iz

I've always just brought in the potted bananas, but this time I planted some in ground. I may have too much and too big banana's, but I want to save them for next summer to fruit. Does anyone have a picture of how its winterized in the garage to give me ideas and guaranteed it will survive; do I cut all the roots down to the corm for the garage? also would it be okay to take it out of the ground with very short roots and leaf trimmed, and put it in small enough pot in my sunny room with plant lights. Which would have better survival rate? I am in zone 8b-Northeast Dallas. My bananas: D.Orinoco, California Gold, Gold Finger, 1000 Finger, Texas Star, Truly Tiny, double mahoi, Ice Cream, Ta nee. One kind in pots, and one kind in ground. In in-ground, the mother has 3 or 4 pups. I haven't decided if I should dig out the pups too or put mulch on the ground; and which would have better survival rate?

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Going banana 4 bananas,
iz

tommyg

Wow you have a lot!
Sorry but I don't know much about this at all as this is going to be my first winter with banana plants.
I'd say check on the temperature indoors, don't water much and let it be dormant.
This way when the new season comes it'll be strong and vigorous.
If you force it to grow all winter it will use up so much energy and not have time to "rest". It will still grow well in the warmer weather, but will take longer and fruit may be smaller.

This is what i've read. About how to wrap them up if you need to I'm not sure at all.

I don't plan to wrap mine at all. I will just make sure that the roots don't freeze. Leaves can always regrow.

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nph

I will write a longer answer tomorrow and tell you how I did last winter, with varying success.
But first a question, how does your Ice cream look like and where did you buy it?

Thanks

iz

Hi nph.
I bought the Ice Cream back 4/2010 from Greenearth Inc. Melbourne, Florida. Although, this is the only one it has not pup and is still very small because I made a mistake of planting it in half shade by my mom's fence. And then she planted bean vines next to the Ice cream banana, so it had no sun light! I dug it out and winterize it last winter in my sunny room w/ plant light; there it recuperated. It was doing fine 1 ft long and growing, until last spring the strong storm broke the pseudostem and its clay pot; I thought it was a goner. Being the only corm left about the size of a golf ball and without the pseudostem, it had its toughest time, but it hung on. During the summer it put out 4 leaves and is now about 2 ft long. I can't complain its appearance knowing what it went through.

Anyone has a picture of there banana(pseudostem, corm and all) winterized in there garage/basement? Was it ok after winter? Was all the root cut out or saved? Pictures means a thousand words. Thanks.

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Going banana 4 bananas,
iz

CookieCows

I always go back to this thread from bigdog. It's one way to do it but everyone has different ways. It's tough having a love for bananas and not living in the right zone!

Time to put the bananas to sleep for the Winter

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iz

By the way, I can't seem to decide when I should bring my banana's in(pots in lighted sunrm & dormant in garage) for the winter; at what temperature outside should I bring them in? Last night it finally got down to 42 F here in N.Dallas-zone8b, and it is now averaging 50-68 during the day. I think it starts freezing early November. I am uncertain if the temp. will stay or may still get warmer here; I'm still fairly new in Dallas area. Anyone live near or has the same weather here, and has been dealing with banana plants? I may start digging this weekend or next weekend, but I don't want to regret of doing it too late.

Oh, thanks CookieCows for the link. It helped alot.

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Going banana 4 bananas,
iz

caliboy1994

California Gold is supposed to be really cold hardy. Pretty much all of the rest of yours are cold hardy too. If I were you I would protect them somehow though if it's fruit you're after.

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