Uncovering my plants

[stevelau1911]

Since it looks like we are finally getting into spring, I decided to uncover the plants that would otherwise likely freeze to death if they didn't have anything on top of them. For these corm plants I usually wrap them in any sort of insulating material and usually top it off with leaf bags to surround and protect the corm.

Here's my 2 in-ground musa basjoo. One of them has a main stem that made it through the winter however the other one looks like mush, except there's a pup that should replace the whole plant, and it will hopefully make up for the loss.

plant 1: Not bad for over-wintering without any christmas lights or anything.


Other one looks like everything on it died except for this one pup, but I'm sure the corm is OK since I planted it 1ft deeper than soil lvl.



My gunnera as well as a corm division I have off of it is finally coming to life. I've taken off the side corms 3 time already since having it since 2008 or else it would be taking up a lot more space however the plant seems to come back a bit larger each year anyways.

[Alan_L]

It's always a great feeling when you pull back the leaves and see signs of growth.

It's nice to be able to get rid of the tarps and leaf piles too. Soon winter will be just a memory.

[stevelau1911]

This is a very good sign for me if these plants with protection can make it through a winter here, especially one of the most brutal winters we've been through because that means these plants can do fine in this climate, and yea, it does look a lot better getting rid of all the covers.

[bamboothew]

Glad to hear your plants mostly did ok through the winter, Steve! Sadly, 2 of my 3 basjoos perished over the winter, probably due to my native soil not draining well enough in the winter. No doubt a raised bed would be a great idea for them. The one basjoo that remains seems very healthy, though, having pushed up 4 new stems this spring. I have seen basjoo referred to as a "running" species, so I am hoping it will multiply and spread like crazy!

[stevelau1911]

I kind of doubt that the corms will necessarily rot due to poor drainage because both of these musa basjoo were planted 1ft deeper than the soil lvl, maybe more, and that depth is below the water table all the time. I think the only reason one of them rotted away was because that one tried to send up a leaf that pierced the plastic which was never repaired thus rendering the protection useless, but when I cut it down, the psuedo-stem right at ground lvl was still firm which is good news.

There is a product called wall o water that I will be buying a few of, just for the plants such as gunneras and bananas because they are very prone to late frosts. It's basically a plastic thing that can be filled up with water, and put around the plants to mitigate the effect of late frost so I don't have to keep a leaf bag laying around in case it gets super cold one night.

I can probably also use it on some prized bamboo shoots if by chance there is going to be a late frost towards the end of May.

[stevelau1911]

After 3 weeks of using the wall o water, the effects are pretty clear as I have pepper plants inside the WOW getting twice as tall as the ones outside, they pretty much make melon seeds in the garden close to the WOW germinate faster, and it definitely has a positive effect on corm plants like bananas or gunneras. Here's the show of some results.

Right before putting it on


After 3 weeks, with many days of very cold weather in between


After having it on my gunnera manicata division, it took under 3 weeks for the leaves to start leaning on the edges meaning, it needs more space so I took it off, but before using it, this guy only had like a 3 inch leaf.
Before:


After:


Even when I use it on bamboos, the shoots/ rhizomes seem to be attracted to the WOW walls. When I put my hand into the WOW on a sunny day, it literally feels warm in there. Here's an example with bamboo. I hope none of them end up piercing the plastic.