Bananas.org - My first banana plantation experiment in Southern Ohio zone6b

Hi! Everyone. My name is Francis (frak23). I saw bigdog's post here a-while back and I got interested in growing tropical bananas here in Southern Ohio (zone 6b). It's my first time so please bare with me. I am not really a gardener yet. I got started in gardening about two years ago when I helped my stepfather plant about 15 fruit trees on his land other various veggies & flowers. My family thinks I am nuts for growing tropical bananas here in Ohio, but I got some interest when my bananas grew to about 5ft to 6ft.

I bought about six banana plants last year -five bananas I got from banana-tree.com and one from Lowes. I started late last year (between May & Late June) but all my bananas grew between 5 ft to 6 ft tall. I got mostly edible banana trees. I guess I want to try out if bigdog’s methods would work here in Southern Ohio. I didn’t know what type of bananas would survive bigdog’s method, so I got some hints from several threads here in bananas.org from people who grew tropical bananas. I don’t know if my bananas will survive the changing climate here in Southern Ohio, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to try. If they all die, then I’ll try again. Anyways, I like the tropical look it gives and how fast it grows.

Here are the list of the bananas I grew last year:

1) Orinoco
2) African Rhino Horn
3) Ice Cream
4) Misi-Luki
5) Rajapuri
6) M. Basjoo - from Lowes

I winterized the tropical bananas like Bigdogs except for the M. Basjoo of which I left on the ground inside a cage and covered with dead leaves. I started winterizing my bananas last October 2007.

I will be posting pictures of my banana plantation on my gallery as soon as I have time. So stop by my gallery and take a look at them. I will also try to update this thread as often as I can.