Musa, Banana 'Orinoco'

This banana will bloom, and fruit in colder areas by digging up the plant in fall, storing the pseudo stems in a cool place like a crawls...Read Morepace, non freezing garage, etc. without leaves, roots, soil, water, light. Then by planting out again in spring when danger of frost is over. For me it takes about 3 weeks for the plant to resume growth after planting back out. Mine store quite well for about 6 1/2 months in this way, but they do weigh 100+ pounds, something to think about before you start a banana plantation lol. There is a smaller, and lighter Dwarf Orinoco, but I like this one because of its large size in the flower garden. Orinoco have to have about 4 months of frost free temps in order for the fruit to ripen, and the plant fruits for me at about 10 feet of stem height. It is supposed to be the most cold hardy edible banana, surviving to zone 7, but I have yet to try leaving one out yet. They will not fruit in this way as the pstem must survive for more than one season as the flower bud is in the pstem (pseudo stem, made of rolled up leaf bases), and at zone 7, they will freeze back to the ground. In my photo, you can see the tallest at ten feet of stem with an emerging spear like bloom, this plant slept all winter under my house.



Update. I have tested Musa Orinoco outside in winter with the temperatures getting down to 0F degrees with mulch. All mother corms survived but I recommend cutting as low as possible and mulching without damaging the growing point to keep cold from freezing the upper pseudostem and traveling down into the corm thus killing it. The ones that I left higher were frozen but the pups survived. The ones that I cut closer to the base had the mother pseudostem survive. Later to emerge after winter than Musa Basjoo so not sure how tall they will get by fall. Will update again when the time comes.

This cultivar is among the tallest growing bananas, can reach more than 7 m tall . The fruits are angular (though the name square banana)...Read Moreand get more than 8 inches in length and are very thick. Plant with fruits must be helped with a support, otherwise can easily fall down. The taste of the fruit is more delicate compared to other bananas.