Protecting Your Banana Plants

As we mentioned earlier, the banana plant will function and grow productively in an environment that provides the most amount of sun, with careful protection from the wind. Too much wind can shred the banana leaves and leave it looking less attractive but otherwise has no lasting damage to the plant itself. Leaves can also suffer sunburn with the extreme temperatures we experience in the hottest summer months, so it is a good idea to offer shade during the hottest parts of the day.

The typical winter weather in Arizona is most likely to cause harm to your banana plant if precautions are not taken. Leaves will usually burn and turn brown if temperatures reach freezing but won’t do irreparable damage. Leave them be for now and when the temperatures warm back up, you can prune them off. The stems are what you need to protect more than anything. Try wrapping or covering your stems with old burlap bags or blankets. And you can even utilize Christmas lights or an outdoor heat lamp to provide warmth during the colder nights.

Even if your plants don’t succeed in surviving the colder conditions and it looks as though you’ve killed them, don’t give up yet. Once the temperatures warm up in early spring, cut the plant to ground level, making sure not to disturb the rootball. You will be amazed to find out that soon, the “pups” will pop out and begin the recovery process, the life cycle continues…new banana trees!

Since our Arizona winters are usually short, cutting to the ground level is a last resort. We have had the misfortune of having our clump of banana trees freeze several years in a row and every year come back. This is due partly to the fact that we offered overall protection in the hot summer months — planted near a block wall and next to an overhead pergola — and in the cold season, we covered most of the leaves and stems as best we could with blankets.

"Once we become interested in the progress of the plants in our care, their development becomes a part of the rhythm of our own lives and we are refreshed."
— Thalassa Cruso

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