the basjoo will fruit. i'm in north carolina and i have 8 with fruit as we speak. yes, i do dig my plants the end of october to the first of november. it may be an inconvenience but that's the only way i have found to produce a plant that will fruit. unless other people have had luck with letting them die and mulching and then produceing fruit....i just don't know as i dig up all of mine at the end of the growing season. my point of view is that it's worth the effort if you want fruit. you will find out that some will produce fruit will in hibernation of which you just disguard them and wait for the others to fruit. you hope that they at least get three to four leaves before they fruit.

I was wondering if anyone would chime in with additional recommendations. So far, besides the "exotics" like California Gold (does anyone sell this thing?) I am left with heavily mulching an Ornico, perhaps?

Cheers,

Ed.

Ed I live in Round Rock and have had this banana in a huge pot for almost 2 years. I kept it in an unheated greenhouse last winter. I now have put it in the ground and its pup in the pot. I do not know what kind it is but it has not bloomed yet.

Robert

{{gwi:416775}}

Different bananas require different amounts of growing time to produce blooms. If you have a mild winter, the stems are not completely frozen and leaves come out of the tops of the old stems, you have a chance to grow fruit. If the stems are killed back to the root and grow from the ground up, your growing season will be too short. Some varieties may require 12 months of growth (survival) and some may require 18-24 months. I've had basjoo bloom here in zone 7 but I had to dig, pot and overwinter in the greenhouse. One growing wild down by the creek is protected & sheltered by a rock bridge abuttment. It grows on the south side and only the top grows above road level. It has been there around 20 years and has only grown new leaves from the previous year's stems 3 or 4 times in 20 years and I've only seen it fruit twice.