I hope you have better luck than I've had with transplanting your bananas... I moved two basjoo babies that were about 3 feet tall from the south side of my house to my new bed on the east side, and a week later they still look terrible... I'm hoping they recover. Hopefully, yours will take on quickly and not get in the sad shape that mine are. The grove looks really nice! I'm going to look into some of that heating cable that you've got. Best of luck!

Nice idea with the heaters, with all your prep work those should be a good size by the end of the summer!

Steve

Bill should be nice to see come the end of September how monstrous those naners will be. Great find on those heating cords.

John

Nice idea on the heating cables. Wish I would of thought of that before I planted all my palms....ugh. Any way to get them in the ground now? LOL.

Now that I've seen these heat cables, I've got visions of myself out in the flower beds digging little bitty trenches and planting that cable all over the place.. and I just got done with all the mulch! Arg! 🙂

Hello everone,
With the June we have had so far I would say the heat cables are working well. They said on the tv that the last 20 out of 30 days have been cloudy/cool/ and rainy. What a crap start to the summer, it should be 90 right now.

The bananas with the heat source keep growing though about a leave every 5-6 days not bad at all for no sun and these cool temps. It's funny the leaves are a yellowish green but full size, they must be wondering where the sun is too and why they are growing 😀

Well I hope the rest of you are having better weather then Me! I guess it's good for rooting all the stuff I planted in the spring. You know the weather is cool when your T. Fortunei is out growing your bananas. I think mine is a mutant it's grow six leaves since I uncovered it and I just fertilized it 4 days ago. Can't wait to see what it does now.

Post some new pictures everyone!!!
Bill

Hello everyone,
I'm at it again! Another trip to Florida, This time to drive my grandmother and car home to save her 900 bucks on transport.

Being that far south it's hard if not imposible not to bring things back. I was sure the haul would be limited when I saw all her things, but that didn't stop me from buying the first 2 bananas in florida. One was a large unmarked 7 gallon plant that is most likely is a ice cream banana 5' total with pot, mature plant. The other a 3 gallon red abyssinian about 4 feet. Total cost 27 bucks for both! how could I not buy them. Here was my problem, I lined up nine 5 gal. basjoos for pick-up near Savannah and barely had any room. By the way my grand mothers car is a grand am, not the best plant hauler. But anyway I managed to fit it all in the car along with my gram's 6 months of stuff 😀 I wish I had a picture thats all I have to say.

Bill

Good story, and so very true. 😆
The first time I went to Arizona I packed a bunch of palms in the car. I had no idea what I was going to do with them either (I rented at the time) all I know is that I wanted them. Kind of hard to pass up a 4 ft robusta for only $3 and a CIDP for $7

nice job of prepping, as always, billma.

Wow those Florida prices are cheap .

An additional heat-boost for less than perfect weather is to place flat rocks on the surface, like shale or slate, that carry the heat into the soil.

Barb

Well I sure am glad I put the heat cables in now! The local weather man stated it's the coldest June 1 thru July 15 EVER since records have been kept in Providence (1904). My electric bill is way less than last year since the a/c barely comes on, so I might as well spend it on my bananas 😀 Who knows the first frost I might even run the sprinkler over them like a citrus grove to add 2-3 weeks to the season. Anyways here's a few updated pictures from my supercharged banana grove a month and a half later.

The Washingtonia Robustas are 8 feet, the bigger bananas are around the same. Not bad for fitting them in a Grand Am!!!
By the way the unknown 12 dollar banana thought to be a ice cream banana is not. It looks like a orinoco to me but not sure. Still really nice for 12 bucks 😀

Thanks for reading ,
Bill

WOW! that sure looks nice 8)

Beautiful. What are your plans for protecting your Washy's this winter? Also noticed you had no transplant shock.

Rubtherock,

There was no transplant shock most likely because it was still on the cool side, that's My guess anyways. I plan on building a box over them like arcticpalm. Not sure what kind of heat I'm going to use yet or if I will cut the fronds totally off. The boxes will be to big if the fronds aren't cut off.

Bill

Looks great there Bill. They should be huge by the end of September. Those Washy fronds could be tied up this winter to save space for a smaller overwintering box.

John

Storyteller Bill, I love the story! Keep it up.

Great pics of your process, and great looking plants.
Man things are cheap down there.

We Canadians would have to sell our firstborn to afford those plants. 😆 😆

I imagine that heating cord could be added to plants already in the ground, just a little further away?

Well done as always.
Barb