29vivian

Hello, I have been a lurker for a while, but now that the warm season is coming to an end, I was hoping I could get some advice. This spring I had ordered 4 grain nain plants off of Amazon (you can see one smaller plant in each pod which are the "grand nains I prdered). Luck be have it, as soon as they came in, my neighbor informed me that he has a buddy looking to get rid of some. Long story short, we drive that night and picked up about 15 more plants (These of which I do not know the variety, but was informed they are non fruit bearing) I am going to add a couple pictures showing when I first planted them, to there they are currently. Do to the climate we live in (10 miles south of Cincinnati OH), I was told that I should dig them up and bring them in. I have been reading a lot of others post on the subject but still have a few questions of my own. I have 2 places I could store them, one being my unheated but insulated garage, and the other is my basement which is kept rather warm all winter, needless to say I am not sure which would be better. Also you will be able to tell that the plants I received free have grown quite large, which I love, but they are practically growing on top of each other. After digging them up, should I try to separate the plants now, or should I try to store them as a group, and separate in the spring. Next spring I plan to forego the 4 growing pods, and space out the individual plants as to have a line of plants, and to give them each more room. Any advice you experts can provide would be great! Thanks from Florence Y'all Kentucky.

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	Grand Nain.jpg (83.0 KB, 23 views)
	Unsure of Type.jpg (90.4 KB, 22 views)
	IMG_5583.jpg (75.5 KB, 39 views)

cincinnana

Welcome to the Jungle....

I live up the street and across the river to the left of you on the North bend of the Ohio River.
In Ohio.

Right at the confluence of the Ohio-Miami and Whitewater rivers.

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obdiah

welcome to naner land
basjoo would probably be root hardy in your area which is what the non fruiting variety most likely is if their from your area in other words they would freeze to the ground and come back next spring most fruiting varieties would not be with out extreme protection measures
although some of the more cold tolerant variate might survive with a thick layer of insinuation
dry leaves sawdust etc
the non heated area would most likely be best as long as it stays above freezing as they would remain dormant but truthfully I haven't had much experience in this area as I never take mine up am in zone 7 and so far basjoo,seikimess, and velutina haven proven root hardy here orinico is marginal

susan searles

Those are really beautiful plants. It would be nice if you could find out if they are Basjoo.

29vivian

Thank you to those who have responed already. I have asked around and here is the advice I received from someone not on the forum. He told me to dig them up prior to the first frost, where as I have heard to wait till after the first frost? Any input there? Also he said to use a sharp shovel to separate the plants before winter, then trim off all the leaves and stack them in a dark corner of the garage with the roots in garbage bags. The plants are just beautiful, and I want to minimize my chance of losing any.

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obdiah

they dont look exactly like basjoo but I am not sure someone else may can tell
my suggestion would dig and store all but one clump and cut it down after the first frost leaving 6 in of sudostem then cover the with mulch and a piece of plastic to keep it somewhat drier if it comes back next spring you will know you can leave them all in the ground

susan searles

Be sure your garage stays above freezing.

cincinnana

For me....clump habit, spread, and size of plants indicate Musa basjoo.

And it looks the plants have some age to them.....

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29vivian

Ok, well since this is my first year with bananas, I figured why not experiment a little to see what will work best in my situation. If you remember from my pictures above I had 4 pods of plants growing. I went ahead and chose a single plant from each pod to dig out and store for the winter. The rest I cut off to the ground and mulched over them as best I could. when chopping off the extras, I seemed to have cut one too deep and it came out with some roots attached. I went ahead and kept this one also, not sure if it will make it or not, but worth a try. Now you can see that I have been left with 5 plants which I have in a planter in my garage, still debating on whether or not to bring them into my basement as I know my garage will get below freezing. The only protection I have to offer them which is not shown in the pictures, is that I have wrapped them in a big movers blanket, not sure if that will make any difference either.

I did throw in one extra picture of my 10 year old to show the size of the leaves my plants were producing at the end of the season.

I would still love to hear any feedback or advice any of the members are willing to give. Thanks again!

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susan searles

If you leave them in your garage and they freeze, you will probably lose them. I think if you want to keep them you will have to put them in your basement.

cincinnana

Sounds like a plan...I have some room to store some barefoot if you need.

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