Hi again Gwenn, I have grand nain, ice cream and SD cavendish, also dwarf plantain and golden lotus (aka chinese yellow). I can't really deal with any more bananas lol, do you have anything else to trade? I think most of the pups I have are pretty large.

#1 have no idea as I have always grown it as a plant #2 Varies, once a stand of plants in in existance, there may be all sizes of plants flowering at once from 4-5 ft plants down to 1-2 ft plants #3 The flower will last 5-6 months #4 the plant that flowered dies but usually there are lots of pups to replace it #5 will stay in a pot until it gets a stand going then needs to be planted in the ground. Its extremely hard to divide pups off the stand without damaging them and killing them, its possible but VERY HARD #6 your soil mix sounds fine I have been growing this plant since the 2nd year it was introduced into the USA, when it first came out the only people who had one were Fairchild Gardens in Miami, they grew it for a bit then it was put into Tissue Culture. Stokes Tropicals got ahold of some and was selling them for about $200-250 each, then overnight when TC was successful, the price dropped to $20.

My biggest problem has been from rot. I would be afraid that plastic would keep the moisture in and promote more rot. I would like to find a way to protect the trunk AND keep rain from running down from the top into the plant. And to keep the soil at the base drier. Mine is on a slope but the soil there is very water retentive. And in the mild winter the plant keeps fairly actively growing and pumping more water up from the roots to the top. If I cut any leaves off, the leaf stem keeps pouring water out of the cut edge. I wish the leaves WOULD die back and dry out at the first freeze. In the past we have completely lost the main stem to the base and deeper to complete mush, but had some pups grow back the next year. In the past we have not done much except to run out at the oncoming of a predicted bad freeze and then try to throw covering over it. I would like to do something ahead of time this year since we have a very nice trunk this year. I was hoping there is some type of woven matting that would insulate and shed rain that could wrap the trunk yet some air could still get to it. And then also something to make a cap for it. Oh, and a ladder for the slope so we could reach it--and...yeah, yeah, dream on.....

Even in the few z9 locations in this area, this plant will not survive long term Full blown USDA 9 being present here debatable, hence such failures. Last time I looked record lows north of Coos Bay were all below 10 degrees F, with long term weather records expected to be the basis for Sunset mapping everything north of Gold Beach Sunset 5 or lower. Garden centers here sell the Musa lasiocarpa, I bought one on clearance in a 4 inch pot and planted it here last year. It grew significantly larger during the summer, I didn't think to protect it when the cold came and don't actually know what it looks like now. The 2014 edition of The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs (Hillier Nurseries and The Royal Horticultural Society) says about this one Will survive outdoors, ideally with protection, in the mildest parts of the British Isles but in most places best overwintered in frost-free conditions so it wouldn't surprise me if mine is now a dead heap. Due to warming ocean currents the "mildest parts of the British Isles" actually go up as high as USDA 11 in the most southwestern islands (with - unlike here - Santa Barbara, CA style plantings long being present there, serving as proof). Claims of USDA 7 originating back East may be based on better results in hot summer climates. And probably also the prevailing misinterpretation of USDA Hardiness Zones, with it likely having been observed that the plant fails at 10 degrees F, is therefore "Hardy to USDA 7 (average annual minimum temperature 0 to 10 degrees F)".