Eric1221

This sounds like a good plan. I have been growing musa basjoo since 2016 and I think we're in similar zones. I'm long island ny zone 7a which sounds about the same for you or even a little colder if at all. You can chop them back to the ground in november-december and cover with mulch, hay, leaves.. anything to insulate the stalk or root ball under the ground. I've tried different methods and the plants have returned every year with rapid growth and many pups. This year I left the whole plant in the ground without chopping anything.. they have become like 4-6+ ft trunks with leaves extending another 6 feet in the air. Really amazing how these bananas multiply and take off.. I haven't given them any special treatment other than pulling weeds, putting down mulch and sprinkling all purpose organic fertilizer every spring and summer sporadically. I don't even always water as much as I should and they continue to come back - they are also a good deterrent for Japanese beetles since they will be drawn to these and eat these and hopefully not your other trees. They actually will start to make a colony and spread by rhizomes I think.. I used a shovel and chopped some away from the base of my 2 patches and they survived as long as you get part of the white root ball with larger roots attached and keep it moist it will bounce back quick. Good luck! I think you'll have success - they don't seem like needy plants and even if you barely protected after a few years it seems like the herbacious leaves and stalk become the insulator/mulch during the Winter. All of my plants have shriveled, browned and gotten mushier but the stalks are still firm on the lower part of the trunks and all i did was throw some mulch on one patch this year - the other spots I just pushed down the stalk and leaves to provide some additional insulator/mulch. I keep experimenting to see what happens. Last year I covered one patch with a plastic sled top and then mulched and threw hay over it up to a foot or less. Then i just threw some leaves, dirt and straw over the other patch but didn't protect it.. just chopped it to the ground. All survived and are sending a bunch of pups from the bases. They got big too - like 4-6ft of stalk with large leaves! So I think it all depends how much work you want to put into it. If you want to preserve a larger part of the trunk and insulate several feet you can do that with insulation and building a whole kit.. like a box or garbage can and mulch and hay - If not you can just chop it down to the ground, cover with mulch or dirt or whatever and then wait and see.. if the large trunk (mother plant) is mushy and dies back into the ground it will most likely push up several pups which will become the dominant growth the following Spring. It all depends how large the root ball gets. I have found that planting the root ball deeper (like almost a foot or so down) will help keep the root ball safe. Anyways - didn't mean to rant but figured giving you most of the things I've learned since 2016 with this plant. Still fairly new to bananas and this is the only variety I am growing since I enjoy the tropical-looking foliage along the deck and then I enjoy laying/sitting under it since it will eventually provide shade and privacy in certain spots.

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I am very fascinated and excited about growing Pawpaws (Asimina triloba). I also am equally fascinated and excited to be growing: Pawpaw cultivars, Echinacea purpurea 'magnus', Asclepias tuberosa Butterfly Weed, Musa basjoo Cold Hardy Banana, Lycium barbarum 'Sweet Lifeberry', Passiflora incarnata 'hardy native maypop'.

Future projects: Indigenous/native host plants for butterflies such as: Zizia aurea Golden Alexanders, Eutrochium maculatum Joe Pye Weed, Asclepias incarnata Rose Milkweed.