parid09

OK, all of you banana geniuses.. Is there anything to the reports that I have seen that you can lift the corms with the pseudo-stems intact without leaves, roots cut off the corms, and just stand the whole shebango in the corner of a cool basement for months and months of storage through a long Wisconsin winter? If so, I have Basjoos, Daj Giants, Balbesianas and Sikkimensis bananas that have attained small tree size through the summer and recess is almost over. Can this method work for all of these species? and what temperature is recommended for storage. I have a full finished basement that runs from 65 to 55 when the bottom drops out of the outside temps and is very dry. Otherwise, I have to cut all off at the ground level and bring them into my vertically challenged greenhouse to start over from the pups. It would be nice if I could go at least one year without dealing with wintertime spider mites, space issues and the rest of the fun involved with inside winter growing. Thankyou for all of your input ahead of time!!!

john_ny

I have a finished basement room, where the only heat is an electric heater, mounted in the wall. We usually only turn the heat on when we are using the room, as it is expensive to run. This room runs about 50°F in the winter.
Last fall, I had some basjoos in containers, outside. When the leaves had turned brown, I cut them off,(I did not cut anything off the p-stems, which were about 5 feet) removed the plants from the containers, shook most of the dirt off the roots, stood them in a black plastic garbage bag, and put another black bag over the top of them, in the 50° room and ignored them. No water - nothing. In fact, I didn't even go in that room, until we were ready to move them back out, about 5 months, or so.
When I took the out, out of the four plants , I had to cut about 6 inches of soft stem on one of them. The rest were firm right to the top. They all had new leaves started within a week.

__________________
John

stumpy4700

Here is one of the best threads for overwintering Bananas in general. There area some bananas that are less tollerant to cold and must be brought inside the house or in a greenhouse for the winter. Use the search button above and type in "Overwintering". This should give you a weeks worth of reading on the subject..
For me most of mine get dug up and placed under the porch, with my Siam Ruby and Zebrina coming inside the house. Hope this helps.

Time to put the bananas to sleep for the Winter