Hearty Banana Plant Winter Care

This spring I planted 3 banana plants that are supposed to survive Indiana winters. I plan on cutting the the tree back to the stalk and leave a stalk 3' to 4' tall. I'll wrap the stalk with burlap then circle the wraped stalks with fence and fill the fences with straw amd leaves. Is it OK to cut back the plants now? We have had a mild frost. I have heard you should wait until more of the leaves die off naturally rather then cut them back.

Mahalo

Good questions.
In California, my red Bananas have the same problem.
As they are tropical plants, I think it would be better to prune before the frost.

Keep us posted.

I use a slightly different approach. before the first frost, I cut the plants down to ground level. Then pile straw mulch on top and cover the whole thing with a tarp. The bananas re-sprout from the root system in the spring. This got them through winter here in Columbus (OH). They even survived a late winter freeze that killed off a bunch of other hardy perennials in our garden.

We have had no problem keeping ours going now for 3 years.
I wait until a freeze drops the leaves to half the plants pre-freeze height. A frost usually doesn't do this. Then I use a machete and lop off everything to about 3 ft. and do like you mentioned, I put a fence around the stalks and then dump all of the leaves and tiki carving shavings I can gather. I don't remove it until mid March and then it just does its thing all over again. Love these in my yard and almost no one else around here even tries to grow these. They turn a lot of heads as the cars go by!
Good luck with your plants in their first winter.

Interesting= my family in Greenville NC used to dig up their trees each year and store them under the house! I would have never thought they'd survive the frost!

Connie

You probably don't need to do all of that. These are very hardy and are more often killed by rotting than cold. But, that's certainlky true here in TN, but maybe not so much up there. What you are doing is good for less hardy bananas. The Musa, that may be overkill. Can't hurt, other than the potential of the burlap staying wet and rotting them.

I dig up my ZBlood Bananas after they are whacked by the cold. The Musa and the Golden Lotus stay out with nothing done to them. If the Musa is young, I'll cover it with lots of mulch. Like 10 inches.

Yeah, that looks like our banana plant. It came to the point where I had to take an ax and chop it down. Now it's just a stump in the back yard. I pretty much gave up on it.

Might I add, if trees are planted near the house (or within an extension cord-length away from an an outlet, is what I'm getting at), you can try a string of outdoor X-mas lights. Once you've prepped the plant (we cut ours to about a foot above ground, add mulch), drape the light on the ground surrounding the roots. We use some bubble wrap to keep the heat in (I've heard of people in colder places using aluminum foil, reflection side down). We do this for our citrus and Taro, too.

Since we only get freezing temps at night in here in Northern Cali, we set the lights on a timer, to turn on at dusk and go off at dawn.

Any thoughts on if this would work in colder climes?

I keep 'em pot bound. Cut 'em back in the fall and bring 'em in the basement.

By about March they start to wake up again and by late April they're outside again.

A hassle, but easier than mulching and chopping and all that.

I know people who use the lights thing all the way up the trunks of their palms here in cold places to keep them through winter. I hear it works.

Also look at the advice HERE at Hardy Tropicals.

To all you guys in the states ,we live in cold england and always have to wrap ours up, you are very lucky as our climate is generally cold and damp,not geat for tropical plants

On 2007-11-08 09:21, Tikitatt wrote:
Yeah, that looks like our banana plant. It came to the point where I had to take an ax and chop it down. Now it's just a stump in the back yard. I pretty much gave up on it.

tikitatt.... I'm not wanting to give up on them yet! That's pic I posted above is after the first frost. I was actually thrilled how much they grew their first year. They were 1 gal. plants I bought from Lowe's in May! Below are a couple of pics from August....

Winterized the banana plants today... Here are some pics

TikiDad,

Does leaving the stalk 2 or 3 feet tall help them grow faster in the spring? I hear most in my area just cut them to the ground.

I have been wanting to get some banana plants. I grow Plumeria, pineapple, and other tropicals in my basement under 400w Metal Halide lamps them move them back outside in the spring.

Mahalo

Geez, banana plants in Indiana are greener than in San Diego.

"Damn you one inch of rain per year!"

Hey Dadio, looks about time to toss your home bar up here on TC also.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19049&forum=18&185

This is my first year with the plants, from what I have read leaving the stalk does get you a bigger tree next season. I was pleased how much they grew in the first year. I watered them heavily all summer. I planted then too close together and I'm going to transplant the middle one this spring.

brrrr...

Cripes! Buena suerte, my friend.

We have prepped our banana plants for winter storage. I was told to wait for the first frost and the leaves wilt before cutting. We had our first dip below 32 on Tuesday. The leaves have turned brown but the stalk is spongy. My question to the forum is does that spongy look mean the plant did not survive? Or is the root ball still okay. I am planning on using bubble wrap, blanket, and mulch. We cut them approximately 2 ft from the ground. Thanks for the response and the help. The plants were the main point of conversation when folks came over. We have them growing out by the pool. Hope they survive and come back next year.

On 2013-11-17 05:43, woody wrote:
We have prepped our banana plants for winter storage. I was told to wait for the first frost and the leaves wilt before cutting. We had our first dip below 32 on Tuesday. The leaves have turned brown but the stalk is spongy. My question to the forum is does that spongy look mean the plant did not survive? Or is the root ball still okay. I am planning on using bubble wrap, blanket, and mulch. We cut them approximately 2 ft from the ground. Thanks for the response and the help. The plants were the main point of conversation when folks came over. We have them growing out by the pool. Hope they survive and come back next year.

The leaves will brown, depending on temps, hard freezes will make the trunks become mush. But the roots are the important thing. They will survive even if all the plant above ground is gone. That is not a given, but mushy trunk does not mean dead.

I cut ours back and then it warmed up and they started growing again already. Another 10 inches came out of the stump.

Depends on where you are. Sometimes plastic can be too much. I am in TN, Zone 7ish. For the Musa Basjoo, I do nothing. We didn't even cut down the trunks last year, just the leaves.

Fall in SoCal.