Hey nanner!
Yeah I left it out, but a smaller one not one of my huge ones like the one you see in the small pic to the left under my name. I lile to push it but not that much! That one was over 11 ft last year and the biggest leaf almost hit 7ft and 6 ft wide. That one came in. A smaller one about 3 feet tall or so was left out last year. Last spring I planted it deeper planning to leave it out. I put about a foot of mulch (straw and leaves) over it. Then a little burlap over the mound of straw/leaves and the plastic over that to keep water out. Also the plastic acts to retain heat at night. As of late Jan it still looked like the pic you see here. BUT we just got out first below zero temps more recently and it is now under 2 feet of snow. So I don't know what it looks like now. It could even rot from below. But I wanted to try it. It was doing way better than the M. Yunnanense right next to it! So if it doesn't make it I will try agin this year with better cover and a different microclimate.
The pics you asked about is my Musa Basjoo. This is it's 11th winter outside. The second from last -that one I HOPE will flower this year assuming it doesn't freeze or get center rot. But you are right nanner, all 8 to 10 of them were growing when I took those pics in early Jan. It does like it's spot, so it gets left alone.
It's good to hear your giants are doing well inside. I find them difficult to overwinter inside. The roots rot easily with too much water, even a little water. But I'm glad yours are doing well. How are you overwintering them (how much water, light etc)? How big were they last year?
I'm sure you could get some hardy bananas overwintered outside by you. But it does take a lot of work as you said, covering and stuff like that. Do you have bad winters by you? I'm sick of moving stuff inside in fall too. I can't take it anymore! That's why I try to leave as much outside as I can. Then they are on their own!
Spring is almost here!
Eric