Hello, I bought this beautiful banana plant this summer and was told that the Musa Ensete Maurelli was very easy to grow, in fact it grew very well all summer and reached about 7 feet in 2 months approx. but now that the cold winter weather has arrived I moved my baby inside, but it seems to have a hard time reajusting so far. I really love this plant and want the best for it, can this plant be pruned or do I just cut off dead leaves what can be done to save my Musa Ensete Maurelli until I can put her back outside next summer. I can send a photo if needed. Oh...What can I do!!! Thank you, Ufunny
You can cut the dead leaves off, absolutely, and if it is still in its pot it should overwintered on an inside wall of the house, watering very sparingly (since it will be semi-dormant for the winter months.) It is likely sulking a bit from its transition from a lovely Gatineau summer to your less than sunshiny house, but it will recover from this. If it is not in a pot, then the best course is to wrap the entire plant and its corm in several layers of burlap and store it in a cool, dry place (like your basement) until spring rolls around again, checking periodically for rot. With the Ensetes, which are huge plants and very heavy, this is often difficult to do without the help of a burly friend. The only real cause for concern is if the stem starts to go mushy at about soil level (press gently - mushy stem feels like rotten zucchini, and firm stem is fairly obvious.) That indicates rot in the corm, and the whole thing would then need to be removed from its pot and the mushy bits carefully cut out with a sharp, sterile knife, then dusted in cinnamon to prevent further rot.
