JoeReal

For some of you, it may still be too early to tell. Usually if by mid summer nothing's coming out of the ground, then the corm has died underground.

These are the ones that died this year inground on me but that doesn't mean don't have a backup:
Sweetheart

Many survived this year including (only from the plants that I am maintaining in my yard, I still have others but not in my yard):
Dwarf Brazilian (with fruits)
California Gold
Dwarf Orinoco
Rajah Puri
Guatemalan Red
Jamaican Red (probably a sport)
Ultradwarf Saba
Manzano
Mysore
Misi Luki

asacomm

Hi Joe,

It seems to me that you don't touch about your overwintering methods, if
they were protected by some material or if they were just left unprotected.

Thanks in advance.

southlatropical

All of these survived nicely in the ground.

NOID - Very likely to be Orinoco
Musa acuminata sumatrana - 'Zebrina' 'Blood Banana'
Musa Bordelon
Musa Ornata - NOID
Musella lasiocarpa - 'Golden Lotus'
Ensete maurelii - 'Red Abyssinian Banana'

These were grown as seedlings indoors over winter and are hardened off outdoors now.
Musa Balbisiana - 'Gigantea'

Musa Red Iholene in the ground has not come back but I think it will. The corm is very firm and not showing any signs of rot. I moved it to the warm south facing side of the house in better draining soil.

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Bananaman88

All of these were in ground, no protection, and all seem to be coming back just fine:

M. velutina
M. mannii
Musa No ID- Gabe said maybe 'Bluggoe'
Musa No ID- " " " 'Orinoco'
M. Super Dw. Cavendish
M. 'Burmese Blue'
M. coccinea
M. acuminata sumatrana 'Zebrina'
Musella lasiocarpa

JoeReal

This year has been pretty mild compared to last year, although we have more frosty nights and higher chilling hours this year.

There are no protection at all for the inground bananas. The only protection is their own leaves and their own dried outer sheaths. As has been since the beginning, it is only their leaves that protected them.

Last year when there was arctic blast, I placed floating row cover on top of them, and then wine barrel filled with hot water near the base of the trunk.

This last season, there was none at all.

I remove the leaves and everything non-green or dead portions when the lows were consistently above 38 deg F.

JoeReal

Thanks to Bananaman88, Asacomm and SouthTropical! We hope to keep this list of actual yard performance going so that we can better assess what really will work across different yards too.

Steve L

In ground, no protection:

Acuminata Sumatrana
Cal. Gold
Ice Cream
African Rhino Horn
Ele Ele
Coccinea
Ensete Maurelii
Ornata Royal Purple

In ground with protection (blanket):

Ae Ae

Not protected and hasn't shown up yet (but reliably has come back the last 2 years):

Siamensis Thai Gold

Steve

modenacart

In ground wrapped with bubble wrap either ice cream or orinoco, not sure which. I have under the house a corm with two 8 to 9 foot stems that still have green leaves on it. I hope to have them in the ground this weekend or next. Maybe they will fruit for me this year.

STEELVIPER

In ground little to no protection. Coldest night 34F. Some what of a mild wet winter.
musa:
ice cream
mysore
praying hands
basjoo
Manzano
zebrina
chessmanii
Helen's Hybrid
Raja puri
goldfinger
Nagensium
Ensete:
ventricosum red and green
superbum
glaucum

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harveyc

My climate is pretty much the same as Joe's (USDA 9). Most of my plants spent the winter potted indoors this winter since they were new additions late last year. I didn't have anything outside die. These included:

California Gold
Dwarf Brazilian
Dwarf Orinoco
Lady Finger (the variety)
Raja Puri

Next year I will probably have a couple dozen I will be testing outdoors and I hope we avoid the arctic blast again. Early 2007 was nasty!

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bigdog

Here in zone 7a Knoxville, TN, with several lows in the upper single digits and two days (nonconsecutive) with highs below freezing:

Survived with Protection (a bag of leaves placed over the pseudostem):

Musa itinerans var. itinerans
Musa 'Helen's Hybrid'
Musa sikkimensis 'Red Tiger'

Survived with no protection (not even any extra mulch):

Musa basjoo
Musella lasiocarpa
Musa itinerans var. itinerans

Too early to tell:

Musa velutina (this will be about the fourth time I've killed it)
Musa yunnanensis - somewhat of a surprise because it came back in mid-March last year (although we saw many 80s last March also). No signs of life yet!
Musa cheesmani - even protected with a bag of leaves over a pseudostem, and the pseudostem was rotten in the middle for the second year in a row. Corm still looks solid, but no growth yet.
Musa 'Orinoco' - Came back last year in April, so we'll see how it did this time.
Musa 'Brazilian' - First test for this one.
Musa 'Ice Cream' - First test for this one as well. No protection for either.

modenacart

Did you have some stem left on Ice Cream, brazilian and Orinoco?

microfarmer

In ground, protected with black lawn n leaf bag, and showing signs of growth

Ice Cream (uncut)
Dw. Orinoco (uncut, pup was cut)
Cardaba (cut back to about 4' tall)
Mysore (had to cut back to 1' tall)
Cheesmanii (cut back to 2' tall)
CA Gold (unprotected)

Cut to the ground and not yet showing signs of life

Lasiocarpa
Manzano
Goldfinger
Valery
Brazilian
Zebrina

__________________
My new hero...

bigdog

Yes and no...the stem felt solid when I cut into it, but the middle of all of them was quite rotten. But with the temps I experienced here, that is no surprise.

modenacart

Which one faired the best? When I left the orinoco uncovered here all that was uncovered died back to the ground and our weather wasn't as cold as yours, but still cold.

bigdog

Well, none of them have come back yet, so it's a tie, lol. When I cut through the pseudostem near the base, in what seemed like solid pseudostem, the Orinocos looked to have the most living tissue. After a day though, all three of them look pretty much the same. None of them look like they will come back from the pseudostem, because they have rotten centers. It still remains to be seen if any of them will sprout back from the corm.

southlatropical

UPDATE
The Red Iholene is coming back.

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bigdog

I just noticed the first above-ground sprout of Musa yunnanensis today! It came back a little over half a month later than last year, but winter was colder and March wasn't near as warm as last year. Glad to see it up!

shopgirl2

My potted Raja Puri died but the corm is still hard and feels like it is alive.

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Orinoco by the sunlight.

bigdog

Well, I darn near had a stroke today. My Musa velutina is shooting! Fourth time's the charm, right?