dpren3275

Even in their first year I overwintered my basjoo bananas in pots outside. I moved my banana plants to an area protected from high winds (we get storms of winds up to 60 mph) and under the shelter of coniferous trees to protect them from heavy snowfalls. Then I raised them off the ground about 4 inches and filled that space with dried leaves stored in plastic bags. My thought here is that a plant gets a lot of cold from the ground. Next I kind of wrapped the pot with about 6 inches of leaves and covered the dirt with the same. Then I laced Christmas lights around the plant and dropped a sheet of plastic over the plant and pot, securing it with dirt. I live in a rainy climate so it seemed important to keep the soil on the dry side - wet roots are easily affected by cold temperature. My basjoos survive very nicely this way by keeping the temperature under the plastic just above freezing .
One year I over-protected my bananas by insulating the entire plants with leaves under a plastic tarp and the entire clump rotted away. Since then I try to protect my bananas from the extremes of winds and snow and keeping just above freezing.