bigdog

Critterologist, glad you enjoyed! I will say this about completely defoliating the plant before storing: Generally, in my southern zone 7a climate, I only get about 7-8 leaves, maybe 9, by the end of July. If a pseudostem is close to fruiting size, I seem to only get about 5 leaves before the bloom emerges. This is assuming that the bloom emerges by the end of July/early August. Usually they are not full-sized leaves either. The result of not having very many leaves at bloom time is smaller bunches of fruit. If you were able to keep a few green leaves over the winter (I have kept one leaf green on many plants under the house), it should give the plant a headstart in the Spring, and lead to bigger bunches.

For example, the first plant that bloomed for me this year had only about 6 feet of pseudostem, and 5 leaves when the bloom emerged. The bunch consisted of 5 fingers on one hand! The other 2 bunches were slightly better, but only two hands. This will vary according to the variety also. My observations are for Tall Orinoco.

I have a plant blooming right now that has a bloom twice the size of the previous blooms. It will probably have 5 or more hands, with 7 or more fingers per hand. It has probably ten leaves or so, maybe more.

I guess what I'm trying to say, lol, is that the more leaves the plant has at bloom time, the bigger the bunch will be.

Regarding your other questions - temps over 55F will not last long in your garage during the winter. Even if you do get an extended warm spell, with no water and no soil, the plant won't start growing usually. I kept two pseudostems in my garage last winter, and we had a mild January and mild overall winter. Neither plant grew even a tiny bit.

By all means, if you can leave them potted up with some leaves on them, in your basement, go ahead and do it! I just don't have the space for it.