Wintering the banana »Care tips for the dark season

Cut banana in autumn

The banana is a perennial. Indeed, the mighty, fibrous, fleshy shoots do not lignify. In winter it pulls Banana palm their pseudo-trunks, goes into a growth break and sprouts again in the next spring. Cutting back before winter heralds the break. This applies regardless of whether you overwinter your banana inside in a pot or outside in a bed. How to do it right:

• Disinfect the folding knife or large, sharp knife
• Cut back shoots to a height of 30-50 cm, shorten a man-high banana to 50-100 cm
• Dust cuts with wood ash or Rock flour(€ 12.33 at Amazon *) for disinfection

Are you planning to overwinter as a houseplant for your banana in a pot? Then you can do without the pruning. The disadvantage of this approach is a significantly shorter shelf life, because your banana plant is not granted the winter dormancy.

Hibernate tropical banana indoors

Edible banana (Musa paradisiaca) and other tropical banana species adorn balconies and terraces with their opulent splendor in summer. If the thermometer falls below 10 ° Celsius in autumn, the lower limit of the cold tolerance has been reached. After the autumn pruning, the change of location takes place behind glass. How to properly overwinter a tropical banana:

Suitable winter locations

For the winter, the banana plant wants light, cool conditions at 12 ° to 15 ° Celsius. These locations are shortlisted as winter quarters:

• Temperate winter garden
• Heated greenhouse
• Light staircase
• Cool, light-flooded bedroom

Wintering as a houseplant is unfavorable. The combination of lack of light and cozy warm temperatures brings the tropical banana to the brink of ruin.

Care on the back burner

The water and nutrient supply in the winter quarters is reduced to a minimum. With this care you can overwinter a banana correctly:

• If the earth is noticeably dry (finger test), pour lime-free water
• Do not fertilize cut bananas
• Uncut banana every four weeks fertilize with liquid fertilizer in half the concentration

In the cool, light winter quarters, uncut banana plants tend to have brown leaf edges. As a preventive measure, spray the leaves regularly with lime-free water.

Japanese fiber banana outside with winter protection

The hardy Japanese fiber banana (Musa basjoo) can be outdoors overwinter with the right winter protection. This is how it works:

• Cut back pseudo-trunks to hip height
• Build a winter box from wooden or styrofoam panels, fastened with ropes or lashing straps
• Fill in the straw and press firmly
• Cover the construction with breathable garden fleece
• Tie up the cover with cords or lashing straps

Cut back the shoots a few centimeters lower at the horn beach than in the center. In this way, the cover rests on the winter box like a dome, so that rain can drain off easily.