geissene

Hi there

I did a comparison a few years ago with 2 basjoos of similar size. One was chopped down to the ground for winter and the other stalk was kept about 4' tall and wrapped in attic insulation. In spring/early summer the plant with 4' stalk was taller but the cut down plant caught up in about 2 months. By the end of the growing season, it was almost impossible to tell the difference between the two plants.

In other words, if the corm is big, then the height of the plant will recover relatively quickly the following year. It just seems to take long because the plants are growing slow in early spring.

I have overwintered basjoo plants outside and indoors. I prefer outdoors because it is less work and I think they get an earlier start to the growing season. My indoor basjoo plants looked worse and took longer to start growing after being stored. I think this may have to do with my average basement temperature being ~58F where they were stored.

I see no reason you can't try and save a foot or two of stalk. Just cover it with mulch and keep it dry. The first time the P-stem freezes and thaws, it will just collapse into 'mulch' and most likely the corm will still be ok.

FYI, I have had some test basjoo plants in Zone 6 that were over wintered in the ground with just a few inches of wood mulch and they did ok. The one was a small 1' tall pup that survived this last winter. I imagine those plants would have died if we had a bad winter in Pennsylvania.



Erik