Central Midwest Gardening: Fall RU 09-Plant swap, 1 by shortleaf

shortleaf wrote:
Ok, thanks happ. Don't jeopardize the parent though, I'd hate it if the mother banana didn't make it, really, only do it if you feel confident in it. I'd offer to do it at the RU but I've never separated a pup. Theres a guy down the street that get pups off of regular banana plants (not even hardy) and sells them for $35 apiece. He digs his up every year and puts these big plants in his garage, seems like a lot of work to me. If you mastered the 'basjoo' pups you could probably have more success selling them if you wanted, having planted your parents in the ground.
The good thing about digging them up and replanting them is the corm and root systems are much smaller than regular plants.
I planted a 'basjoo' in the ground and it came back the next year, tho I'm not sure if it would've if I hadn't mulched real good over it and put plastic over that to keep it dry. My method of mulching was pretty extreme, I had 2 empty tires over it and tey were filled with mulch and plastic over everything. I think its entirely possible to have 'basjoo's planted in the ground here and have it come back in the Spring.
Heres a photo of how I did mine that made it thru the Winter here, in the ground. I even tried (unsuccessfully, it must've got wet and just rotted) to overwinter the pseudostem, which would be nice because then it wouldn't have to start from the ground every year, and could get more height. -
Will