how were you storing them over winter? seems like an awful long time to get to fruit even in zone 6B. Nice fruit bunch..the pup from that one should make a much bigger bunch also

I dig up in late fall and store in my dark, unheated basement with no care until late March. In late March, I pot up, water, and start exposing to sunlight or artificial HID metal halide grow light. I plant in the ground around the second or third week in May.

good method just seems like you should have gotten fruit much sooner than 10 years

This was the third year with the dwarf Orinoco. I am also growing saba, ice cream, musa basjoo, and ensete maurelli. I have never had any one of these flower. The basjoo's typically die back to the ground each winter and despite best efforts, I typically lose most of the pseudo stem on the saba and ice cream when stored indoors. I have great success storing the ensete maurelli indoors but they don't want to flower.

saba and ice cream as well as some like praying hands are not good storing types. orinoco and cali gold seem to be some of the best as well as velentina and a few other orn. types. might try a d brazilan as well

Im still waiting for my first to flower. I am also on Long Island. Been growing banana's for a few years. This year I have a few nice sized Ensete Maurelli that I would like to over winter. They are still in the ground as of now. really havent had the first frost yet. How do you over winter yours .

Liplanter,

Mine are still in the ground too. I have 14 ensente maurelli's and they are very easy to overwinter. After the first frost, cut off all leaves close to the pseudo stem. Leave the last unfurled leaf alone. Dig up and store in a cool dark location like an unheated basement. You can water once over the entire winter. Pot up in late March, water, and slowly start to expose to sunlight. Plant outside in early May.

Rokal
After digging them up . Do you pot them up in something like peat moss or just leave bare rooted. I tried this with this type a few years.It was potted up in the same pot it was in all season , moved to the basement and no luck rotted . The basement does have heat I guess . I always keep a few smaller ones under grow lights. This year I was thinking of digging them up and keep them outside in a unheated garage in peat moss as long as possible. The garage stays above freezing unless it get really really cold. Im going to try this way with a few other types I have . The basjoo and velutina Im going to overwinter outside. Thanks for any pointers ( I thought we were zone 7)

I did them up, cut off all leaves except the newest unfurled leaf, and store them bare rooted. I place them on a tarp in a dark corner of the basement. My basement is unheated but my oil burner and grow lights are down there and give off some heat. It never drops below 50 degrees.

I really feel for people in cooler climates to try and grow plants that are from the tropics.
I understand the joy to see tropical plants grow and produce against all the odds.
Good luck to everyone that experiments and "has a go" at trying to achieve the unachievable.
Having come from a cooler climate in a southern Australian State and doing what you are doing reminds me of what I went through. Forty years later I am now in the sub tropics in Northern Australia and growing what I only dreamed about growing including bananas which take about one year from planting the corm to fruiting which alaso takes about 4 months or so. Keep up the good work and never let the dream die.

Hi Rokal,

How did you overwintered dwarf orinoco? Noticed picture of fruiting tree was on October 27. Kind a late for that. Did you succeed ripening fruit back then? I live in Queens (zone 7b) and been growing all kind of bananas and other tropicals for past 5 years. Usually I overwinter bananas in indoor greenhouse under grow lights but they got to get incredibly huge and overgrown. Last winter tried to make them go dormant and store barerooted in the basement. It didn't work for they freeze too much at the first hard frost while being dig up, potted up and stored in unheard greenhouse and later eventually rotted while Musa Basjoo did pretty well as I left them in the ground and dig up after the frost. Overwintered them bareroot in peat moss and wrapped in the burlap and this spring all of them sprouted new shoots thought old pseudostems showed no signs of life.

Happy to hear there are more banana growers around New York City:)