Amazing Zone 6 Banana Garden

dukeofdoom · Post by **dukeofdoom** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 10:52 am

Amazing banana garden tour by Midwest Banana Farms

Summer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF49YuHCO18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuBL25gz2fg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2buSmSU85k

Winter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2yC8IP5R28

Edmar · Post by **Edmar** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 11:20 am

Hi,
very interesting but in the winter part it seems to me that he didn't protect any of the bananas, that would have been a lot of work!
thanks for sharing

dukeofdoom · Post by **dukeofdoom** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 2:41 pm

I'm not too sure what he does for winter protection.The garden seems to be in zone 6b, Ohio.From what I recognize, he has musa basjoo, giant elephant ears, castor beans, and red abyssinian bananas.

I think the castor beans are grown from seed. The red abyssinian and elephant ears can be overwintered in a garage. And the musa basjoo, should overwinter in zone 6 outside.
No personal experience with the musa basjoo, just from what others have posted here. It's still probably a lot of work.
And I personally failed to overwinter giant elephant ears in the garage.

This is a a very similar garden, but with many cannas.
You may like this one too.

Also appears to be in zone 6b (Louisville, Kentucky).
At least some of his plants are left in the ground.
In the first video, he says that he mulches heavy and leaves them in the ground.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kc01LC1KJI

and his koi pond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2dEzy-RXDo

and his garden in the spring

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf_tFHK3B-s

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 6:27 am

If you look close you can see moguls around those banana stems,
the are pretty tall still with lots of mulch-loved hearing the
snow crunch under foot as this was filmed.

dukeofdoom · Post by **dukeofdoom** » Thu Mar 19, 2015 8:31 pm

He posted an update with his winter protection methods:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR7wvQcIA_4

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 6:06 am

Good advice about pulling the mulch back.

Pulling back the mulch is key to getting a jump in spring.

Sometimes those early warmups can be enough to get the
palm spears moving and that is beneficial in avoiding spear-pull
-also getting damaged palms out in the light and air.
I use mulch like a little blanket for the palms feet & legs...
it makes a difference,my soil temps are around 50F now
@ 4" and you can see the difference in color and spear growth.