How to Grow a Banana Tree

This is only the second summer that i've had my banana tree after receiving it from Amazon in February of 2011. I've been surprised by how well it survived and grew this past year. Here are some of the previous pictures and posts where i've written about it.

Banana Tree - 2011
Banana Tree Update - 2011
Banana Tree Planted - 2011
Winter Seeds - 2011

Now it was time to move the banana tree from my living room, where it had been sitting all winter, to the backyard. It was a pain to move outside, it weighed about 100 lbs. I'm surprised the bucket didn't break. But the tree was alive, healthy and all the leaves looked green.

but then...

The phrase about March "comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" didn't really seem to be true this year. The end of March was cold and so was April. The temperatures dropped down to the 30's at night. My banana tree died. I guess that's why there aren't a lot of banana trees in Michigan.

It's not actually dead, the root system will hopefully send up a new tree when it warms up. But just the fact that i moved it indoors all winter just to move it outside too early and let this happen, is a bummer.

So i cut it down to a stump.

As it warmed up during the month of May, two new shoots came up. So i decided to transplant it from the big green bucket to the ground. You can see the new banana tree shoots on either side of the stump.

So hopefully in the next month i will see one or maybe two new banana trees growing in my backyard.

How to Grow Bamboo in Cold Climates

I've written several blog post about the bamboo in my backyard here in Michigan. The 5 links below are some of the past history, starting back in 2009.

Bamboo in Heavy Snow - pictures after a big winter ice storm
Bamboo - 2011 - a much harsher winter meant lots of dead leaves in the spring
More Drain Pipe - trying to route a roof gutter drain around bamboo roots
Bamboo 2 - the first winter, hoping my small trees survive
Bamboo - the original grove of trees in West Virginia where i brought the trees home from

Here are some pictures from the past 4 years:

This was the original grove of trees in West Virginia where i traveled for work and ended up bringing trees home. I believe that they are Yellow Grove Bamboo but that is my non-expert opinion. I also brought home Cane Break Bamboo from Kentucky but it is a lot slower growing in my yard.
This was one of the largest trees i saw there. Probably 2-3" in diameter and at least 40' high.

The first winter after transplanting the bamboo to my yard. As long as the roots don't get below -15 degrees they should survive.

This was created from several pictures of my Moso Bamboo stitched together. I grew the Moso Bamboo from a seed. And like the Cane Break Bamboo, it's a slow grower here in Michigan.

After a winter ice storm my bamboo trees were completely bent over. But i don't think i lost a single one. The trees are really strong and can withstand a lot of stress.

Now, onto this year.

Bamboo shoots coming up March 22nd. About a month earlier than any previous years.

If i'm lucky and the summer last long enough, they might send up shoots a couple of times this year.

The bamboo continued to send up shoots through the early part of April. The warmer the weather the faster they grow.

One thing i'm worried about is that, usually the shoots grow all at once during the first warm month. This year they grew half way, then it got super cold, they stopped growing, then when it warms up they will grow to their full height. I'm not sure how that will affect them.

But there were tons of new shoots and their diameter was slightly thicker than the previous year, which is what i hoped for. Each year more more trees = more leaves = more energy stored in the roots (rhizomes) and that = bigger trees for the next year.
They are also taller then any of the tress from the previous years.

I noticed a lot of bent or broken shoots. I've seen this before and i think it's from ants that chew on the stalks. Sometimes they survive and the stalks have this weird bend in them. But most of the time they fold over and die.

But that damage only happens while they are soft. Once they grow a bit and harden up they can't really be hurt.

How to Make Fondant for Cake or Cake Pops

A few weeks ago Karrie tried making cake pops, where you attach sticks to balls of cake then dip them into melted chocolate. While looking up how to do that, she saw a lot of videos on how to make your own fondant cake. Fondant is a type of dough like frosting which consists of marshmallows and powdered sugar. It can be rolled flat then draped over a cake to create a smooth surface. So here is what it looked like to make a fondant cake.

But actually making the fondant is pretty simple. It's basically just 3 main ingredients, lots of work mixing and rolling, but when you're done you end up with something like this.

So back to the beginning. Here's Karrie's ingredients and list of steps. She read a lot more about it and watched several Youtube videos.

Here are all the ingredients set out.

The first step is to bake the cake. This was used as the bottom layer of a 2 layer cake.

No for making the fondant. Add 1 tablespoon of water and microwave the marshmallows for 1:30. When they come out of the microwave they look the same, but when you start stirring them they turn mushy and are very sticky.

Here's what the stirred up marshmallows look like. Next you pour them into the bowl of powdered sugar.

Stir everything together well. This is the tough part, making sure all the powdered sugar is incorporated.

Dump it out onto the counter.

Then start kneading it like bread dough. And use the powdered sugar to keep it from sticking. But don't use too much or else it drys it out. That seemed to be the trickiest part. The balance between too sticky and too dry.

Almost done kneading. That flat plastic scraper tool was great to clean off the counter from sticky fondant.

When you are done it is very smooth and fairly soft.

Cover it with Saran wrap so it doesn't dry out. At this stage it can be stored for a long time, several weeks i think.

Here's the pattern for the cake.

Cutting it out the pattern with a special serrated cake knife.

Here's the final shape of the base. There was lots of scrap pieces as well.

This was the 2nd (top) layer of the cake. There was enough room on this cake to use a cookie cutter and make star shapes. They could be used to make fondant cup cakes.

Now it was time to dye the fondant. We separated the fondant to different size pieces and add water based dye to get the color. It didn't take much, maybe 10-15 drops depending on the size.

To even out the dye, the fondant was kneaded and rolled out. Again watch out that you don't use too much powdered sugar.

Then Karrie cut out different shapes with a cookie cutter. They would be used to decorate the cake.

All of the small fondant pieces cut out.

This was the cake covering for the bottom layer. It was suppose to be purple but combining yellow and blue came out a bit dark. This picture makes it look gray but it was more of a dark purple.

And this was where we learned about getting the fondant too dry. It wasn't pliable enough and when we tried to form it into the tight corners it started to crack. If we would have been making a big round smooth cake it would have been ok but sharp edges were tricky.

But after it was smoothed out it looked fine.

And Karrie did some creative decorating to hide the cracks.

This is the top layer of the cake. Karrie is about to lay the fondant over it. This time we knew to keep the fondant soft and a little bit sticky.

It was a lot easier to form to the cake shape. Then using a knife, Karrie cut off the excess.

Then she took that excess fondant, kneaded and rolled it out, and cut out additional shapes.

Here are those cut out pieces being added to the cake.

Just adding some final touches. As you can see there's lots of extra pieces and quite a mess.

Here is the finished cake. The key is with the moisture of the fondant. Too wet and it's sticky like a melted marshmallow. Too dry and it starts to crack.

I think the cool part is the rounded edges and being able to basically create any smooth shape you want.

It turned out great for the first time making a fondant cake.