Re: Overwintering strategies.
 

Jeremy - My conditions, in the cellar, are almost identical to yours, except my lights are just regular shop lights, not grow lights. Years ago, I had a tropical fish import business, and we had some Sylvania Gro-Lux bulbs. From what I read, AND my own experience, these bulbs make red fish look brighter, but for plant growth, much cheaper cool whites worked just as well. Otherwise, everything is just about the same; timers on my lights, water about once a week, mix my own media, etc. This has worked for me for years and years.

Eric - The temperature, where the potted plants are now, is about 70 - 75°F.
The potted basjoos, which are still outside, will be removed from the pots, and stored bare-root in a cool basement, about 50°F.

PAban - I'll ditto Bob, on the time to cover. Basically, when the leaves have dried/turned brown, but the p-stem is still green. As I said in my first posting in this thread, we had a light frost on Nov.7, but no real freeze. The leaves on those in the pots turned, but not those in the ground and now, three weeks later, both are putting out new leaves again, so I'll wait til the leaves of the in-ground ones turn. As for your potted plants; I think a 1 gallon, or 6" pot would be better for a 1½ foot plant.

Re: Overwintering strategies.
 

Thanks Bob: First year growing bananas and trying to see I can keep from killing them. So killing frosts dont effect the plants. When I saw ice all over the plant I thought it was time to cover? Next year I will wait.

Re: Overwintering strategies.
 

PAbananas, you can always cover with a light frost cloth like remay for the occaisional early frost. I think John-NY would agree that in our climate you'll be more successful starting with a larger corm. Is this the first year with smaller plants in the ground? If so you may want to overwinter the first year indoors if you can, even if you chop the p- stem down to a manageable size. I learned this the hard way after almost losing a well protected basjoo last year. The second one, overwintered indoors will be staying out this year and I expect much better success.

Re: Overwintering strategies.
 

Thanks Bob: The smaller ones are indoors in pots for next year. The ones outside were for me to do some learning.I will spend this winter doing alot of reading from this site before I plant next year. I need to learn alot about storing for next winter