado tree that sprouted in our compost pile we are growing, but it will stay a dwarf tree. I will make a large planter I can move out during the warm months and indoors during the winter. Hope your bananas come back and do well.
I hope they make it. Growing edible bananas in the Ozarks would be pretty amazing.Good Luck!
I hope that method works well for you!
You said they were cold hardy, but how much cold can they tolerate and still fruit? I'm thinking my climate in Denmark is too cold for even the hardiest kind.
Yeah, you may want to move south a bit if you want to grow bananas.
Thanks! I was wondering about this! I wanted some but did not know how to keep them over winter. I just wrapped the trunk and did not cut the top.I will try this way when I get some more and see if this works.
Wow interesting.i hope banana plant successful plan.
I am watching this interest. We have many different types of bananas growing on our homestead but it doesn't get colder than 75 degrees here. Our problem usually occurs with too much heat and extreme dryness. Good luck with the experiment. Nothing like a fresh ripe banana!