Larry,
I am located in St. Louis Missouri and it gets really cold here. I am in my 4th year of growing Musas and they come back for me every year! In late October or early November I cut them down leaving about 4 inches above the ground. Then I cover with about 6 sheets of newspaper and about 12 inches of mulch. I remove the mulch and whats left of the paper after the danger of a hard frost is over in my area. They come back year after year better than the previous year. Hope that helps!

Hi Larry

I live in an area where I probably don't have to dig up my Basjoos due to cold temps. However I do dig them because it rains so much here in the winter and my yard can become a lake.

Anyhow I've been trimming the leaves(except the middle one) digging them and storing them bareroot in the garage. No water. They've come back every year bigger and better. I've only lost ones that were too small. Maybe 2-3 losses over three years.

Digging these plants isn't as difficult as it may seem. I just sink my shovel in all around the plant and the thing just tips right over and comes right out.

If you do decide to dig and store indoors remember that Basjoos need it to be colder that other types of bananas stored in this way. Somewhere above freezing and around 40F seems to work for me. If they are stored too warm (50F) then they start to grow and then need light and water.

Check out bananas.org there is a great post titled "putting bananas to sleep for the winter" or something like that. Great info on storing bananas in this way.

Good luck

mulch around them with bags of leaves! It takes 6-7 large trash bags of leaves for each plant.
Cut your bananas down to about 1.5 feet tall. Then put the bags of leaves in a circle around the plants leaving a 1 foot space on all sides of the stem. Place dry leaves loosely in the hole around the stem, and mound them up so that it will shed water. Then use a plastic tarp over the top of the whole mess, and weight down the corners so that the wind doesn't carry it away.
In the spring, take off the tarp and move the bags of leaves and your bananas will grow back. If they were protected very well, they will grow back from the same stem that's cut off. If they were protected enough but not very very well, they will come back from the roots.
If you uncover them in the spring and there's just a hole where the plant used to be, that means a mouse or vole got in there and ate your plant. That is really a bummer, that's usually lethal.
If your plants don't get to be at least 3-4 feet tall, they aren't big enough to survive winter covered like this. the corms are still too small to survive.

GOOD IDEAS!!
has anyone used the trash can method? I know see that beside... just building a cadge around them,,,, they also need to be wraped with something? newspaper?
i figure my new plants wont be big enough to make it through the winter, so i will have to bring them in...and thats fine.
So by digging up plants and storing them in a cool place for the winter, you can grow any type of banana here in chicago as long as you dig them up?
If I am correct this is like the method that you would use for Canas for the winter?