Digging bananas up always sets them back but they recover well. They're very 'greedy' feeders so pots are always a bit restrictive for them. But again, they'll survive quite well provided you feed them well.

thanx, I may dig one of the smaller ones up and put it in a smaller pot. I have grwon them in pots before in the event they did not over winter. which is what happened the first vcouple of winters bu these are all from plants that made it through the mild winter we just had.

If you are a 6b, you probably don't even need to protect much less dig out backups. The nanas at my old place, 2 houses and 5 years ago, come back every year, and they've never been protected, and they have seen negative temps a couple of times.

bradleyo-
Sorry I forgot to mention that I am moving in 4 days so this yard won't be mine any more. That's why I was wondering how well they could do in a pot that size. i have tow like that and they are huge.

Even digging up small pups is tricky. I find that the main plant withers and dies shortly after transplant. But the bulb usually sends up a new pup quickly. If you think its worth the time and effort to dig up that entire grouping, go for it. But you're probably better off just slicing off some outter pup and starting over at the new place.

I've dug bananas many times, used and abused them, threw them in the basement in the dry cool dark over the winter in paper leaf bags. The vast majority of the time, say 80%, they live even with that.

I think your odds of transplant success at this point are close to 100% as long as you dig carefully so you don't chop off too much of the root or the tuber/corm/bulb/whatever that structure is.

I've gotta admire you taking on all the new work and moving at the same time. Good luck with the move man.

They'll do fine. Bananas have very small root systems relative to their overall size. Your chances of success I'm sure will improve if you take half of the corm instead of just one pup. The more you take, the better.

Thank you all for the insight. I think I'm going to dig up one of the medium size shoots and perhaps a couple of the smaller ones. I can imagine how big they could get if they are aloowed to grow all winter. I've grwon them indoors during the winter and even in an east facing window you could see almost daily growth. with two sky lights I would imagine they'll shoot strait for the ceiling.

Make sure you take pups that are already developing their own roots. If they haven't, there's a possibility rot will set in before anything else.

On size, they're limited primarily by genetics. Then it's climate and fertiliser. I've seen the giant ones in New Guinea, growing up to 15 to 18 metres tall, Musa ingens. Once a plant gets to its height and conditions are still excellent, they'll just become a bigger and bigger clump, until they starve themselves out and begin to decline. Their greed knows no bounds, except famine.

I have never lost a banana from being dug up, but they do take a while to recover in the spring. Get as much of the root as possible and hope for the best! The mother might not grow back as vigourously, but the pups will and basjoos are fast puppers.
-Alex

I'm looking for Musa Ingens if you have a clue where I might get some seed please drop me a line

I have heard from many many people Musa Ingens just will not do well any place outside there native valley in new guinea. somthing about the hot days and cool nights I forget but no one has been able to be successful yet with them..mekong giants are about the best option for a tall nana

Yea, I still would like to try with the Ingens, hard to tell exactly where they will or won't grow unless we get a few growing in different places and experiment.
So, I want a few seeds to try, I zone push all the time...hasn't stop me before not gonna now or in the future I suppose. Got lots of really cool stuff to show for it too.
As far as the Mekong giant I'm in search of that one as well.

My friend is the one who introduced it and we have some really large ones here.. a bit to big to ship I think..smallest one I have is about 4ft

When I was in New Guinea a couple of years back I found a lot of M. ingens growing. They are very impressive when full grown. But they don't like it hot. They only grow up in the mountains under tree canopy (although they're pretty much in the canopy as well). The climate there is moderate with very little change between day and night temperatures with virtually no wind. So they don't like it hot, but neither do they like it cold. It's difficult finding the happy medium for them, most places get either too hot or too cold, or even too hot and cold. They don't sucker (produce pups), propagation is only from seed. The full grown ones get over 20 metres tall.

Miketropic,

I assume your talking about the mekong giant?
Yes, 4 foot is a huge plant to ship, but because it is a layered herb you can cut the P-stem back to a reasonable size removing the leaves and send it far more reasonably.
Fortunately, the Mekong has some appreciation for a bit of shade and that's mostly what I have here, filtered light, moving dapples and occasionally a few hours of full sun in areas.

Tropicbreezent,

What part of PNG did you visit?
How long did you stay and visit?
I understand PNG is not only beautiful but also dangerous in many ways.
One day I would like to visit myself, but not interested in violence or being worried about cannibalism (if still practiced there).
The pictures on the net are breath taking to say the least!

Srewolf, I spent a couple of weeks trekking across the Owen Stanley Ranges. From memory, found the M. ingens somewhere around the 1800 to 1500 metre ASL range. The locals said they were "Bush Bananas" and no good for eating. I managed some photos but it was difficult as the forest was a bit too dense. You couldn't get a large plant in the camera view finder. The giant Pandanus in that area was mindblowing as well, P. brosimos. If you google that some of my photos show up on internet forums.

PNG is certainly different. I absolutely loved it. But there are dangerous parts to it, probably much the same as in the US. Some parts are absolutely great. I spent a bit of time in Madang (on the north coast) and the people are great and really friendly. You can wander around at night, the biggest danger is tripping as street lighting is very poor to non-existant and the footpaths and roads poorly maintained. Places like Port Moresby and Lae can be a bit dangerous if you go into the wrong areas. If you do go there you just need to check out about area you want to go to. The latest edition of Lonely Planet on PNG is really good.

tropicbreezent...your killin me! One day...for my bucket list!
YES I will look up your pics...also lonely planet!

Thanks for the great reply