Overwintering a potted Dwarf Cavendish in Zone 7b
 

Hi,

I have a Dwarf Cavendish that someone was throwing out that I rescued. I wanted to try overwintering it, I live in the NYC area. They are in a 12 inch pot and I kept them in this pot. I cut off all the leaves and about the top inch of each plant, they are about 12-14 inches tall each now. I put the pot (did not touch the soil at all) in a garbage bag and surrounded it with the leaves I cut. I put it in a garage whose lows are about 38- 40 F in the dead of the winter. Will this work, or must I remove the soil?

EDIT: For some reason the gallery is not accepting my photo, even though it is saying the photo was uploaded. It is just a picture of a garbage bag with leaves in it. The plant itself is just a potted plant with no leaves on it.

Re: Overwintering a potted Dwarf Cavendish in Zone 7b
 

Pretty good question, I've always wanted to learn from articles like this. Hope to find the answer moto x3m

Re: Overwintering a potted Dwarf Cavendish in Zone 7b
 

Yes, I have seen articles about when they are in the ground outside but here they are in a pot.

Re: Overwintering a potted Dwarf Cavendish in Zone 7b
 

Someone with more experience may answer this but in my opinion the biggest thing you will need to worry about is wetness. Now that your plant has no leaves on it, it will not be transpiring any moisture, so the soil may very well stay wet enough to cause rot.

Not sure if you are closing the bag around the plant or just using it as a catch to hold the leaves (insulation I presume?), but I personally would not completely enclose it in a plastic bag.

You could probably just put the entire thing near a window, if there is one in your garage, and see how it does there, as long as the soil stays relatively dry, it will probably do just fine. And it would probably do fine in a dark space as well, but the soil, again, should probably be pretty dry.

I really have no idea if a plant that size would bare-root dormant store well or not.

I think most folks (I am not speaking from personal experience here) who do this store their plants in a dark and relatively dry space (slightly elevated humidity maybe but not wet) with cool but stable temps and reasonable airflow.

Another option for a plant that size is to just bring it into the house and keep it as a houseplant over the winter. A lot of people do that with plants of all sizes. You still have to be very careful not to over water them and you will likely need a mite control plan, but otherwise very doable.

http://www.bananas.org/f15/time-put-...inter-310.html

Re: Overwintering a potted Dwarf Cavendish in Zone 7b
 

Cavendish is a genome AAA banana, requires constant warm conditions year round, this banana hates cool conditions, let alone cold, if you are over wintering indoors, you need a south facing window, or growlights. A room temperature above 18c and also a heat mat, for keeping the soil temperature warm, to stop root rot. You cant put this banana on hold over winter months, or it will just die.