Congratulations on your success! I plan to give these a try this year, so I will be ordering some soon. But I just have one concern, since these will be planted near our pool... Do they attract a lot of insects, especially the dreaded Japanese Beetles? Not sure if you get many of those in MD, but here in PA we get tons of them, so I try not to plant anything they munch on.

The JP's hit my musa basjoos but not my cavendishes for some reason. A regular routine spraying of Sevin and/or neem oil helps or a long stick... I would not be so overly concerned as to not plant one. At my place, the grapes and wysteria are the main attraction followed up by pole beans. Only the newest banana leaves seem to be desireable to the JB and that peaks for about a month here.

I had a problem with Japanese Beetles on my Musa Basjoo, and when I started doubling the fertilizer, they were 100% gone. I watched my Musa Basjoo come up this year, and I was excited because it was gone for too long. I took the mulch away in early March, I put greenhouse plastic around it, not touching the leaves with the plastic, and it grew a little before April, and then when April came it started growing a lot faster, I wanted to get a head start, so that is why I used greenhouse plastic. I saved 19" of the banana, and it grew about 3" in March, and now it is 63" tall now, so it is growing fast again. It was so beautiful last summer, and I didn't like it when it had to go for the winter, it reached 10' last summer, but it was its first summer, its going on its second in early June. I hope it will fruit this year, it grew 8' last summer, but I pushed it with double the recommended amount of fertilizer, and superthive at recommended amount. It is starting to grow a foot a week again, I got a sucker that has already produced 3 leaves, going on its 4th, but it is pushing more suckers up now, and its got 2 good sized suckers, and about 20 just starting. I will continue to use the extra fertilizer, because it produces stronger plants, and healthier plants, and when I use extra fertilizer, I don't have any pest problems, and they turn darker green, I bought 2 Musa Basjoos, and gave one to my neighbor, I fertilized mine, and she didn't, and mine grew 3X faster, and now she is doing the same thing I'm doing this year, and she now notices the difference now, its not growing like a snail anymore. I was watching mine grow last summer, and in just a period of 6 hours, it would look different, it grew up to 2 leaves a week, but after it got to 8' tall it grew 1 leaf a week, but by that time it had 4' long leaves, and 2' wide, and each time one leaf comes out their will always be another one curled inside that is about 1 1/2' long.
Lee

Thanks for the tip on the beetles.. not sure if I want to deal with that or not. I try not to use pest sprays since we drink well water. Do the beetles ruin your basjoos if you don't spray? They are so bad here that my fruit trees and crape myrtles end up decimated every year, with the leaves eaten beyond belief. I would hate to see this happen to a beautiful basjoo... especially after taking such painstaking care to help it survive the winter.

Watergal, does using leaves to protect it make it "mushier" than if I would use mulch?

I have had a little JB damage to the newest leaves of the basjoo, but nothing too bad. I used to get really bad damage to my hardy hibiscus, roses, and raspberries, and some damage to a red maple tree. The raspberries multiplied so fast I didn't care. But after the JB's killed off a hibiscus, I decided to fight back. I normally hate to use pesticides, but I use Bayer Tree & Shrub drench, carefully following the directions. Ideally it should be applied around April, but I've done it as late as July 4. After using this annually for several years, I have noticed a really dramatic decline in JB's on my property. Of course, the droughts probably have helped reduce the JB population too. I do not treat the banana plants, just the "JB magnet" plants.

Use carefully according to directions, and I wouldn't use if I had well water either.

Does my mulch make things less mushy? Not sure - I have nothing to compare it to!

WOW, Lee that is amazing! What type of fertilizer (and how much) are you feeding it? Do you have any pics of it that you can post?

Watergal, Is that the systemic Tree & Shrub drench, or a spray? I started using the Bayer spray on my crape myrtles and hibiscus last year for the beetles and it worked great (until it was time for another application)... but of course I had to use that sparingly, due to our having well water. I don't think I would be able to use the drench if it's something you just pour onto the ground around the tree. :( Maybe I will just give the basjoo a try and hope it doesn't get the beetles too badly.

I am trying to figure out the best way I can overwinter one here. I like your idea, and have been reading the forums. It's interesting that people have different ways of protecting them... some use mulch, some use leaves, etc. I have read that a few people said their basjoos turned out mushy after winter though. So I am trying to learn a bit more about these before I splurge and buy a bunch of them! :)

I got almost 20 feet out of my Musa Basjoos last summer with a heavy application of Milorganite, water and some Miracle Gro once a week when I watered. There was a huge difference with the Milorganite which can not burn plants and I literally apply it with a spade shovel out of the 40lb bag which can be found at Lowes or HD for about $10.00/bag.

That's some heavy-duty application! How often do you put the Milorganite on? And do you have to dig it into the ground, or just apply it around the plant?

Thanks for the tips everyone, you are all so helpful and knowledgeable about these! I can't wait to order mine!

I use 24-8-16 expert gardener all purpose fertilizer, at 2 tbsp per gallon of water. I was going to get Milorganite, but I can't find it at Lowes. I got a picture of it, and the picture was taken 3 months after planting, and it was only 2' when I planted it, and in the picture it is 10'.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk181/Plant_Guy/PICT0325-3.jpg

Lee

I read that 4 o'clocks are poisonous to JB. When they eat them, they die, and the other bugs eating the corpses die also.
Even deer won't eat them when everything else is on their menu.

I have enjoyed the very interesting dialog especially about the Japanese beetles. Has anyone had experience with beneficial nemetodes that kill underground grubs which includes the Japanese and June Beetle's larvae also the advertisements say ants and termites. These are microscopic worms that are watered into the soil. They do not harm earthworms. Sounds too good to be true. They might be too expensive in comparison to the damage of the bugs. But this appears to be an organic way to control JB & more. I don't know if it is the answer for a well water site or not. Something to look into. If anyone has experience with BN, I would like to hear your exploits and results. What are 4 O'Clocks? A Plant? What type of banana is best in a pot? Thanks