Hey bjb817

Let me caution you on cutting down bananas....

Here in rainy western Oregon I received two Musa bajsoos with 3-4" diam stems, being thrown out by a local retail nursery....
One had been cut clean diagonally about a foot above the root crown... the other had just been left to it own demise, and the dying leaves were just collapsing around the base.... I left both in the 5 gal pots that winter....
The one that had been so nicely cut at 45* formed a cup, collected rain and rotted out the crown and never recovered...
the second left to its own, set in the ground the following spring, continued to grow come spring, and lasted another season reaching about 6' tall and fully leafed out....
That fall, after a season in the ground, I just mulched it around the crown with a pile of leaves and again just left the collapsed leaves intact..... come spring it had died and rotted out.... not sure why.... but suspect it too collected enough rain to rot the crown... also noticed some slugs had taken up residence......??
My brother in rainy Seattle had one in container that pupped the following spring... neither of mine ever did??

So anyway the moral is maybe best to leave stem intact, don't cut... refrain from top watering, maybe even cover to protect from winter rains... try to keep growing point dry...maybe not an issue though in Tejas....

I have seen a few in the landscape around Portland, so they can winter here.... but cutting may not be a good practice...

suerte and adios....

Thanks for the response. That's interesting. We cut all our bananas down to about 1' of stem last winter and out of the 4 plants, 3 came back. One rotted out as you described, and didn't make it.

We definitely don't have the dampness issues you guys do in the winter, but none the less, maybe I should just leave them until spring or at the very least cover the tips where they're cut off?

I always cut my basjoo back when frost kills the leaves. Sooner or later we usually have a freeze which will kill the trunks. I cut them back to within inches of the ground. I put some pieces of re-bar in the ground as fence post and surround the stumps with wire. Then I fill in the fence with enough leaves to insulate the roots from a hard freeze. IT also shed water away from the stumps. Come spring time I will uncover them after last frost and some of the old stumps will sprout from the centers. Some will have died and lots of new pups will shoot up from the protected roots. A personal observation, it seems that 2 year old stumps will not resprout but last years trunks will sprout from the center.