Your Midwest Garden Podcast
Your Midwest Garden Podcast
The Banana Trees - 365 Day Update
Listen in to the last update show on our Musa Bajoos Banana Trees: Frank, Frank II, Lola and JD @ BD, as they faced unpredictable weather conditions and learn to thrive. All the Winter 2022/23 results, their current growth from an April start with temperatures close to 80 degrees, to a sudden drop to 32 degrees and what we think finally killed Frank. Plus, find out how JD at BD persevered and flourished without any additional watering or nutrients, all this from in the heartland. Don't miss this fascinating tale of perseverance and plant growth!
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I would like to say something in this eulogy. I didn't know Frank very long, but for the short time that I did get to know him, I think I became bonded. It's time to go.
Speaker 2:Yes, We are mourning the death of Frank the banana plant.
Speaker 1:I know that things have to expire. Did it have to go in the way that it did?
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, it's the last banana tree follow up show, session number four. I'm calling it the banana tree 365, because it's a full year of. Well, it is, it is.
Speaker 1:But, I would like to say that you know what? You got a season out of it, out of Frank. yes, for everything there's a season. turn, turn, turn. And Frank the banana should be another one. that's on that song, and what is?
Speaker 2:it? Do you ask these? Does that mean, frank, is California dreaming too? Well, that's a different band.
Speaker 1:That's a totally different band, all right Before we get to the show.
Speaker 2:We had a listener. This is Mike's segment that he doesn't like, called housekeeping.
Speaker 1:It's housekeeping I do like it. I mean it's necessary. We've got to clean ourselves up and make sure that we're following everything that we say we are. We're not saying that we know everything.
Speaker 2:That's right. We had a listener email us in as his name's Brad. Brad has emailed us a couple of times, So he was asking about watering from above. We always advise against it And a number of shows we've talked about it And he's like but I see the garden center set up, I see big box stores set up And they water from above. And yeah, our garden center has certain areas that are overhead watering too, Because I mean, come on, there's a ton, thousands of plants. You just got to do what you got to do. So he's like well, what gives? Why do people not follow this Or why do people water from above?
Speaker 1:Why do birds sing? No, scott, i'm going to tell you something. He's pretty good. He's listened to us verbatim. I'm glad he brought this our direction. But I want him to go to the box store, i want him to go to the nurseries, I want him to go to the garden centers. I want to see if it's a fan spray that's on the annuals or on the vegetables, like the tomatoes, or even on the rose bushes, or if it is a direct spray itself or a pouring from the hose itself or from a faucet going directly to, let's say, the base of the roses, for instance. Garden centers your wife's garden center they water everything out in the lot early evening hour and they do it in the middle of the day, anytime it's like with a lawn, anytime you can. Water is better than no water at all. If you're going to keep things alive, you've got to do it when you need to do it.
Speaker 2:But Well, we can't be watering when guests are walking around. Thank you. So we have like a 6 AM watering and we have like a 7 PM watering. OK.
Speaker 1:And that's why. Why do you do it? Because the guests number one.
Speaker 2:Number one. We're closed during those hours, but then again. But me, you're better off watering in the morning And because you know fungus at night, even like we talk grass, but the biggest thing here is the sun. Yes, now he was saying people I don't know if this is Brad said this.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to remember the Coming from the sky, the rain and all that.
Speaker 2:But the you know. So the difference is is, when it's mother nature is doing it and it's raining, there's no sun, true, okay, so the sun is the biggest factor of why you don't want to water from overhead. Please explain You're watering, it's a sunny day, you go out there Nice day to go watering my garden, and you know, let's say, it's one o'clock in the afternoon and the sun it doesn't have to be a beat down sun, it could just be a nice spring warm sun and you're watering away and boom, you're leaving little droplets And those droplets are like a magnifying glass laying on the leaf and then It radiates that sun.
Speaker 2:Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle and boom. now you got a hole in your leaf. It's like a magnifying glass. You got damage to that plant, Not saying that plant's going to die. It's just not going to look pretty. It's not going to look pretty. That leaf is not going to become a solar cell, as I call them.
Speaker 1:Well, that's cool.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that you know when it rains. Mother Nature has cloud cover, so that sun is not out.
Speaker 1:Can I elaborate on that?
Speaker 1:I used to work at your Weiss Garden Center and I used to water out in the patio and that, seeing that things needed it, well, when I would go out there and water, we'd have these very fine spray nozzles on these long stems, and I'm spraying and watering at the base, these hanging baskets or even the containers that have the plants growing in them.
Speaker 1:The gentleman that was in charge of growing, putting the greenhouses all together and growing everything from the vegetables to the to the annuals, he came and snuck up behind me and scared the schmutz out of me and he yelled and I mean, he's a German dude, his name was Wilhelm, his name was Leo Wilhelm, and he came out, stop. And so I stopped. I mean, we had to turn the water off. Why? Because he said you're going to ruin them. Why He goes, you can't get it from the top down. You got to do it at the base. And I could kind of understand because, okay, the pressure that we were putting on from the hose was actually knocking over the flowers too. It was beating them up.
Speaker 2:Well, you say knocking them over. When we talked about the hostess Oh Remember, he said I believe it was the hostess that they were splitting them. The heaviness was splitting the hostess open, leaving the center, and then that looked weird.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't look good, yes.
Speaker 2:So that's another reason for a not water from the top.
Speaker 1:You wanted to make sure, if you water from the top, you're adding unnecessary environmental hazards to the plants If you can water it at the base. now, generally, when I said that fan spray that was on the end of that long extension that we were doing the hanging baskets with he told me to take off the nozzle and then just pour it right at the base of the container or the pot and count three seconds for the small little four and a half inch pots, the longer to 1001, 1002, 1003, go to the next one with the hanging basket, count to 10 and that's it.
Speaker 2:And if you come to our shop, your shop Yes, he's pointing at me folks Our shop, your former shop, my former shop And you go to the Tremainsville Roadside, out in the annual section there is a hose hanging And underneath that is a little shelf. You will see three or four of the screw on fan sprayers that we remove And it's we just water with the wand, with just, it's just a straight stream without causing any splashing.
Speaker 2:Yes, also, if there's other, and the difference also here is it's a controlled environment. We have it's in the annual section. All of our annuals are covered with a. You've got a shade covering. Yeah, it's a shade. Well, it's some of this cloth like a plexiglass, some of this plexiglass, Right? So which is I mean? basically what it is. it looks like old World War two airplane hangers.
Speaker 2:But you know that allows the light in it allows the light in, but not a direct. It's a diffused light, thank you. So therefore you're not getting the leaf burn from a direct.
Speaker 1:So that is basically why in most of the garden centers, you're going to see that they're not basically doing any of the watering When the sun's out. When the sun's out is right, but you know what, brad's actually right If you can do it in the early evening hour, if you're going to do it from the top or do it in the early morning hour, if you're going to do it from the top, you're going to do it at the middle of the day when the plant needs it like a tomato. Are you noticing their leaves are curling right now. It's irregular watering. Go out there and put the water at the base of the plant. Leave it alone.
Speaker 2:Do it in the middle of the day. I don't know if you remember us talking about the kids in the neighborhood that all aim that Amy's in charge of in her neighborhood. Carson actually sent us an email and asked us a question and he was talking about the curl on the tomato plants and what can you do? The terracotta watering.
Speaker 1:Oh, are these down? when you're talking terracotta, you're talking real clay or you're talking just the terracotta color?
Speaker 2:No, the real clay, the real pots, yep. And there's a thing that I saw that you can do, especially in tomatoes, and I mean anything You take one of the big pots and you put it in the ground, in the dirt, and you put another one on top, upside down, and you put a little glue with some silicone or something around the edges and kind of marry them together upside down. The second one on top is just at the on top of the air. It's in the air, it's in the air.
Speaker 1:It's like it looks like an upside down clay pot.
Speaker 2:Yes, you're in your soil. So then you just take your hose and you fill both those up until a water grub goes out the top. Now what this does is this terracotta and as near as it just slowly, continually releases water.
Speaker 1:They breathe too. I mean, if you've got plants that are in terracotta clay pots, i would highly recommend that over over plastic ones, especially in the middle of the heat.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's the whole deal. It's all about the heat and this, this drought we had basically in May, and people are starting to see effects from it. So that's something you can do in your garden and it's you know, their terracotta pots are not expensive, so you just need some silicone so you can fill both of them up.
Speaker 1:And they last. And that's why Gramps had these ugly, moldy ones on the outer perimeter. But he's, he hung on to them Why? Because they're dirty. It's gardening, for God's sake, let me button this up for Brad.
Speaker 2:So, brad, basically people that do water from overhead the world of greenhouses and growing. Yeah, we have to because of the number of plants, but we do consider the environment. So we do it in a controlled way to do as least amount of damage as possible.
Speaker 1:And remember anytime you can water is better than no time. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is a lead in.
Speaker 2:Yes, So back to our show, the banana plants. the 365 final update Need a Kleenex mic.
Speaker 1:No, I just did it on your carpet.
Speaker 2:We have to report. We did have a death in the family of the three banana plants. Actually so you remember I named my banana plants Frank and Lola, and then we had JD, a BD, which is a banana plant I just stuck in the ground at the garden center, just as like a control. You know what would it do if? if I baby mine to at home and didn't do anything to it, what would happen? Can I, can I elaborate?
Speaker 1:Can I can.
Speaker 2:I bring you know how Well, i don't know how, really, you know how, go ahead and I'm going to.
Speaker 1:I'm a little distraught because Scott spent a thousand percent of his attention on both of those banana plants. No, frank did not make it. We have to admit we're, we're coping with this right now. Um, the two Scott's actually got about 500%, you know a batting average right now, over at his house. All right, oh, at the house, at the house. But he said, no, i got bad and 750 because he kept, you know, over the now. Mind you, he gave Frank all the TLC that he wanted. He did everything and anything that he could. His mate, who happened to be a good what was it? 25 feet away, or 30 feet away? Oh, 30, 50 feet away. Lola. Well, what's she doing? She's just surviving. She's got what now coming out?
Speaker 2:She's got her main Well, so it's not the same pseudo stem as last year. See, he's talking technical. Try not to Okay. She came back and I noticed her coming back about like May 20th.
Speaker 1:Oh, like May 20th, You were keeping. you were out there watching every single day to see if you got that pseudo stem coming back. I took a couple of pictures.
Speaker 2:So, and then she had a baby pseudo stem next to her too, so I've got technically two banana trees coming out where Lola lives. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Why do you think Frank's demise came? Was he a partier? Was it too much He did? you know, no matter what we did, he wasn't basically listening to us.
Speaker 2:Was it old?
Speaker 1:age, or was it environmental?
Speaker 2:It was environmental. I think I held off on calling time of death as the nurses and doctors do We're?
Speaker 2:gonna do an autopsy. We did, we did, we did do an autopsy And I kind of held off, for, you know, another 10 days or so after I saw Lola popping through the ground And yeah, i mean, both of them were mushy. I did everything the same to both of them. As far as winterization, the only difference and this is the only thing I can think of in the spring we had two big rains Well, not just that, and they were like two days long That area of my backyard flooded And then it receded. A couple of days later we had another big rain and it flooded again And then it receded. Now, that is where Frank is located, though he's in a, he's a little higher up in a landscape, but you know, and his root system really didn't go that low. So I'm I'm on the fence about calling the cause of death as drowning.
Speaker 1:Well, it could be, But see, here's the thing. My question to you now was it do you remember it was this and you said it was May, that we had the rains? It was in April.
Speaker 2:Oh, if you remember April yes, april, we is when they when Lola started.
Speaker 1:Thank you, April we had temperatures that were close to 80 for almost two weeks, And I'm wondering also if Frank might have got a head start on this and says, yeah, let's go baby. And then all of a sudden it went down to. You know it was, it was zero, I mean, it was 32 degrees winds, high winds.
Speaker 2:Anything that could have been started, Well, when it got that warm, i took the cones off, okay, and when I got cold, i put the cones back on, Yeah see, that goes my theory.
Speaker 1:All right, so you're probably right. It probably did drop. Because, remember we reached in and we want to the crown of the plant and it snapped off like a sponge.
Speaker 2:Well, the old stem is supposed to get mushy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then it did kind of Lola just kind of unraveled all the way down, frank unraveled, and then we got to a point where it kind of snapped.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I said he's gone, let's just move on and, starting on top, see and see what happened. And then I mean we pulled him out of the ground Yeah he was it was too far gone.
Speaker 1:I mean there wasn't anything that could have come from that. I mean it may have earlier, but, like you said, if it was starting it, that rain and probably the 80 degree temperatures didn't help it any. So I mean it just it was probably an agonizing departure.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know. Could you hear it?
Speaker 1:screaming out there.
Speaker 2:No, no, Otherwise I would have run out and help Yeah. But Lola's fine Lola's cranking through, And so I had a. I had to bite the bullet. I had to go to one of the other nurseries in town because we had no more Musa Bajou banana plants, Musa Bajou, And so they have a ton of them that they're propagating basically in these huge, huge containers And, um yeah, so I bought one. I had to, I had to buy one.
Speaker 1:Okay, but tell us what you did or did not do over at BD with JD.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the one I bought is now Frank II.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I mean renamed him. It's not Frank Junior, because Junior kind of it has to be kind of hints that it's a it's, it's it's his kid or something.
Speaker 1:No, no, no.
Speaker 2:Frank II is more like Henry the eighth. He is, he is.
Speaker 1:Well see, but they were named after previous living things, So Frank senior is no longer with us.
Speaker 2:We got Frank Junior right now. No, no, no, junior, they're not related. It's Frank II. I see I'm being corrected.
Speaker 1:Geez, i just explained it to you, frank II. Okay, yeah, well, i have that. I have a very, very poor, you know, retention and attention. Look, i was a candidate for Ritalin back in the sixties.
Speaker 2:I just a candidate.
Speaker 1:Okay, never mind, we won't go into what happened in the seventies, all right.
Speaker 2:All right, so we have Frank II and Lola. Frank is a good three and a half feet He's, since he's been in the ground in May 30th, june 1st He has doing this thing. He's growing three new leaves since he's been in the ground.
Speaker 1:And Lola's looking good.
Speaker 2:Last year and this year I did put potash in the ground, because they say they like that.
Speaker 1:It helps with the root.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, yeah. So that's all I did. However, the report now at Black Diamond, in the middle of the old pond area, where I stuck another a third banana plant.
Speaker 1:His name is Frank.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Is that Frank?
Speaker 2:No, it's JD at BD.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, let's. BD stands for black diamond JD. Now what? that's a short, what is it?
Speaker 2:Jack and Diane, because we're on the very first episode.
Speaker 1:That's right Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, go ahead And the very first episode, if you listen to it, when I kept saying Frank and Lola, Jimmy Buffett names characters he kept thinking. Jack and Diane from Mellon Camp song. So we just shortened it to JD. So, jd, at BD nobody did anything.
Speaker 2:I mean we watered it here and there. It caught some water from watering some burlap trees And come winter, come fall, yours truly was on the road doing my audio thing for football, so I was gone from the garden center. I don't know what they did, honestly, and they didn't. They didn't cover it for the winter.
Speaker 1:I don't think they unless you told them what to do. They didn't do anything.
Speaker 2:No, they didn't do anything. And I one time when I went back in the middle of winter I did see her just kind of draped over and nothing, nothing, and I was just like I, okay, well, you know she's not coming back. And long and behold, she looks fantastic You have done squat tour, did you?
Speaker 2:I haven't. I'm a feather. I haven't done her own leaves as a nutrient nothing, and she was. You know, when I noticed Lola back up, jd at BD was a good six, eight inches bigger than her. Of course she gets a lot of sun there at the greenhouse, so that's her advantage.
Speaker 1:Three o'clock, yeah Little ditty about checking die, and so anyway, back and banana trees in the heartland.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that is kind of what happened. To wrap up, chewing on a chili dog. Okay, before we get copyright infringement and pulled off the air.
Speaker 1:Okay, we will, anyway.
Speaker 2:So that is what happened, yeah, and she's cruising now. I'm now that I'm back at the garden center in the late spring and summer I've been watering her require.
Speaker 1:Are you going to do nothing to her? I mean, are you going to not bring her into, let's say, this tropical paradise you've got in your, for your backyard?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, leave her right there, Let her do her thing. I'd like to see if that everybody talks about her. I really? there's Scott's experiment. Yeah, i'm no, i'll keep them going because they do look beautiful when they're up And I'd like to get it across to everybody else, no matter what you do to them.
Speaker 1:There's always that opportunity for Mother Nature not to work for you.
Speaker 2:And Lola, i mean, she's grown pretty fast, she's pretty, so you know, more power to her, And I'll do the same thing I did this year As far as winterization, yeah, i won't do. I don't think I'm going to do anything different, because this is where it's going to confirm after next year's.
Speaker 1:You did not do anything wrong. Yeah, because Lola's alive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that theory works. Yes, and maybe you know I'll just continue that if she gets another year under her belt, you know, maybe it'll be easier for her If I start changing something this year versus last year. Maybe that may.
Speaker 1:I don't think I would want to change anything. I want to be able to do the same thing, to say okay, look, there's nothing really wrong here. Okay yeah we can refer to this next year if by any chance something does fall up. That you know. Okay, Scott, what did you do, right?
Speaker 2:So, if you're interested as far as going back and listening to all of the episodes back to back, the very first banana tree experiment show was released on June 15 of 2022. And then we have a July 20 follow up session two, and then in October, on the 12th, we have the follow up, session three, and right now you're getting them ready for the winter. Yeah, so that wraps it up. You can create a tropical paradise in your backyard, even in zone five, five or six, well, actually, I think we're going to be four five and six.
Speaker 2:Yeah, But yeah, I mean you had to baby him a little bit in the winter, but we'll see how it goes And hopefully they get no more floods.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, this is Midwest.
Speaker 2:I am digging back in that area where Frank was, because I'm putting in a brick retaining wall And I'm not seeing anything abnormal in the soil compared to the other side.
Speaker 1:This is more of an autopsy, so yeah, back to the.
Speaker 2:I keep going back, poor Frank.
Speaker 1:Well, now that you're putting an end to this and we're going to be working on hopefully not until next year My question here is is what are we going to talk about now, sir?
Speaker 2:We're taking a little time off here in July. Just a little one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i mean, it's getting hot and we want to basically enjoy, let's say, scott's pool and tropical paradise. See, that's why I'm his best friend. He doesn't know that yet.
Speaker 2:Anyway, everybody, that is the banana tree experiment 365. Complete.
Speaker 1:Yep. If something brought an end to it, say good night to.
Speaker 2:Frank Frank.
Speaker 1:Yes, everybody Say a little prayer for Frank Dun dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun dun. I'm eating a chili dog outside the taste of freeze.
Speaker 2:Anyway, everybody green thumbs up, Take care and water any way you can.
Speaker 1:Frank Kevin is heads right between her knees. You don't want that in there. I probably don't want that. Okay, thanks for listening to your Midwest Garden. If you like today's conversation, please share this podcast with friends and family And don't forget to click on the subscribe button so you won't miss any future episodes. Plus, if you have any show topics you'd like us to discuss, head on over to our sponsors Facebook page, which is Black Diamond Garden Center, and message them your topic idea For all of us at your Midwest Garden podcast. I'm Michael Rork, the Garden Guy. Hope you enjoyed today's conversation.
