As far as I know, the best thing to do is to pile pine straw 18-24" deep over the stalks for the winter, and wait to do any digging until things warm up for good in the spring - probably in mid- to late-April. I know that the nursery where I work part-time overwinters their bananas covering them in pine-straw - I haven't taken the chance on growing bananas, despite being tempted by their looks, being 20-odd miles north and west and that much colder in the winter.

Since yours has survived several winters without any protection, to the best of your knowledge, I would imagine it is growing in an spot that is pretty sheltered. It MAY be that you don't have to do anything to protect it, but a bale of pine-straw is cheap insurance....

My mom lives in Grover, NC. She has banana trees, she cuts them back before we get the killing frost. She covers them VERY well and then when we have steady temps in spring she uncovers them.
She never gets bananas from hers, our season is just too short.
Do not dug them until warmer weather. Best to just cut the stalks and cover them to make sure they do make it through the winter.

:) Fran

It's prolly coming back from the roots each spring, so do not dig until spring. I try to keep the main plant, plus a one yr old and a two year old. The rest I dig and pot. Basjoo and the lariscopa (sp?) or Chinese are the two hardiest for us, at least so far. We wrapped our biggest basjoo last winter and when we took everything off last spring it was 6 feet tall and already pushing a new leaf. The two we didn't wrap died back to the ground but returned and eventually *about* caught up to the one we wrapped (burlap, bubblewrap and tarp). This year we cut all but the one we wrapped and covered the whole thing in straw. I like to wrap one because it's nice to have that fast growth spurt early in the spring, while the others play catch up.

Root, what order do you wrap it in?

Hey Mad, We do the burlap, then bubble wrap and last the tarp. Lots of wraps with each. We always place the bubblewrap and tarp over top before starting the wrap to keep moisture from running down inside. The burlap is a few inches off the ground so it doesn't wick moisture up into the plant. Then mulch good around the base about 12 or 14 inches high. The mulch also covers the ones we cut back.

I've read where some people use Christmas lights instead on the basjoo, they're so hardy. then just cut back in the spring until you see new green inside/center of it. Lots of suggestions on the banana forum.

As far as I knew before the post from rootdigger, Musa basjoo was the ONLY hardy banana in this part of the country. Its fruit is NOT considered edible even by most self-respecting monkeys, from everything I've read, and in fact I've yet to see mine fruit in the four or so years I've been growing it, but it DOES give you the LOOK of having a small banana tree growing in your yard.

The first year I cut mine back right after first frost, but I didn't pile anything over it, because according to what I'd read, it's hardy down to about 0-5 degrees (meaning I'm pretty sure YOU can grow it, too, dibbit).

Every subsequent yeat, I've been too lazy to even cut it back, just leaving the dead leaves standing there through the winter winds, and it just puts up new shoots through the old each spring... The main root also seems to grow out in one direction, and new plants seem to shoot up off that, as some of the older shoots die back.

It seems pretty hardy; I didn't even water it as much this year, and it still seemed to do OK.

I agree that you should wait until around last frost date (about early to mid-April -- the "official date" is April 15 here, but that means fairly little, as our "official" first frost is Oct. 15, and our ACTUAL first-frost here has been closer to Nov. 20 for many years... It's likely you'll have to CHOP the outlying tubers or corms, or whatever they are officially, from the main root in order to separate them... I'd try to go as close to the middle between shoots as you can.

You have PLENTY of time to think about it.

As for piling stuff up, rather than pine needles, which would probably be fine, I'm thinking more something like pine bark fines (Nature's Helper, or similar), if you decide to pile something, as you can just use that as mulch later, and let it slowly work its way into the soil as a conditioner... That'll keep the ground MUCH warmer, too.

It's essentially the same as pine bark mulch -- only like someone ran it through a blender a few times, and is the primary ingredient in better potting soils -- it's the primary ingredient in better soils, PERIOD... Great amendment for clay OR sand -- particularly for this mucky red clay we have here... and when you have things already planted, it's fine enough that it will incorporate into the soil fairly quickly through rain and watering -- Mulch will, too, but not nearly as fast.

When I'm planning a bed, or essentially ANY planting area, I generally till it up as close to a foot deep as I can beforehand and try to mix it about 1/1 with about 2/3 pine-bark fines (usually Nature's Helper brand... You can buy in bulk, but don't save that much and the quality's not as good), and the other third a "high-yield" compost... I try to buy something labeled 0.5-0.5-0.5, which essentially makes a 40-pound bag have the equivalent of 2 pounds of 10-10-10 in it. I figure since I'll likely NEVER have the chance to amend that soil DIRECTLY again if my plants take (I'm talking trees, shrubs, perennials, etc, I'd better do it right the first time). Sometimes I'll also add a little bit of builder's sand if I foresee any drainage issues, but not too often.

It's worked well so far. Of course I do this sort of thing only a little bit at a time, generally. Don't have the time, energy, OR money to do more of it.

At any rate, I'm thinking a little of the "Nature's Helper" will make a GREAT over-winter mulch for your banana.
Jeff

Jeff, I've used the tiny bark too, Here it's just called 'soil conditioner'...Timberline is one of the brands. I've also used bags of leaves stacked over top of the ones we cut back. I think you could use the strawbales (not pine) too. I use those to make a large cold frame to winter potted plants in and by the time winter is over it's starting to break down and I then use it as a brown when I need it in the compost bin and the really rotted stuff goes scattered onto the beds.

I think PDN (or maybe it was something I read on the banana forum) uses a wire cage stuffed with shredded leaves (or straw?) and then a tarp or something overtop. Lots of ways to go about it depending on what banana you're growing, your zone and site. I keep a backup in the greenhouse or under the house each year for insurance in case of some really freaky weather/cold.

Most bananas fruit on a stalk's second year, so if they die back every winter, they'll never get the chance. Even here in FL. they only fruit sporadically. Mine have fruited twice in 12 years or so.

Bobs2:
I think you can probably dig any time during the dormant period, although late autumn and early Spring are probably best. I have divided the rhizomes of my plant in March without problems.

flgargoyle:
For what it's worth, I have a Musa velutina (I think, the identification is tentative) that freezes back to the ground every winter, yet fruits reliably every September. The stems get to about 4 or 5 feet tall before they are killed back to the ground.

I grow Bananas as well. I have Musa and Ice Cream outside and a nice Dwarf Cavindish inside. My Musa's made it thru the winter last year without any special care. I also have a couple of nice pups in my greenhouse this year. My Ice Cream is supposed to be hardy, but I'm going to cage and mulch this week just as a precaution. Yes, PDN does recommend the cage, mulch, plastic method as does many others I have read. I think you will be just fine, use some extra precautions as insurance. Good luck!! And lets see some banana trees in the spring!! :-)

In central SC I dig up my banana stalks after the first freeze kills the leaves and put them under the house for winter. The crawlspace is vented but the hatch gets closed (the bananas are near it for convenience) and while gets cold under there it doesn't freeze. The roots dry out but the corms and stalks stay fine so you can have a 6-10 foot tall stalk in the ground soon after the last frost of spring. I've eaten bananas grown here once.

We just call it "soil conditioner" here, too, rootdigger. And I've ALSO bought Timberline brand before (I believe that brand is actually made in S.C.)... For a year or so, for some reason, the Nature's Helper brand simply wasn't available for some strange reason... I don't know if their plant went down, or they had a strike, or what...

The main reason I actually PUSH Nature's Helper is because when it WASN'T available and I used bulk soil conditioners and other brands, and then when it became available again, I went from THE BEST, to the other stuff, back to THE BEST, and for this RARE OCCASION I actually DID see THE DIFFERENCE.

It's VERY RARE that I will push a NAME BRAND over a GENERIC. I'm a MAJOR FAN of generics. Nature's Helper is, so far, one of those exceptions. When I open one of their bags (and they HAVE disappointed by reducing the bag size to 1.5 cubic feet down from 2 cubic feet, while keeping the price the same, but it appears all the other brands have done similar)... anyway, when I open the bag, I get a rich, sweet aroma, a bright color, and a fine, warm texture that just seems higher quality than what I've seen from the other bagged brands and DEFINITELY better than what I got when I bought it by the scoop.

Trust me. I WILL be VERY VOCAL when and if Nature's Helper starts to disappoint me, because I don't recommend a brand this much and then have them let me down without doing a FIRM 180!

I'll start a thread titled something like "Nature's Helper No Longer Any Good!" And the next time I buy soil conditioner, just out of curiosity, I'm going to buy at least one bag of every brand I can find, just to see how much difference I see when I have them to compare directly, NOT from memory.

Now... NUFFADAT! nannerbelle, sounds like you have a nice little collection... and gonebananas, you actually grow EDIBLE bananas in ZONE 7 in ONE SEASON?!?!? Can you give us more details on that? Seems incredible -- especially given that you're replanting them FRESH every year!

By the way, at its fall plant sale in October, Hatcher Garden in Spartanburg had 5-foot Musa basjoos for $10... And then in the afternoon, when they were trying to clear things out, everything was cut to half price, so were you there, you could have gotten a 5-foot Musa basjoo for $5!!!

And they STILL didn't sell out! I think I paid $25 for one about half that size at Plant Delights a few falls ago! I'm pretty sure the leftover stock will still be for sale in the spring.
Jeff

Thanks for all of the responses. I knew I was posting on the correct forum. Your comments made much of what I've read on the Banana Forum make practical sense in relation to my location.

Next year, I will also look for the soil conditioners that were mentioned, too. I won't be ready to do much planting next year (that really hurts), but I can at least do some things that will improve conditions for when I am ready.

Jeff, soil conditioners are still rare enough around here that I buy what's available and the brand name seems to change from season to season.

I've only tried the basjoo, and lariscopa outdoors over winter. I'm wintering the siam ruby, saba and maurelli in the greenhouse. Prolly need to bring the siam and maurelli in once it starts diping into the teens at night. So far they're looking good. The maurelli has put out a good bit of new growth. Does anyone know how hardy the ice cream, dwarf orinoco and pink velutina are?

pretty sure the pink velutina is pretty hardy, at least here. I know of someone who grows it like the others that you can just leave outside without a lot of fussing- i'm sure she just mounds up some mulch after it's cut back. The location is louisburg.
I know TJ said siam ruby for him is extremely cold sensitive- more than the others. So i have mine inside, rather than the cool greenhouse, where my blood banana is happy. I picked up a dwarf 'prince' something (not sure if it's orinoco) at Campbell rd's this year that's also inside and looks ok. That was more because the greenhouse is full than anything.

In response to the question, the banana plants get bigger each year and can have a pretty big corm, so they start out in spring with a fairly sizable amount of stored energy. I just dig it all up in fall, usually wash the soil off merely for convenience, and toss it under the house for the winter. I had bananas last year as well but they were a bit too late to mature and eat.