This is a early winter question
 

We are moving into a rental home for now and all my banana's/palms are potted up. Now the coldest it got last winter was 16* degrees give or take different areas in Wilmington NC. Now I will have no where to plant these those my Ice Cream,Basjoo,Laterias,Skiss,Veluntia, EE,Robusta,Windmill,Pindo,Sago and cactus are all cold hardy of course.

This place has a cement porch that is level with the grass. Has a wooden fence around it and is right up against the house.

In the past in Ohio I made Hop houses for palms and cactus. zone 5. Bought cheap wood from Home Depot,bought bisqueen (spelling?) that clear plastic you use for painting to keep paint off stuff. Made square boxes and wrapped the plastic around it and worked good. BUT these plants were also planted in the ground as where now they will all be in pots. But it doesn't get below 0*degrees here. I would have to design something that was tall and kinda wide. Then have it supported so it wouldn't get blown over from the wind. Would need it vented also incase I was not around to remove it if temps went up. Any help on ideas? Thanks

Re: This is a early winter question
 

Probably will not need a hot house in Wilmington just mulch heavy and wrap the stems or use the leaves and cage method it stays pretty warm due to the ocean breezes. our average lows in NC central to coastal is about 35 degrees

Re: This is a early winter question
 

Yikes. Anything below 26 degrees F is quite damaging. Not good but not horrible either. I have never experienced anything below that in SE Louisiana as long as I've been growing bananas and palms etc...

I do protect a few but mostly just let them be. It can get quite tedious pulling plants in and out every 4 or 5 days in late November, December, January, February and early March.

Re: This is a early winter question
 

Who knows maybe I will end up keeping them inside instead depending what happens. Thanks Guys

Re: This is a early winter question
 

Zero degrees F is about as low as we get here. I have four 12-16 foot Blue Javas that I pot & bring inside every winter. As long as I restrict water & fertilizer, they do just fine. I also keep them at around 50-70 degrees F, indoors. In spring, I just replant them in the ground :).
Hope this helps & best of luck :).

Re: This is a early winter question
 

How much water in the winter if light from large windows s available will they continue to grow.

Re: This is a early winter question
 

I would figure they would grow slow from the fact of them being kinda dormant.

Re: This is a early winter question
 

If kept indoors & potted at temps of 75 F or better, I give them some water Only if the leaves begin to droop a bit but only feed them (lightly) once in the middle of winter (if at all).
If kept indoors & potted at temps below that, I give them no water or food at all.
In either case, this reduced watering is vital whether sunlight is sufficient or not. Water during the winter encourages corm-rot.
BTW, the amount of light I give them seems to have no affect on growth-rate. They always grow just as slow in the storage room as they do in the very-well lit & sunlit indoor atrium.

Brownz281: Even if kept at 75 F or better, Banana plants will typically grow Very slowly, putting out only 1 or 2 leaves during the entire winter. I've never found a way around that mild-dormancy problem.

For the past three years, I have kept 4 Blue Javas alive & well using these techniques. They are 12-16' tall and their pups are 6-12' tall.
I did finally lose 1 this year by accidentally storing it in damp soil at around 50 degrees F. It died of corm-rot.

For reference, here's some of those Blue Javas & Pups this year:

Re: This is a early winter question
 

Okay thanks for the heads up. I stored the corms in my basement in Ohio one year. Wow those are some nice looking plants! Thanks