So, you let all the leaves die on the mother, and just cover a pup and the fruiting stalk? I may try, but it gets into the teens here, I doubt that I can keep the leaves on the pup from freezing.
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@Shibumi - i cut all the leaves because the canopy is too big to protect, plus you want to limit air getting it, so the main stem with the peduncle, rack, flower need to be wrapped well, this is the only way to get them through the winter unless you have a greenhouse you can build over it big enough to cover the whole plant and add supplemental heat, then you don’t need to cut any leaves
@kinghat - i wouldn’t cut off any leaves since you’re bringing it inside, i would remove the pups though since you are growing in a pot, you should only grow one stem at a time, when it flowers/fruits, you can let as many pups grow as you want as the main stem will be at the end of its life cycle and you’ll need a pup to replace it, otherwise too many pups will compete for resources and space in that pot
@folkert - you can wait until a day or two before your first expected freeze to prep by cutting all the leaves off the main stem, but do not cut off any leaves off the pups, you’ll have to increase the amount of layers depending on how cold it gets. put a digital thermometer in there so you can monitor the temps. from your weather station. are you near the Alabama or Georgia line? there are people growing bananas in Georgia, South Carolina and even colder states, so it’s definitely possible to protect bananas.
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just FYI, i’ve seen/read anecdotes of people cutting leaves to around 5 or so to hasten flowering, but this stresses out the plant, and in some cases can prolong flowering, it will be too skinny to withstand wind, and the resulting small flower may have just a few fruit or no fruits at all! the more green leaves you have and keep throughout its entire growth cycle, the bigger the rack, the more bananas you have, the thicker the stem, the more resistant to wind damage, the less likely it will fall over, leaves are meant to get shredded, the only other time you should cut leaves is if you’re expecting a hurricane.
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would heading it kill it? its a width thing more than height in terms of space inside. maybe i could cut all the leaves in half and then let all the new leaves grow full size when i put it back outside next spring?
are you saying this slows the time to fruit or wont fruit at all because lack of resources? otherwise there is a ton of growing space in the uppotting to this tub i just did a couple weeks ago:
btw do you know about the “water” vs “sword” pups and what mine might be? Banana Questions - #16 by kinghat
yes, the pups will slow down the main stem, the main stem needs a pot as wide as it is tall, in the ground banana roots don’t go very deep but spread very far and wide, they can grow to 15 or 20 feet or more from the main stem, you have sword suckers, dig out one and replant in another pot and you can mulch or give away the other pups. if you cut it, you won’t kill it, but like i said, you want to keep as many green leaves as possible during it’s growth cycle, if you’re bringing it inside, will it be in a warm enough area (above 60F) so that it will keep growing or will it be in a cool area and go dormant? if it’s cold enough to go dormant, you can cut each leaf in half to save space.
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going over temp history in the basement, where ill likely be keeping it, it looks like it dips into the high 50s but generally stays above 60. i get what youre saying but it almost seems like i should keep the pups and heat it or cut the leaves in half just to slow it down for the winter while indoors. appreciate the advice and will report back with what i do and how it goes 
Jamie, I am near the Alabama border. I have a lot of work getting my citrus to make it through the winter, without loosing all their leaves: I use a frame build out of 1” PVC piping, large piece of heavy row cover and one to two 250 watts heating lamps on a temperature controlled outlet. Even that does not keep the temperature above freezing consistently. What are you using to wrap your bananas with?
i use layers of moving blankets, when we had the rare snow, i put tarps as well
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Yes, I heard about this from a neighbor. Didn’t make any sense to me. Cutting off a fully formed and functional leave is like taking some of your solar panels off, and expecting the electricity generation to go up.
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there’s a banana with a rack underneath there…
the lemongrass in the background don’t look so bad considering it was january and i’ve probably had a dozen freezes by then…
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so i’m thinking about harvesting the ones that have plumped up, it’s only day 65 (!!!) for this rack but the bottom ones are filling up faster than the top ones and i have so many to get through, only way i get through these is to start harvesting and ripening some every other day or so. i estimate there to be more than 350 but less than 400 bananas.
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Which bananas are those? So plentiful!
Looks like you wrapped with the leaves pointing up?
@sharq - dwarf namwah
@folkert - there’s no leaves on the main stem, only the pup has leaves, i wouldn’t be able to wrap it so well with all the leaves since the canopy with leaves is so wide
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Jamie, I was wondering how you wrap the pups: just loosely to accommodate the canopy, or do you compress the canopy (I guess the only way to do this without the leaf stem to break, would be to tie them together pointing upwards)?
yes tie the leaves of pups together then wrap
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Does anybody have experience pruning the developing rack, in order to get the first bananas to ripen faster? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHoN13QWR40
Who eats all those, Jamie?
no, i never cut off the heart, if you do this can cause disease and fungus to travel up the rack, it doesn’t speed up the ripening process at all, only temperatures above 80+ F will hasten development. usually once those female and male flowers dry up and turn black up is when i remove them, but it’s to keep the rack clean and neat, not really to help with ripening. that’s a cavendish, with namwah you don’t really have to do this since the namwah rachis is clean. i don’t do it for the kokopo either, i just leave them alone. every cut you make can introduce disease.
@ltilton i give them to family, friends, neighbors, and think how many banana recipes you can make - banana bread/muffins, banana cream pie, banana ice cream, banana pudding, dehydrate them for chips, freeze them for smoothies. i even saw a recipe that uses plantain (kokopo is like a plantain actually, it is dual purpose) and cassava made into empanada dough. use them in lieu of a starchy root vegetable in soups and stews and other recipes. so you just have to get creative with how you use bananas. besides, these kokopo bananas are small, it takes 2 to 3 kokopos to equal the size of a medium store bought banana. i love them, they taste like how a cooked ripe plantain tastes - nicely balanced tart and sweet. i don’t even eat regular store bought bananas because they taste terrible, but the varieties i grow so far have been delicious.
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