I just had a question about protecting my banana tree (Musa basjoo) for the winter. I live in Indianapolis which is zone 5. This is my second summer with this plant and need some ideas on the best way to protect it in the winter to maximize growth for the spring. I basically cut it to the ground last fall and covered it with about 12 inches of mulch (bark). The main banana died but at this time I have about 8 bananas with the biggest one being about 3 feet tall. It is not unusual for the winter temperatures to get down to ten below and on rare occasions 20 below zero has occured. I would welcome any and all suggestions. Also what would happen If I used no cover at all? Would it survive? Thanks!
You'll always have to mulch your banana plant (Musa basjoo I'd assume) with the winter conditions you've discribed. I've read about gardeners in cold climates digging up and cool storing the plants in crawl spaces and the like. Seems like a lot of back breaking work though. Cheers, LPN.
You'll DEFINITELY have to mulch VERY heavily, and I would even put heating cables in the mulch to try and keep the ground at least above freezing. You probably got lots of "pups" returning from the mother corm, but the mother corm seems to have not made it. The pups may have been deeper in the ground and did not freeze, but the mother corm did. Short of using heating cables for those kinds of frigid temps, you CAN dig them up. I have known plenty of people who have done this. Im not exactly sure when to do it, but it seems like right about the very end of fall, BEFORE the first freeze. If you want the plant to continue to grow from say a 2, 3, or 4 foot stalk the next year, you can cut the pseudostem to whatever length, dig the corm, and store it in a cool, dry place, such as a garage or even crawl space, so long as it does not freeze. Once the danger of last frost/ freeze has passed the next spring, set it back out in the ground, and it SHOULD regrow from where you made the cut. This method gives you a big head start on height for the next year. Good luck with it!!!!
