natej740

My Musa Blue Java(ice cream) has done the best hands down followed by my Thai Black. The Ice Cream probably put out over 10 leaves over the winter. On the other hand my Siam Ruby did bad again it seams like it's a lot harder to grow indoors. I've lost the main pstem the last 2 winters. I just have them crowded in a south facing window with no artificial light to help the bigger plants gro. What were some of your results?

Kostas

My Namwah Tall grew and still grows the fastest for me indoors,in my heated basement under artificial lighting and with high humidity. It grew 5 leafs since January,when it first started growing. Kandrian also grew 5 leafs since the end of December but the first one died back completely at some point. All leafs of both plants are perfect with the exception of a little heat burn on a Kandrian leaf from touching the fluorescent lamp's ballast.

Cant wait to get them outside again!!!!

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''To try,is to risk failure......To not try,is to guarantee it''

Scuba_Dave

My snow bank

Vickie H.

I always have trouble with siam ruby. All the others do not look very good right now. They are in a basement with shop lights. I think I need to hold off on the water. My AE AE is doing good. But it is upstairs in a south window and being watched very carefully.

jimhardy

Saba


BTW

It is so hard on Banana plants to be dug up and moved in,this
year I watered with Superthrive and they have done better than ever-
that's not saying much though (-;

The Hollyberry Lady

CookieCows

I wish I had more south facing windows!!! My bronze laterita does the best. In fact it does so wonderfully that we've been tempted to just keep a pot indoors year round for decoration. My D.O.'s are all choking mildly and my new IceCream that is just a little tissue culture plant is fine. Come on summer!!

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Dean W.

Ice Cream and Dwarf Red were only mildly setback.

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palmtree

As far as bananas go, my best grower would probably be my Musa saba. Its not as fast as it is outside, but it did manage to put out about 6 or 7 new leaves in the past 4 months. Its a young plant but its off to a great start. 3 more weeks indoors and it should be set for a summer outdoors weather permitting (but it will definitely be outside no later than mid or late april).

My best grower indoors overall is a hard choice to make. I think that my plumeria by my best window might be the winner (about 6 inches of new branch growth and even a full head of flowers all while indoors this winter). My double peach hibiscus is doing well this year too and its actually making some new flower buds (usually it finishes off the buds it made outside and drops most of its leaves while it waits for spring). I have a butterfly ginger that I got as a small plant and that has grown very well indoors (my spiral ginger is also doing well).

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Location: New York City, zone 7b

Bostonpalms

I overwintered two dwarf cavendishes (4ft tall) in pots as well and three basjoos, a super dwarf cavendish in a warm attic using grow lights and keeping them very dry. They only lost the oldest leaves and are now back outside and continuing their growth. I'm in the Boston area so they we're up to here for a good six months. I think a squirrel took a chunk out of my super dwarf lol. But they all doing great.

Bostonpalms

I kept a musa basjoo in an. Pot on a south facing window in the dining room, and not only did it survive but it thrived all winter. Grew five very large green leaves looks great I'm tempted to keep it as a house plant. Hahahah

Island Brah

Over the winter about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta, Ga (7b/8a border), I kept all mine in 5 gallon pots in my basement workshop. Temps got down to about 47F-ish on colder nights but stayed mostly from 50F-60F. I used 1 6500K CFL light per banana plant and the do-it-yourself setup I have is the most adjustable, cheapest (materials and to run), and easiest I've ever seen. It's not a professional grade setup and it hands down exceeded expected results. It did awesome.

My Manzano never showed signs of slowing down/dormant and grew about 4 feet under my CFL light setup. The others did slow down.

Next in order I'd have to say Basjoo, Tall Orinoco, Tall Namwah, Veinte Cohol, & Golfinger. Zero fertilizer was used on any of them.

The Manzano really surprised me to how well it did against the rest of the cultivars I have. I thought it would have been Tall Orinoco or Tall Namwah if I had to make a wager before winter.

I've seen posts about which size pot to use and people using massive pots for their indoor overwintering bananas. the 5 gallon pot is hands down the best size if you're going to put them into the ground the next spring. When I planted my bananas in the ground this spring, all the root balls came out of the pot perfectly with zero effort in the shape of the pot. I lightly hit the sides of the pots, turned them upside down with my hand over the soil so it didn't plop out onto the ground, and the pot easily pulled right off the root ball. I literally lost a few crumbs of soil and that was it. They all didn't miss a beat and popped new leaves in a few days which made me very happy.

Bananas plants are even more addicting when you start to know what you're doing with them LOL!

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Growing: Basjoo, Blue Java (The Real One), FHIA-01 American Goldfinger, Manzano, Tall Orinoco, Raja Puri (USDA TARS), Veinte Cohol (USDA TARS), Patupi, & SH-3640 High Noon (USDA TARS)