Epilogue
I ended up losing my 5 original nanners that I planted in March of 2017. The pstems made it through the winter however they couldn't get get going in early spring. Day time temps were in the 70's to 80's however overnight temps were in the high 40's and 50's. Cigar would start to push and then rot out. I finally took the machete to the originals and found a flower in them about a third of the way down from the top.
All my medium and smaller size nanners made it through the winter and by June 30 have exceeded the size achieved by my original stock at the end of the prior season. No flowers yet though.
It seems for my area and type of bananas no more than seven months of growth should be taken into the dormant winter months when hit with a hard freeze in order for growth to resume successfully in the Spring.
Banana patch as of June 30, 2018:
