Originally Posted by bigdog

Sammy, all I can tell you is my experience with Ensete bananas. I have given no thought whatsoever to them rotting in the way you mention. I've stored them standing up in pots, and they started growing in the spring. I've stored them bareroot lying on their side and they grow in the spring. I've done this with E. glaucum, E. ventricosum, and E. 'Maurelii'. I've even had them start growing under the house! In my humble opinion, Ensete and Musella are the two easiest genera to store in this manner. Musa cultivars and species vary widely. M. acuminata types don't do as well as M. balbisiana types in my experience. The bigger the pseudostem, the better chance you have. Also, with the less likely to store well cultivars, you may want to keep them a bit warmer than the others (maybe wrap them or throw a blanket over them, store them in a warm corner, etc.); you'll also want to cut all of the leaves off of them. With Orinoco, I've gotten away with leaving 2 or even three leaves on a pseudostem to give it a headstart in the spring, but this doesn't work well with some others. In fact, it can be quite devastating to them. When in doubt, I cut ALL of the leaves off.

If you think about it, a banana plant is about 93% water, so you don't want it to lose this water! That is what makes up almost all of the pseudostem. I suspect that you have something else going on if they are rotting. Check your temps with a thermometer. How humid is it where you are storing them? Where are you storing them? I can't imagine that the water from the pseudostem is causing them to rot.

Frank