i no longer grow pawpaws they prefer to be in ground. Citrus you do bring inside but the lack of full spectrum lighting it can be prone to getting root rot etc. i dont bring my trees inside in winter in zone 8 b. except for my citrus and this year i’m testing my black pakistan and worlds best mulberry indoors head start. i’m testing to see if they will produce a second crop in my area with this head start.
Curious why you feel you have to overwinter blueberries? I keep my plants hardy to my zone in pots outside and I have not lost many if any. The ones I have lost were ones like honeyberry and other plants that were lost in the summer due to heat and possibly a lack of water as I only water once per week or less even during summer.
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Not much harder to do along with everything else. They’re in fabric pots and the extra protection seems to extend longevity. One is a decade old.
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I have Meyer lemon, a lot of figs, and two olive trees in large pots. they stay in the hoophouse over 40F in winter, and are exposed to the elements all summer. they do fine. the lemon and figs produce pretty well, the olives are young so I have no expectations.
I have a potted avocado in similar conditions that will be going in ground in the hoophouse this year, it’s survived well. it was 3 years old I think when I bought and potted it. it’s a huge pot though.
I’ve been trying with bananas for 6 years and they will not let me keep them alive in a pot. I may need a dwarf tree that can go in ground like the avo. something under 10 feet tall at most
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There are dwarf bananas whose total height (including leaves) is 16 ft, and the standard version is 25 ft. There are also dwarfs whose total height is 6 ft, but the fruit (inside the peel) is pencil thin.
Since bananas are tropical bulbs (not trees) they require a much larger pot than one might expect.
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I was thinking in ground, not in a pot, but indoors in the hoophouse. the roof of my new structure is 10.5 feet so this would be cutting it REALLY close
at 16 feet. wait, I’m crazy.
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I have 3 blueberries in large pots. For me they perform as well or better than the 4 I have in the ground. The one potted blueberry that is rated merely for a half zone colder than mine is put in the shed every winter. The other two are left outside.
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I bring my potted Legacy blueberry into the shed. I guess I do that because I have some fear that in a pot outdoors the root mass would see colder temps than it would in the ground and that as a result the plants rate at my zone would be at greater risk if they were outside in pots. That said, I don’t have any real data to back that up.
What size is the pot that you have the blueberries in? I have a bunch of blueberries on my Hartman’s order and I am trying to decide if I want to pot them, put them in the ground or do a mixture.
There are some banana that are fairly small and well liked but like mentioned above they need to be grown in ground and it can be done under a greenhouse. Raja Puri is well liked and will only get 10-12 feet. I know Denver Botanic Gardens has a banana tree in some kind in their greenhouse. There was a story about a guy growing bananas in Colorado as well. Then there is the Icelandic banana as well. It is just a matter of how much work and money do you want to put into something that is under 2 dollars at the grocery store. Can it be done yes is it economical no. When you go into the greenhouse area of the Denver Botanic Gardens you quickly realize they are spending a fortune keeping their treehouse humid and warm.
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I’ll look out for raja puri. it’s more of a personal challenge to me than a way to save money on a banana.
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If you were to grow it in ground and have the 10-12 feet it can be done. He's Growing BANANAS at 7,200 Feet (In COLORADO)! - YouTube
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it’s cutting close but I think I could do that
thank you for feeding my dumb, recurring obsession
Another thing is if you do it keep the pups from under it the rajapuri will take around 9 months to produce in a warm climate but the plant itself will only produce once. You then cut it down and let the shoots grow that grew below it.
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My pots are of the half barrel sort, ~ 22 inches in diameter and ~ 15 inches deep. I had put my first potted blueberry in one version of this that had thin metal banding that I did not paint. It rusted out in 2 seasons; I would not go that route again. The new pots have thicker metal banding which I spray painted and seem to be doing better.
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