bigdog

And by "very," I mean probably just as cold-hardy as Musa basjoo. That is not an exaggeration either. The original pseudostem of mine died back to the corm, but the pups have started growing back. I protected one pup with a bag of leaves, and left the other two out in the cold, completely unprotected. When I uncovered the protected pup, it had a very thin, papery layer of dead tissue on the outside, but the rest of it was in fine shape. Much better than Musa sikkimensis 'Red Tiger' and M. 'Helen's Hybrid' right next to it. The real shocker came when I went to examine the pup right next to the protected one! This pup was not even mulched, and was starting to grow back from the same apical meristem! It died back to ground level, but no further than that. The main corm looks to be in fine shape, with several healthy-looking eyes ready to sprout also. I think the reason that the growing point died on it is because it was actually slightly above ground or at ground level. Another pup has started to grow back from its original growing point also. This could quite possibly be just as cold-hardy, if not more so, than Musa basjoo! I'll have pictures in a couple of days.

By the way, my unofficial low here was somewhere between 6-12 degrees Fahrenheit (probably closer to 6F), and the official low was 12F. We had 2 nonconsecutive days with a high below freezing this winter. I recorded 2 readings of 6F, and 2 of 7F on my cheap digital thermometer, and my M. itinerans is planted out in the open. You colder zone folks have something to look forward too! This banana is the real deal baby.

This is the same banana that I've posted about as var. xishuangbannaensis in previous posts, but has turned out to be var. itinerans.