basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Ok, so I've read everything I can get my eyeballs on about overwintering basjoos in a cold climate. But I don't recall reading at what size they can be left out...any size? I'm in southern WI, zone 5. I have two, with 6 pups. I'd planned on bringing them in this winter....letting them (hopefully) grow a little more, and winterizing them and leaving them out next winter and beyond. However, just out of curiousity, is there a rule of thumb on height, number of leaves or diameter of P-stem as far as winterizing them outside in cold climates? They were pups themselves this spring.

Thanks!
Angie

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

How tall are these plants? I cut my plant back to 4 inches or so and died down to the ground but gave me 3 pups in May.

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Not sure if there is a rule of the thumb, but I wouldnt feel comfortable keeping mine outside unless they were as tall as me. Mine are about as tall as me and Im on the borderline on whether I will be leaving them out or taking them in, but since they have been so sickly as far as leaf size and overall growth rate, I will probably leave them out and if they die, I have more tropical bananas that perform better for me.

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

if you bring basjoos indoors what is a good amount of light.. I dont have a full sun window.. can the deal and stay green if theres not tones of light??

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

I was trying to delete a copy of a message, which I had inadvertently posted twice. The deletion would not work for me, therefore I edited it to this.

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

I sort of took the hardiness of Basjoo for granted and moved three last late summer just expecting them to overwinter. Well, two were one gallon size and one was about a three gallon size. I mulched them all pretty well, but only the larger of the three overwintered. So for zone 7 just a few feet high was enough with mulch. On the other hand, the reason that I was planting out small plants late in the season to begin with is that I had decided to move my clump so I could put a greenhouse in that spot. I tried to overwinter them dormant in my basement in the same fashion as I had with Orinocco, Raja Puri and others. Well, the others did fine, but none of the basjoos made it. My guess is that basjoo needs very cool temperatures to stay dormant for storing indoors. My basement was around 65F in the winter but my guess is that 45F might be a better temperature.

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

my "golden" size seems to be 3 feet tall by first frost --if they're planted at ground level and protected well the first year with bags of leaves piled over the top of them and a tarp over the top of the leaves.... I'm in zone 5.
I think you can get by with probably 2 feet tall --if you planted in a good tall plant a few months ago and put it a foot deeper when you planted it.
It never hurts to put a large circle of straw around your plants about 10" deep and 5' in diameter if you're in doubt. and then top that off with bags of leaves and a tarp over the top.
And if you're really really in doubt, dig it up. If you've got a suitable overwintering site indoors where it will receive good light and you don't over water it. If you don't have such a site, then protect it with the straw, bags of leaves and hope for the best because it's most likely going to do better there outdoors.

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Thanks for all of the input. I planned on moving my basjoos anyway...so I'd wondered about moving them, and wintering them, or keeping them inside, then moving them in the spring. Has anyone ever put hay bales around them? Ok, now a lot of people woudln't have access to hay bales like I do...but I happen to have some that just aren't great quality for feeding....they're more landscape hay type, and I thought if I put hay bales over the ground and squished the p-stems in between a couple, that might do the trick. Then cover the whole thing with a tarp. Of course, hay bales are compressed...and a lot of people use them to insulate the skirting on trailer homes and such...so I figured they might work even better than mulch! Thoughts?

Also...should anyone see this, I have a maurelii, which obviously needs to be brought in. At what temp? We have some lows in the 40's coming up the next couple of nights, then up to the 50's for nightime temps....should I start thinking about digging it up yet or no? Our highs will still be upper 60's a couple days, but typically upper 70's.

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Btw, Sandy, the maurelii is filling out most awesomely!

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Thanks! I could have as many as I need....the number of bales isn't an issue! (we bale our own, and do have some set aside for "landscape hay")

I think I just may give that a try...seems a warmer option than even mulch!

I just wasn't sure about the hay possibly rotting on the ground....and possibly rotting the plant? But, if I put it out on a dry day and cover it......

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

i am in central Wisconsin and last year my basjoos were about 3ft and I dug them out and had them inside and I lost all of them. The leaves are very touchy and they didn't last more than a couple of months. I also lost them party to the soil being too wet and rot set in. This year they aren't quite that big and I am going to take my chances leaving them in the ground. I will cover them well but hopefully can have better luck

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

I had a friend who cut his back to 3" and set a round bale on top of it. It worked good until the second year when he forgot to move the bale until July!

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

yikes!!!

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

Even in their first year I overwintered my basjoo bananas in pots outside. I moved my banana plants to an area protected from high winds (we get storms of winds up to 60 mph) and under the shelter of coniferous trees to protect them from heavy snowfalls. Then I raised them off the ground about 4 inches and filled that space with dried leaves stored in plastic bags. My thought here is that a plant gets a lot of cold from the ground. Next I kind of wrapped the pot with about 6 inches of leaves and covered the dirt with the same. Then I laced Christmas lights around the plant and dropped a sheet of plastic over the plant and pot, securing it with dirt. I live in a rainy climate so it seemed important to keep the soil on the dry side - wet roots are easily affected by cold temperature. My basjoos survive very nicely this way by keeping the temperature under the plastic just above freezing .
One year I over-protected my bananas by insulating the entire plants with leaves under a plastic tarp and the entire clump rotted away. Since then I try to protect my bananas from the extremes of winds and snow and keeping just above freezing.

Re: basjoo size for leaving outside?
 

I completely agree since an established plant should over-winter outside as long as it is planted deep enough, and even better off if there is a filled leaf bag
on top to provide further insulation. I find that during winter, the deeper you go into the soil, the warmer it gets since I'm able to test it out with a needle thermometer.
I've found that with top protection, nothing below soil lvl was killed, and even a lot of the top section survives.

Here's one of my musa mekong giant seedlings that I got a few weeks ago and after keeping it in a pot for 2 weeks to finish growing another leaf,
and grow a little bit fatter, I planted it a foot deep, and it has since perked up even more with a noticeably fatter psuedo-stem than when this photo was taken they day
I bought mine.


Here's what you may find after deep planting, along with top protection.


Even if the top protection fails, having it planted deep will keep the bottom foot of the psuedo-stem alive so it's actually easier to plant smaller bananas.