I've been reading over some of the posts here and it occurs to me that several of the forum members are under the impression that you can grow cold hardy banana like musa basjoo etc. in freezing tempatures without doing anything special, which isn't the case. From what I've experinced you can't let the roots of the plant freeze or it will die, you can let the stalk and leaves feeze and fall off but not the roots. I've found that by mulching heavily that you can keep cold hardy alive till spring. Now if you have a really cold winter forget it, they are "cold hardy" not "freezing hardy" hahaha.

Yes, you are correct cold hardy doesn't mean plant and ignore for winter if you live in the colder zones. You have to mulch, you can mulch heavily and also intergrate newspaper and plastic into the layers of mulch. Insulation as always works best in layers of one sort or another.

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'All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.' - - - T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
Edited by Administrator on Nov 5, 2004 at 06:09 PM

Me loves cold hardy! Arrgh

It's not "too" cold here my region so I let them just die back in the winter and they come back strong in the spring. Wish I lived in FL sometimes, stuff grows like weeds down there I hear? ahha

I head that "Yunnan Wild Jungle Banana" Musa yunnanensis is the hardiest of banana? Is that true? I should start a thread asking people what the hardiest banana is? I'm wondering now.







"K....K..kkkkk....Ken"

I like growing musa basjoo because it tolerates the cold so well, we've had some cold winters before, all I did was mulch and the darn things come right back next spring. I head that musa basjoo that has been mulched will put with temps down to -20 F !!! what a crazy plant, I mean herb.

I have had good luck with Musa basjoo in Zone 7b. Last winter it hit 8 degrees. No problem. No mulch. However, it never stays cold so long that our soil freezes.

Does anyone know about Musa Rajapuri in terms of cold hardiness?

I once had Rajapuri in a unheated green house for 5 years, but this last winter's harsh cold killed it. Otherwise it would have came back like it always would. I am sure if you could cut rajapuri and mulch it and it would survive outside. Rajapuri are very bullet proof. My plants did have bananas here and there when I lived in Washingtion.

I did not know that rajapuri was that hardy! Intresting, learn something everyday I guess. I think it would be better to stop worrying about cold hardy and pick up and move down to FL and live in the jungle I'd make in my backyard hahaa. Here comes winter again too, snow, cold, more snow ahaaaaaahh....