Can the leaves stay on for overwintering?
 

Sorry for another overwintering question but I cannot find an answer. I plan on digging my bananas up in a few weeks. Hopefully later. I am going to store them in corner room in the basement where temperatures will be in the low 50s F. Can I keep all the leaves on them so that they can get a head start come spring? Or will that reduce their chance of survival? They are in their 2nd year and are 6-7 feet tall.

Re: Can the leaves stay on for overwintering?
 

my personal preference is to cut off leaves except growing leaf, when moving for winter. it's makes things easier for me and seems to reduce stress on plant.

but yes you can leave them on and as they or if they yellow, cut them off ..

again this is what i do here !!

Re: Can the leaves stay on for overwintering?
 

Leaving them on will surely be ugly.

But here are the two major advantages of leaving them on:

1. Allows translocations of nutrient backs to the corms and or reallocate some of it to the pups as the leaves begin to die off.

2. Allows extra protection in terms of frost. The overhanging leaves create a blanket to protect the stem and soil from radiative heat loss, the most common causes of frost in marginal climates.


In practice I don't leave them on because they are very ugly to look at. But I wait until they turn brown before removing them. I just use other means of frost protections.