Cutting off pups and the dead leaves in preparation for over-wintering
 

Since my musa basjoos each ended up producing around 7 pups this year, they have all been stripped off, either given away or planted somewhere else in the garden since it is more important for me to have a nice strong main-stem instead of a clump of too many bananas. It's also much easier to protect this way.

I am well aware that these guys will continue to try and push leaves slowly as long as the temperature is above 50F so I'll wait until there are no more warmups which should be in about 2 weeks when I cut them down a bit more and over-winter these main stems. I plan on wrapping up the stems in bubble wrap, then tarp material, and then put a few layers of plastic trash bags. I'll surround that with leaf bags, and then a tarp on top of it all to help keep it dry and hopefully save some of the psuedostem.



They are over 5 inches in diameter at the base.


Here's the growth after about 3 hours. It seems like the banana is wasting a bit of energy with this, but I don't think it is warm enough in the northeast to push out an entire leaf.

Re: Cutting off pups and the dead leaves in preparation for over-wintering
 

I cut back my musa basjoo's Sunday. I use big tomato cages and 2 bags of cyprus mulch. So far they have survived winters here in zone 6 for 4 yrs. I even had minus 13*F the winter of 2009. I have now got 4 different plantings of them in the yard. I love them.

Re: Cutting off pups and the dead leaves in preparation for over-wintering
 

They don't really seem that hard to over-winter once you've done it. I just like to wrap the stem up very well so moisture doesn't get in, and I have pretty much an endless supply of trash bags from the hundreds of leaf bags that have been collected for leaf mulch.

This time around, I plan on using 3ft tall fencing, with bamboo sticks to keep it upright, and fill it up with tree leaves so that the whole thing is well insulated. If it doesn't protect all of the stem, there's still a foot of corm under the ground so I'm not that concerned, plus they survived last winter with ease.

Re: Cutting off pups and the dead leaves in preparation for over-wintering
 

Mine that were planted a foot deep are starting to look really ugly now. The leaves are all burned off by frost, but the stems are still holding firm. I'm letting them go naturally to the ground, like I did last year. I have a theory that all the energy goes back into the roots like a tree. It's an unproved theory, but it justifies my leaving them while I get in 900 hostas and other perennials into the greenhouse.
On an upside though, they were really spooky looking for Halloween!

Re: Cutting off pups and the dead leaves in preparation for over-wintering
 

Thanks for the update, Sandy. I also let both of my basjoo mats die back naturally, and I leave the dead leaves and stem alone. They come back each year better and more numerous then before. I stopped protecting the p-stem when I saw no chance of it fruiting successfully here. I grow basjoo for the landscape look.

Weren't you also trying out some other plants for deep planting? Any results?