congratulations! Not easy to do in zone 6.

Thanks! I feel like a proud dad, lol. That banana was a pup last spring in the ground, dug up last fall, replanted early this mid April and now here we are.

Congratulations garden guy, we have one too. {{gwi:420908}}

downeastmd, nice going with the banana! What variety is that banana?

That particular one is Saba.

How tall did your saba get?

That particular one has only about 8 ft of psuedostem, but we have others with about 12 feet.

Gardenguy, I live in Z6A. Last year I brought my Dwarf Cavendish and Basjoo into my coolish garage and they died in Feb. I don't know if it was lack of light or if it was the temp. Anyway, how do you do it? I just left them in their containers. Is that wrong? I left a basjoo in the ground the year before and it didn't survive. I'm determined.
Roxanne

Gardenguy, I live in Z6A. Last year I brought my Dwarf Cavendish and Basjoo into my coolish garage and they died in Feb. I don't know if it was lack of light or if it was the temp. Anyway, how do you do it? I just left them in their containers. Is that wrong? I left a basjoo in the ground the year before and it didn't survive. I'm determined.
Roxanne

Roxanne, the 2 types of bananas that you have listed are notoriously hard to overwinter. The basjoo should be left outside and and kind of cavendish tends to bite the dust. The key to overwintering bananas unpotted (because of the huge size) is cool temps and no light.

I had a basjoo one year, left it in the ground protected and it survived stem and all. I've never stored a cavendish, but I have brought them inside, potted in the window and they wilt terribly. The other 2, including the banana that fruited above, (dwarf orinoco) is excellent when it comes to winter storage. Dig up the plant, trim off leaves except the unfurled one (that one gives it a head start in the spring) and store in the darkest, coolest location. I do not water mine when storing in this fashion. I just lay em down and that's it. The Ice Cream banana is also a good winter storage banana. I had a basjoo that I tried with overwintering storage and it died. The stem was all mush. I trimmed the stem off and put the corm in the ground and was lucky I got one pup from it. I'll give you some tips for Basjoo in ground storage for the winter. This is for saving not only the corm (root ball), but the stem as well.

Basjoo storage.
After the first frost, cut off ALL leaves till all you have is a pole.
Get some tires, some towels or old bedsheets. Towels can be better at absorbing moisture.
Get some mulch, as in wood mulch. No artificially colored mulch.
Finally get a plastic sheet. Large enough to cover everything.

After trimming the basjoo of the leaves, wrap the stem with the towels and clip the towels so that they stay on the stem. Get the empty tires and place one, then fill with mulch. Get another tire, lay it on top of the previous tire, fill with mulch. Repeat this step till you come to the top of the stalk. Finally cover this all with a plastic sheet. Make sure the sheet covers the stacked tires completely. You do not want any moisture from rain or snow getting in thru the tires.
Some of the folks here spray their stalks with some kind of antifungal spray. It helps, but I've never done that. You could also substitute the tires with an empty plastic barrel. Just make sure to place something heavy on the plastic barrel and it wouldn't hurt to use plastic. When it comes to overwintering basjoos outside, the most common mistake I've seen is people using leaves and a plastic bag. It cold climates, this rarely works and you're likely to be left with a mushy stalk. Keep in mind, all this work is for saving the stalk so that you have a bigger banana stalk to start with next spring. Ordinarily, basjoos should survive the winter unprotected, but you will lose the stalk in cold climates and will have to start over again next spring with tiny pups. In slightly warmer climates, basjoo stalks will survive the winter.

Garden guy we are making some progress. Give us an update on your bananas. hopefully it doesn't get any cooler here.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:420900}}

Not a whole lot is happening at this point, except more and more of the protective red cover leaf flower parts are falling off, to expose the bananas. The top layer of bananas are completely exposed and free of the red leaf cover. The bottom most part of the red flower part is starting to open with just flowers and no bananas. This may be the male part, which contains the infertile flowers. I will try to get another pic before or during this up coming weekend.

I have 3 old tires! Now I know what to do with them, protect my basjoo. I had never thought of that, thanks.
Will

nice looking banana flowers, I grow bananas myself, and when the last banana fruit that you see is out wait a week or two and I recommend to cut off the banana heart so the fruits will get bigger, also it takes about 15-16 months before a banana will start to flower, so if you have some this year that havent flower yet , you can wrap it with newspaper or blanket during hard freeze to protect them they should start to sprout back during the spring time.

ydur07, I have known about cutting the banana flower when all is left are the male flowers, which are infertile. I will have to do that. As far as wrapping the banana plant, I'm not sure if that will protect it enough to get through the SW Pa winter. Knowing the kind of weather we've had lately this summer, I'm willing to try anything!