Hello, I can help you with this question.
I am in England (West Midlands). I have Basjoo which is four years old. It is planted in the ground (lots of cow muck, peat , bark chippings fertiliser etc)It is 20 feet tall and I can view it through my bedroom window. As a plant it NEVER ceases to amaze me.
These are my recommendations,
1) Only cut a pup to give to a friend,my pups are 7 feet tall and look GREAT.Leave them on, the plant knows what is best.
2)To have a beauty you MUST at all costs preserve the stem.(the leaves do not matter come Winter)
3) You have to force it into dormancy.
4) If frosted it may well come back but will not be the "True Banana" type of plant I know that you are looking for.
5)Around early November depending on the weather,decide "Thats it". Cut off all the leaves leaving about 4" of petiole.Cut away the emerging leaf.
6)Lag it heavily, this is what I do...cut cloth (cotton) into lenghts about4" wide and wrap the stem ina spriral until you reach the top.Then wrap again withsome suitable insulating BREATHABLE material them wrap again with that woven loose sacking.
7)Make a wigwam of bamboo canes around the wrapped stem.tie the canes at the top and support the canes by interlacing with string.
8)Infill between the stem and the canes with STRAW.Wrap the outside of the structure with horticultural fleece.Ensure that the whole thing is wind safe.
9)Cover only the top 18" with bubble wrap to stop rain penetrating form the top.
10)Put moremulch (anything breathable round the base and cover only up to about 12" wityh more bubble wrap.
Ther it is ....unwrap late in Spring April / May and BINGO
you have a Basjo to be proud of.
You DID ask!!!
Best regards from England.

I leave my basjoos outside. Is't zone 7b, but compared with you zone 7a, because of a lot of rain just before winter. Last year I cut all the leaves and kept the stem dry, protected from rain only, a few days before wrapping it in.
Details:
http://home.tiscali.nl/hovevaza/basjoo_3on.jpg

I made a construction with tubes, filled with straw and wrapped in isolation-plastic, the kind they use to move furniture.
The stem was about 4 feet before the winter, and I lost 3 inch during the winter. There was no heating inside.
The plant is now 3,5 meter (14feet), approx. the size of your plant.
Details:
Pups before winter
http://home.tiscali.nl/hovevaza/basjoo_rhisome.jpg

I left the pups on. They all survived and grew like mad. 3 of them are reaching 6 feet now and I am planning to leave them outside as well.

Pups after summer
http://home.tiscali.nl/hovevaza/jungle.jpg
You can see the main stem and a few thinner stems.

So I am planning to do the same this year, cut only the leaves, let it dry for some days and make a construction around it.
I think you should do a simular trick.
Simon

Here is a link that might be useful:

Hi Claudia, I will be digging mine up here as soon as frost is near, have about 4 large plants, 2 basjoo's and I think 2 Orinoco's as well as smaller ones, 1) your idea #1 is a good one, just cut off all leaves before putting away in a cool dark area free of freezing temps. If you have room this is the way too go if you want to keep the height, just put it out next april, it will reroot and take off.
This is the way to grow some Very large plants. Good luck

Hello:

I have to laugh at myself because I thought digging up one of these "big boys" would be more of a hassle than wrapping it up and leaving it in the garden, due to the size of the thing.

But, after reading the excellent info from Yendis and Simon (thanks for the pics, too Simon) I was saying "OH MAN!!" last night to my husband about building what almost looks like a scaffolding structure to protect the banana during the cold temps.

Then, tdl462 comes along and says to dig up & store.

See ;-) Here is where it gets confusing to a newbie.

I guess the easy route is to dig up and store.

What is best for the plant? And will a dug up banana, if entire pseudostem is left intact, start producing leaves from the top of stem after being replanted?

Is there more of a chance for the stem to die back if dug up? I know what the plants looked like after being stored in my garage the past 2 winters...they were brown right down to the corm.

I've still got time to ponder this...don't know which way I will go yet.

Claudia

Hey Claudia! I'm in NC, zone 7. Last year I did an experiment with my basjoo. I left one in the ground, without trimming or cutting back, no extra mulch. I potted one up and put in the garage to go dormant. The one left in the ground grew faster at the beginning of the season, but they both ended up the same. About 15 ft. Don't know if this helps very much, but thought I'd throw in my two cents!

I think you should take a methode what works for you. If you dig up your banana, you should also cut the leaves to prevent the plant from dehydrating. Also you have to beware of mold and fungus. If the cellar/garage is too hot, the plant wont go dormant.
My basjoo outside survived -18.9C (-2.0F)
Simon

At Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville they have a small "grove" of Musa basjoo. They chop them back to the ground and mulch heavy. I would say you would be able to get to 10-15 ft easily by first frost next year if you do the same. The main thing is fertilizer and water during the heat of summer. On the other hand if you are willing to dig it up you can pretty much guarantee a big plant next year. FYI - if you are going to dig them up there are much more colorful varieties available.

Just my 2 cents: I have heard, but have no experience personally, that musa basjoo does NOT store very well in the cellar/crawl space. It has a tendency to dessicate rather easily. You can go as elaborate as you want with protection schemes. Mine is pretty easy. Get several bags of dry leaves together. Cut a hole in the bottom of the first one, large enough to fit over the pseudostem. You can cut the pseudostem down so the bag will fit over it, or you can stack another bag on top of the first one, and so on. Easy and cheap (free). UT Gardens in Knoxville, TN also has a couple of mats of m. basjoo, protected with mulch only. Here's what the biggest mat looked like late last month.

Hi all

I was wondering if someone could help me on this? I want to dig my basjoo up before the first frost but I was wondering do I just put the roots in a cool dry place and dont not put them in a pot with soil and no water.

I'm in Texas, so digging up isn't required, and I've always whacked the banana trees off at the ground, they always come back the next year, and I had one in Dallas that reached roof height and produced bananas in its 4th year (the growing season wasn't long enough for them to ripen, but watching the process was awesome and I kept the little brown clumps of fibrous would-be nanas for decoration!). Now I'm in central Texas and still leave them in the ground, but it seems this slows them down the next year...a friend said he just whacks the stalk off at shoulder level, wraps the entire stalk in a thick layer of newspaper tied at increments with garden twine, then covers only the stump's TOP with newspaper AND plastic (grocery store bags tied over the top should do) to prevent water from getting into the cut top and rotting the trunk. He also leaves about 2-inches of leaf stem when he wacks them off the trunk rather than shaving them close to the trunk (not sure why).. I'll probably do this and move the pups at the same time - early Nov before the first frost here. Let me know if anyone tries this and the result!

Like I said before...

OH MAN!!Decisions, decisions!!

Thanks again for the additional suggestions and very interesting insights everyone.

Claudia

Here's the main plant I want to grow even taller/bigger next year (I lost leaves on it's left side from the residual effects of hurricanes Katrina & Rita blowing through Tennessee):

HELP please.
I purchased a banana plant from a person who had it up for the winter. I planted it in April and it isn't growing or doing anything. Should I be concerned? How long does it take before you see the leaves starting to grown. I hope its not dead. Thanks for any help you can give. I am in NC