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WINNING LETTER

FROST PROTECTION FOR BANANAS

I thought I’d share a bit of my recent win in the garden: I love growing bananas in Auckland. We grow the little finger-type ones and when fully ripened (e.g. in the garage) they turn sweeter and yummier than any of the millions of imported bananas.

Unfortunately where we are in Sandringham we get about 3–5 days a year of minus 1–2 degree frosts which kill all the banana leaves. The trunk survives and will send out new leaves in spring, but the plants that have a bunch of fruit on them grow no more leaves and therefore the fruit won’t further or fully mature – it’s always a tragic loss.

I researched a lot online. The banana plants are too tall to protect with frost cloth, so I chose to try a twoway strategy which I started last year. Allegedly potassium is crucial to develop strong cell walls, which in turn helps plants withstand frost. I used extra lots of wood ash from our pellet fire around the bananas for the past year. I also purchased a product called ThermoMax from a company BD Max, a homeopathic remedy which I sprayed onto the plants (in particular the leaves) around mid May, as last year a frost caught me out at the end of May.

This June we had our first frost and I dreaded the next morning. I am chuffed to say that we have lost a few fringes on some leaves, but