When you dug and brought the bulbs into the house did you clean them off,remove the dirt and store them in wood shavings like they are presented in stores(when you buy them)?

Even here on the Piedmont we have winter cold and wet that a couple year old bulb just goes to mush. I think it's more the wet than the cold that does them in.

Thanks for your help. Actually I potted them up. I don't have a place to keep them that is cool enough to stay dormant, but warm enough to keep from freezing. I tried a few wrapped in newspaper in the bottom drawer of the fridge, and those didn't make it either. The first year I had Black Magic and I ended up overwatering them.

This year I had the black stemmed variety (not sure of the name). I put them in my unheated gh, and they seem to have made it through. I was very suprised because I know it got to at least 20f in the gh, probably colder. I dug them up about a month ago and scraped off a bunch of rot, even though I hadn't watered them since early November. Now I've got about 4 sprouts and have moved the soil a little to see the rest of them growing too. I also had a few that I brought in the house, but I don't have good light anywhere and they struggled all winter, but made it. I don't know how they will do now since they didn't have a dormant period.

It would be nice if I didn't have to worry about the digging up and replanting every year. I have read alot on here and the problem does seem to be more the wet than the cold. My gh is gonna be better heated this coming year, but this will just keep them from dormancy. I'm thinking about trying to put in a root cellar this year, for some veggies and homemade wine. I figured if nothing else they would probably be ok in there.

When I split and potted the EE last fall I ended up with 17 plants, so I have enough to spare for trying to overwinter this year. I read somewhere about raised beds and good draining soil to help, so maybe I'll try that too, but I was afraid the soil would lose heat faster.

I overwinter mine in my unheated basement with a couple 4' florescents. I do run a space heater if it's to get down into the teens, to keep it from freezing the pipes, but that's all. Most make it through- some go dormant, and others don't. Doesn't seem to be a discernible pattern. I've only tried one or 2 in the ground and they didn't pull thru. Main reason i've done it this way is i never decided where i wanted them permanently and i used them for the fair most years so i held off. If we get a decent amount of rain this year i'll try to get most in the ground. I'd say your greenhouse or root cellar will work very well.

This year the gh worked great, but next year I think it will be to warm to let them go dormant. I'm gonna have an area sectioned for citrus and banana, so in order to keep those above 50f the rest of the gh will probably be upper 30's at its coldest.

I also thought about the crawlspace, but I don't trust it. I haven't had any pipes freeze but I leave water drip alot. We normally have a few nights in the low teens every winter. And there's always moisture down there to.
I've read that EE need the dormancy period, but I don't know much about this. I was going to try and cover some with a thick layer (12inches+) of mulch, but I was told it wouldn't work. Sounds like I'll have to find out for myself.

I don't know- like i said, some of mine go dormant, and others don't. But i can tell you it stays between 55 and 32 down there and we only water maybe 4 or 5 times over the course of the winter. I think if you kept the ee's right on the coldest side along the outside of your gh it would be cold enough to force them into dormancy. That said, I haven't had any problems with the ones i haven't let go dormant and some of them have been going for 4 or 5 years. The ones i've lost have gone dormant and then rotted (not all of them do, some pop back up and go just fine, but some have rotted). Sometimes i can salvage stuff like you did, sometimes not. It would probably be better if i didn't get lazy and ask my kids to d the watering down there, since i'd pay more attention to what wanted lots vs which could stay drier. *shrug*

I can also tell you my citrus LOVE our barely heated greenhouse. It gets supplemental heat at night to just keep it above freezing, and they do just fine right on down to freezing. Most bananas need & like it a bit warmer. I bring most of mine in the house now, since a single night of dipping temps* can send them into sulks or make them rot. They seem to do just fine in the house if i can remember to water them enough.
*as much as we try, about 1 x a winter it goes below freezing, as low as 25 (too much on the circuit & it blows or it gets a bit too cold for the space heaters- or some variation thereof). We've found that very few things are harmed by this, even stuff that would normally go to mush outside, but bananas are one of the ones that are affected sometimes.

I know if you grow them outside, like hardy bananas, they like a thick mulch that insulates and will stay relatively dry- a big mound or cage of leaves, something like that. You could probably mound up leaves and even cover them so they'd stay dry.

Thanks alot for the advice. I'm just beginning to learn more about plants and the greenhouse. I feel better knowing they'll do good without dormancy. I didn't think about all the moisture that a covering would hold in either. As fast as these multiply I'll be able to afford leaving some in the ground, so I'll see what happens.

As for the citrus, I had asked in the citrus forum. They weren't sure how the citrus would do with the wide temp. swings in my gh. They thought the lows would make it want to go dormant and the high's would not. Basically they made me think I had to have either a dormant range of temps. or a growing range of temps. I also believe, from how my EE's overwintered, that cold in the gh isn't nearly as devastating as outside. I think alot of that has to do with heat retention in the plant's soil. I just built my pvc tunnel in the fall, and didn't get my inflation and water barrels in until Feb. We haven't had many cold nights since, so I don't know exactly what it is gonna do in the coldest weather. I would love to here how your citrus do. Do you get year round fruit with the cold temps, it doesn't go dormant or have leaf drop? I know I'm a bit colder here, but since I put in all the water barrels my temp. hasn't dropped below 40f, even with mid 20's outside.

The banana is a dwarf cavendish, and I have read that if they go dormant in the winter, the main plant dies, and they need more than a seasons growth to produce fruit. My house doesn't have any southern windows and my west windows face trees so I can only get a few hours direct light in the house which isn't enough for either the banana or the citrus.

I think that if I can at least get the EE to go dormant that their soil temp. in the gh should stay low enough that they will stay dormant. Especially if I keep em in the shade.

Thanks again for all your help. This is a great site and it's nice to talk with someone who has done similar to what I hope to do.

I think part of the problem is that all of that group are called Elephant Ears so everyone thinks of them as a the same type of plant when in fact there are many variations. Some form large storage bulbs that store all they need to survive a winter, some never form a storage bulb, some alternate years (one year storage, one year not). Some of the hardiest ones actually die each winter but a tiny fragment of the root stays alive and survives and the plant is such a vigorous grower we never see the struggle.

The classic solid green Elephant Ear will usually survive just fine if you protect them with a large cage or mound of leaves. But they are one of the types that make large storage bulbs every other year. They also send out runners every other year and get the giant leaves on alternate years too. In a mixed mound you'll never see this in person.

Black Magic is notorious for not surviving winter no matter what you do. What work best for me is to keep the tiny pups in pots as houseplants and then send them outside in mid May.

My citrus also bloom best if allowed to really cool off during the winter. My little hoop house gets down to the mid twenties each winter and a surprising number of true tropicals come through it just fine. Some of them will lose their leaves if there's a week of below 45 for daytime highs but the loss of leaves signals them to bloom more so I don't complain. I find that my fruit crops are about a month off from what available in the supermarket shipped up from Florida. There's only a few citrus that have fruit all year - most are seasonal.

Thanks for the info and experience John. I didn't realize they were all different, but it kind of makes sense. I thought they were all corms and was kind of surprised when I bought a big green EE bulb the other day.

As for the citrus, or the gh rather, do you have any heat in there? The guys on the citrus forum had me worried about my temp. swings, they weren't sure if it would work. Sounds like yours is doin good though.

I'm no expert but I believe that super big tuber will grow a large and large-leaved plant this year and then be a smaller tuber over the next winter and then grow and send out runners. I may have the pattern mixed up but Elephant Ears do odd things that most of the plant sellers out there don't tell you. The size of the tuber corresponds in some way with blooming and sending out runners and these things seem to occur every other year unless there's something freaky with the weather - like a cold summer or a drought.

My temporary greenhouse (called a hoop house) is heated but only on the coldest nights. I only try to keep it above freezing. I buy the worlds cheapest thermometers so I can't guarantee the accuracy on the temps but on the nights when the thermometer showed less than 30 there would be leaf damage or death on some of the plants along the outside edge of the structure. I've found that a basic electric space heater with a large box fan blowing towards the ceiling can keep the temps about 5-8 degrees warmer than outside. For days when they call for temps in the 20's or lower I fire up a small kerosene heater and it will warm things up to 50 degrees no matter what the temps are outside. I only use kerosene when I absolutely have to because burning kerosene emits the gas Ethylene which will kill some plants.

My citrus collection tends to look awful this time of year so I never post photos of them over on the Citrus forum. Those guys devote a lot of time and money on their collections.

Sorry- haven't been on in a while. To answer your ?- my Gh/sunporch temps do fluctuate a lot (from 32- 80 or more some days) and it hasn't bothered the citrus AT ALL. I try to keep it between 45 and 75 or 80 or so, but it does hit higher and lower sometimes, despite best efforts. Think about it- it's not so dissimilar from FLa's winter climate. In fact, i have a lot better luck with them out there in the cooler yet higher humidity environ that when i used to bring them into the house in my sunniest window each winter. I get better blooms, and much better leaf retention and health. No issues with spider mites, either- which i used to fight terribly inside. The few times over the yrs the heaters have pooped out- my fault or theirs, and it got down to 25 out there, the citrus didn't even seem affected at all. Mine actually look decent now, too- not raggedy at all. And i don't baby them at all- i don't have the time or inclination to. I'm sure they don't look like the citrus forum's do, but...

Hi NuGardnr,

I live in South Florida and grew up in WNC. Even when I lived there I grew EE's but would dig them up and store in a warm dry place inside.

I have sent my sister numerous tropicals and she has learned how to over winter them. She even has a Plumeria that is blooms for here. The Cavendish for her was no problem. She keeps it in a pot and when overwintering it she put by a heat vent that has the most light. It just seems to slow down and not go to sleep. If you want a banana in your landscape and not worried about fruiting, the Basjoo is your answer. She leaves it in the ground year round. It comes back stronger each year. Hope this helps. By the way, my sister is in North Asheville.

Tropicalfreak