growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

A couple things to note (just for the sake of clarification)

They would be grown outdoors in the ground

Edible varieties with no seeds

I'm wondering if I can grow them in the central or northern parts of N. Carolina; the gardening zone would be 7b and north of Raleigh.

I've found varieties of bananas where the minimum required grow zone is 8a/8b.
However would it be possible to grow bananas that have this zone requirement (listed above) in 7b?

Would they need any protection? If so how would I go about doing this?

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

Take a drive to plants delight in Raleigh. Awesome place and they have several hardy nanners that over winter in the gardens there that are fruiting kinds.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

Oh yeah protection for your area. Mulch several inches around the base. You can make a hoop house for them after you wrapped them for added protection. Tarps from harbor freight are great to wrap the p-stem with. They will need to be atleast 4 ft to even survive the winter any smaller and will die off. You can also trim them to the ground leaving several inches of the stalk left and mulch over top of that.

I live in Wilmington one mile from the beach so all mine listed survive winters here.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

To grow bananas inground year round at your location you would need a tall green house. Otherwise forget it. I lived south of you in Charlotte for 12 years and lost the whole mat several times until I figured a way. Mulching will kill the corms off faster.

Stick the largest pups you have in the ground after last chance of frost and you will have fruit - only if they are short cycle varieties. Grow out those pups in the house or a ventilated/heated green house. End of season, about mid Oct, dig out and pot the biggest pups to grow out indoors for next year.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

I bet he could do Orinoco maybe others with the protection measures I listed. Off topic but I raised a small needle palm from NC in Ohio,in the ground for years. Zone 4. I always placed a hoop house over it,but one year we had a sunny winter and it got fried inside the hoop house . As I forgot to remove it.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

A few off topic questions but I can't get the info for it elsewhere. Can I grow mango and guava (pineapple guava) in northern to central NC provided I used the type of protection you described with bananas?

If I were to grow bananas and the others listed in a coastal area of northern N. Carolina, would they still need protection?

Also again off-topic, sorry. Could you grow rhubarb as a perennial in N. Carolina? The reason I'd be growing the tropical fruits mentioned is because rhubarb won't grow in the southern part of the state and I like rhubarb.

Would you have to wrap the branches of the trees in something (tarp like you mentioned for example) if they're going to be in a greenhouse? Also could you show pictures as to what this should look like if possible?

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

First ,I don't think you can over winter those outside. If you find one cheap build a hoop house and use some source of heat to keep them warm. Buckets of water with fish tank heaters,spotlights,outdoor large x-mas lights. All ideas for heat for you. My mom lives more north topsail and a lady in new bern I think had herself in a newspaper article. Standing next to a large lemon tree and says its been in the ground for years. Use to tarp it but doesn't anymore. Plum,pears,apple,blueberry,sugar cane,stuff like that grows here fine.

Rhubarb you would have to google and see what zone it can handle I have no idea.

Depends what part of coastal. We live about 50 mins from Myrtle Beach and like mentioned next to the ocean. So we stay warm in the winters. I have golden barrel cactus and others/ succulents that are zone 9 and they all do fine in the winter.

I forget the name of the orange tree but a awesome nursery 40 mins north of us has a newspaper article about some type of orange tree that can grow coastal here.

Send me your email in pm and can show you a simpe hoop house I have used. Even several years ago we had the worst winter since 1978 and the bananas I have would have died to the ground maybe if not wrapped. But would have come back.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

Coastal North Carolina would basically be kitty hawk or roanoake island.

Could I grow bananas/sub tropical (mango guava etc.) without having to use some sort of protection in the winter, or would you still need somethingalong the lines of a hoophouse?

Also last question if it were to be grown in a coastal area w/mango and guava, then would it be possible to grow it? Sorry if the question seems redundant.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

Buddy on here lives in OBX and he grows Orinoco,Saba in the ground. I can't tell you yes or no about the fruit trees you ask of. Don't mess with them just nanners,cacti,succulent,carnivorous,EE yuccas. I forget the spelling of his screen name but look up fishoifc pretty sure that's his screen name,maybe he would know. They do get snow sometimes up there,little bit and for like a day or two.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

try this requires some digging and carpenter work but has kept a viente cohol alive and growing some down to 18 degree f just remove the top after frost and should have bananas before first frost havent had to water since october banana sphere pit greenhouse - Bananas.org I am in north western nc 40 miles north west of charlotte

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

You might get Orinoco to bloom and fruit there. They are supposed to be hardy to zone 7B but you would have cage the trunk to keep it from dying down to the ground or no bananas that year. I grow them and can get them to fruit after digging them up in fall and storing the whole pstem under my house in winter, but the stems are up to 10 feet long here and heavy. They sleep quite nicely under there till spring. This year I will be leaving a couple very large ones out to test in my zone 7a with very heavy mulch, but I am letting the pstems die down so I dont expect fruit. Cage with wire and fill it with something like straw, then put plastic over it.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

I am not positive, but I think Rhubarb is a cool growing plant, I know here it wont do very well in our heat.

Re: growing bananas in northern/central north carolina?
 

If you really want to grow this stuff here in NC, you will have to either have a two story solarium in your house, or a tall greenhouse. Pineapples will survive in an unheated greenhouse here, but fruiting bananas and the like will have to be moved back and forth, or have a heat source for your greenhouse.

While we have slid several hundred miles to the south and west since the 1940's, it is still not a subtropical climate here. Yet.