I live in B'ham, not too far from you and I imagine not too much of a temp difference although sounds like you are in the higher elevations of N.E. Ala. I put all mine in the ground. I let winter hit them and knock them down and they spring back every year. However , I do mulch them ( store bought pine mulch ) and will collect and bag my fall leaves and use the bags for cover and insulation. Warm temps come around I put the bags out to be picked up. Very easy. My Basjoo's stalks will usually survive the winters and I have had instant 6-10 foot high plants in Feburary or March depending if its a warm Spring or not. My Basjoo's fruited 2-3 years ago. I had a dozen or more hands of fruits, All inedible but fun to look at. Try planting some and potting some and see how it goes. The plastic idea should work for you if its a cold variety. I have potted them before and they grow but seem to not do near as well as in the ground. Not sure the trick to potting. I have put them indoors as well in winter time and seem not to do well verses outside in summer time so I think I do not have a green thumb for potting banana's. I do have one potted outside for the second or third year now and it looks healthy and producing pups but not getting any growth in height as my in ground banana's.

I have a cousin in North Carolina and he digs his up i the fall and wraps them in burlap and puts them in the garden shed, then replants them in the spring and he says he gets bananas, I do not know what kind.

If I bring them inside I need to pot them, I have some 35 gal plastic trash cans I could use but I would have to cut the tops off to bring them in. Im guessing if they have not flowered it would not to cut the top off. I do not know yet if 35 gals is overkill or not.

35 gal is a lot of weight. Better invest in a good pair of hand trucks. I say go the outside route using the greenhouse and put a couple of small potted inside as insurance. I had 13 gal palms and they were manageable with hand trucks but pretty heavy. I had no steps or stairs to traverse when moving them in and out.

I can cut down the 32 gal, they are plastic trash cans. I'm thinking 20-25 gals? What do you think? I can cut them off at the bottom and turn the bottom inside out and glue them back in.

Not sure. What kind of banana's do you have ?

Musa Ice Cream "Blue Java
Musa Manzano "apple banana
Musa Gros Miche
Musa Double Mahoi

I have a Tall Orinoco with fruit on it planted in the ground right now at about 10 feet of pstem in my zone 7a, this variety stores extremely well under the house in the crawlspace around 45/50 degrees (Non freezing garage would work, under a mobile home is probably too cold with non concrete foundation) with no roots, leaves, soil, light, water, etc. just a big stick basically with dry dead roots, and they remain this way for six months till spring. It takes about 3 weeks for them to start growth again when planted out in mid April, to May depending on the last frost date forecast. Just dig a hole and plant the pstem a little deeper than the last year to stabilize, after roots establish, the leaves emerge. Orinoco bloom at about 10 feet of pstem height, and the pstems can weigh about 100+ pounds so can be difficult to handle when storing for winter, but they are very impressive looking when you have instant banana plants that reach about 20 feet with leaves in a couple of months, instead of waiting all summer for the hardy ornamental types to grow to maybe 10 if your lucky. One of the things that you will run into is ripening time, for example Orinoco take about 4 months to ripen, so your plant is going to have to bloom at least 4 months before your first frost date (Here about Oct. 22). You most likely will not have fruit every year, as the timing is a bit off sometimes. Orinoco is, or is about the most cold hardy fruiter, and the roots will survive in zone 7 with a lot of mulch, but you will not get fruit if the stem freezes down, as the bud is located in that stem, and it takes more than one season to develop that bud, and bloom. You could only use them as an ornamental this way. There are lighter dwarf varieties that store well also, Dwarf Orinoco (Mutation of Tall Orinoco like mine), Raja puri, and Dwarf Namwah, also Musa Ice cream will store well, I have heard, but in actuality most Ice cream are Tall Namwah due to a mix up with tissue culture labs, so I guess you could say Tall Namwah store well. Here is a pic of my tallest Orinoco blooming, this plant slept under my house this last winter, and also a pic of them coming out from under the house after 6 months (Root wrapping not necessary with this variety) . I left a partial leaf on one as an experiment, and that one was the only one I had issues with when regrowing, the stem choked, or stopped up with leaves, and I had to cut them out to fix it . With Orinoco it is probably best to completely remove leaves. This winter I will also store my Raja Puri (Can choke sometimes), and my Dwarf Orinoco this way. My Musa Saba stored this way also, but I will not be able to keep it long term as it can reach 30 something feet in the south, and will eventually get too large for me to handle this way. Cavendish types do not store well like this, and the stems will usually die leaving only the corm.

I think it's difficult...you mean to keep your bananas in the ground during winter?! You could try with Ice Cream...

I am keeping all of mine in ground. Too much trouble to store them .We had our worse temps in 15 years and all mine survived except my Ice Cream (Namwa) .

If you live in a place where at least some of the pstem will survive overwinter (Leaves can die), maybe no lower than in the high 20's than you will get fruit, if it dies back to ground level but survives, you will get a nice ornamental plant the next year, but highly doubtful that it will fruit. I have heard caging Orinoco works in zone 7, but I am doubtful.

Only my Basjoo pstem survives out of all my nanas. I may have to try an Orinoco and do the storage to get some fruit. My Basjoo fruit was not edible but it impressed the immigrate workers who were working next door.If I find time I might try to put up a temporary greenhouse over my Saba to see if I can get them to carry over and produce.

Since they are only 1 ft high I will repot into a bigger pot and bring them inside this year. Next spring I will plant them in the front close to the house, next winter I will cover the roots with a large bed of leaves and cover the whole plants with clear plastic, if necessary I will put some heat inside with them.

Here is a link I came across for Orinoco like mine blooming and growing in Memphis, so this might be an option, they store extremely well, I will eventually try caging one to see how it works but need another year to get enough to use one as a test subject lol. They appear to not be dug up every year, there are way too many to dig I would think.

https://subtropicalmemphis.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/the-nelson-street-bananas-of-cooper-young-district/

Those bananas in Memphis have been planted since the 1960's. They are not dug up. They have endured some very cold winters, including all the brutal 1980's single digit events. Once well established, Musa 'Orinoco' is entirely hardy in zone 7. They will fruit regularly by the end of summer in zone 7.

I have to try one of mine outside overwinter now, I would really like parts of my yard to look like that. Thats just something you dont see around here everyday lol, although I have seen one Tall Orinoco growing about 5 miles from here, we must have gotten them from the same nursery. The nursery owner is about 80 years old and has all kinds of unusual stuff. People always ask about the Orinoco first over the Basjoo and other wild species I have. They are pretty impressive looking.

I have owned Musa 'Orinoco' and Musa basjoo. The Orinocos are definitely much more impressive. The basjoos have one thing going for them in that they are zone 6 hardy.

Another one you should try if you can find some is Musella lasiocarpa. They area also zone 7 hardy and very unique in the banana world.

Musa Orinoco thrives in USDA 7 ?

Wow, the Memphis Orinoco's are impressive. I think I will give them a try.

They are my favorite Banana, they grow well even in clayey soil, and full sun in 100+ degrees doesn't burn them.

I am in zone 7a, and that is probably a bit different than zone 7b. So there will be a slightly shorter season, and colder temperatures than 7b. We even get below zero by a degree or two every few years for a short time. We used to be zone 6b, and I remember lows down to about -10F, so yes I do believe in Global Warming lol, the last 3 years we have not gone below zero at all so I am guessing this winter will probably be it.

I cant grow roses because the heat gets them, its still in the 90s here. I started off in lower Miami in the 70s, where we had snow one year and an Ice storm another, then it was hot all year 7 years, then I moved to West palm beach 7 years where it was better then hot all year. Then to South Alabama where we had 2 blizzards in 2 years 8ft drifts and ice on the ponds at first after 17 years the last 5 no ice even on a puddle, then we moved to North Alabama. I tried Banana's in South Alabama 30 miles from the line and they still died off every year. I never got one to fruit.

I wish I was in at least zone 8, there are a lot of things that I cant grow here that will survive zone 8. I am fixing to germinate some Washingtonia palm seed because they grow so fast, and grow them in containers and store in our shop with 14 foot ceilings that stays around 20 degrees in winter, and cover the pots with blankets or something. Going to try Robusta, Fillifera, and Fillabusta and see which ones make it the best. Maybe I can use them as sort of an annual (Decennial?) that lasts for 10 years this way, or until they get to heavy to move. Then each spring drop the pot, palm and all in holes made to hold them in the yard. The hardy palms are just too slow growing. Going to try Mexican bird of paradise, senna alata, and a few others like this also. Everyone always says store tropicals in a garage, etc. that stays above freezing, but there should be semi tropical trees or shrubs that can take the 20 degrees as long as the root ball stays unfrozen in the zone 9 micro climate of the shop. I have kept things alive in my unheated greenhouse in winter by covering the pots at floor level with heavy frost cloth, and a piece of plastic over that, it stayed 45 degrees under there close to the ground.

I have been growing the orange purple Bird of paradise here, I just bring it in in the winter and it has bloomed the last 2 years.

I just took my 5 banana trees outside. The problem is I live on a bluff and have a lot of wind. I was thinking of putting a 8ft lattes in front and side of them, the house is to the back and the pouch to one side. Should I let them get full sun from noon until evening or will the do ok with just bright light?

Here is my Banana trees outside in the enclosure I built. The top is just garden shade screen. The temps are starting to drop, 2 of the trees have pups. I will remove them to separate pots tomorrow. They are facing SW and get full evening sun. I suppose I will bring them in since they are only about 3ft high. I am watering every day. Is that too much? The first one doesn't look that good to me. How do they look to you? Any comments?

"How do they look to you? Any comments?"

Those questions would be easier to answer if you post some pictures. Just sayin'.

I brought my SuperDwarf Novak Banana plant in last winter, and I kept it in a room at 75-80F in the daytime hours and 62ish at night using two electric heaters. My "daytime" heater is on the timer with the grow lights. This setup works well to extend the growing season for my Ginger plants. Last winter was my first winter in for the banana plant, and I had just transplanted it from a small nursery pot to a 20 inch planter pot (with about 3 cubic feet/22 gallons of growing mix), so I really didn't expect it to flower.

I have all my "tropical plants" under LED grow lights 12 hours a day. The Ginger plants always blossom under the red/blue (3 red:1 blue) LED grow lights. Everyone tells me ginger rarely blooms, but almost all of mine bloom every year. The red light is supposed to stimulate blooming. Maybe this year, the banana plant will bloom as well.

I have three pups on the banana plant when I set it out for the summer, and I plan to separate those later this week when I bring everything in and put each pup in its own 3 gallon nursery bucket for the winter. Two more tiny pups have developed in the past month or so, but I plan to leave those on the main plant because I don't think they are big enough to survive on their own yet.

Even if you have some kind of insulated "greenhouse" enclosure, you might get better results (blooming/fruiting) if you supplement winter sunlight with pure red "bloom" lights, or 3:1 or even 4:1 red:blue "grow lights" on a 12 hour timer. If it's for a single plant, use 2 or 3 of the focused "spot light" type, like the PAR-38 size from ABI (available on Amamzon).

I though I did, Now there inside. How often do you water them?

I will post pictures later tonight.

I live in a colder 8a could an ornico survive where I am with mulch

I have enjoyed reading your comments about the banana trees. I am thinking to put one in the ground around my pool even if I don't get the fruits. I live on Long Island NY I guess is zone 7.