Red Tiger Banana Plant Unwrapping
It’s an Unwrap!
I couldn’t wait to unwrap my Red Tiger banana plant, after more than five months of staring at its clothed form - which never looks particularly inviting. It’s the first time I’ve done this, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. My wrapping exercise had been very thorough so the omens were good - but as I learned from my Echium disaster these things can be unpredictable.
Today is the day. Today being Sunday the 9th of May. It’s time to unwrap my Red Tiger banana plant. This can be an exciting moment for any gardener – the start of a new season of enjoyment as we watch a much loved plant flourish. Or at least that’s the hope – we first need to find out how well our plant has fared over the winter.
The frosty nights appear to have passed, well fingers crossed they have. This coming week takes us well into the third week of May and appears set for touching two digit temperatures. Finally! So I took the plunge and decided to bite the bullet and unveil my Musa Sikkimensis, commonly known as the Red Tiger Banana plant (or to be more precise “herb”). It is actually distantly related to Ginger.
I had no idea at all what to expect. But I did feel that I could not have done any more to protect it from the Winter wind, rain and sub-zero temperatures. If you want to read my previous blog on the measures I took last year, it can be found here: Growing Banana Plants in West Sussex
As the following series of pictures show, I carefully took my time to reverse engineer my wrapping. I had forgotten just how much straw I had packed into the cage I built around the pseudo stems, before I fleece wrapped the cage. I had seriously packed it, thankfully. You can see I had bucket loads of the stuff I took out.
To say that I am pleased with how the stems have been protected is something of an understatement. Not only had the stems remained firm and solid (no mushiness at all on them) but due to the occasional days of warmish weather we have had recently, they had even started to re-grow. On top of this there were new “pups” already starting to emerge around the base of the main stems.
Once I had fully unveiled the healthy well overwintered banana, it got a jolly good feed and water I can tell you. I threw down some large handfuls of both poultry manure pellets and also a good deal of blood, fish and bone. I then proceed to absolutely drench the base of it with water. I wanted to give it a good soaking. In terms of the straw I removed this by no means went to waste. I decided to spread it around some of my other plants as a mulch and as a weed prevention tool as well.
I will now be adopting a regime mostly similar to the one I adopted last year. I will be generously feeding it every couple of weeks for the next two and half months with the poultry manure and blood, fish and bone. And coupled with that, one of the very big waterings I will be giving it at least two or three times a week will contain a good dose of liquid seaweed fertiliser.
Come the back end of July/start of August, I will do something a bit different though. As it is now a well-established rooted and upwardly developed Banana (having got a good head start this year) I am going to be ramping up the high potash fertiliser. I will reduce down the nitrogen feed at the same time. My thinking here is to try and see if I can force it to bloom and fruit as the Summer temperatures start to hit their peak. I suspect that this will be something of a first in this area though, in terms of an outside reared banana in this part of West Sussex. I can but hope, which can be a good thing of course. It will certainly not be for want of trying!
I will post again on my Red Tiger’s progress later this year. So watch out and keep your fingers crossed for me. In the meantime feel free to add any comments about your own banana plant experiences - both the good and bad.
A New Vantage Point!
I checked the plant the morning after unveiling it and I’ve noted visible growth already. A baby Robin (which fledged just over a week ago) was enjoying a newly discovered vantage point. Amongst the most characterful of my garden visitors, these little birds love to explore anything new.