Hi, I live in Southern Wayne county off Lake Erie.
If you have a basement, it's best to plant it against the foundation of your house. It will get anywhere from 4 feet to 8 feet its first year in the ground depending on growing conditions. It should be given full sun to part shade and planted in a rich soil with drainage(not clay). Use Milorganite along with blood meal and liquid fertilizers like miracle gro. You can also mix some cow manure into the soil, which you should have no problem getting where you live.

Hi, I live in northern Utah which is also zone 6. Last summer I planted a musa basjoo in the ground, nowhere near my house, and in the fall I cut the stalk down to about 2 feet tall and mulched it heavily but surrounding it with bags of leaves and added more leaves to the center area around the stalk and then covered the whole thing with a tarp to keep it dry. It made it through the winter just fine and actually put out a few pups during the winter. It is growing like crazy now. They like a lot of water, fertilizer, milorganite and sun!

Good Luck with yours!

To Islandbreeze: thank you for the information. The only problem that I have is that I don't have a basement or foundation to keep it protected and warm. Do you have any other sugestions for that?

Yes, you don't need to plant it against the foundation, but if you do, it helps to almost guarantee success, that's what I've found. In your case, mulch it deep and with a wide circumference around the plant. I would go at least 3 feet out from the stem in all directions to keep the ground freezing. Mulch at least a foot deep, maybe deeper for you. I'm in Grosse Ile(you can mapquest it to see where I am) just to give you an idea. Our winters here are milder than yours, but I still lost my basjoo the first 2 winters I tried them. This third time, I decided to plant against the foundation, and finally had success. One more tip, make sure you plant it in a higher part of your property. You don't want water to sit near the roots in the winter. I think that's part of the reason why I failed the second winter. I'll have to post a pic of my basjoo pups that I overwintered.

My musa basjoo grew to about 4 feet the first year, from a seedling in spring. I think that bananas in general grow quicker planted directly in the ground than in a pot (providing you have good soil). I basically put composted manure in the soil and then used miracle grow during the season.

As I wouldn't have a chance overwintering mine outdoors, I dug out of the ground, potted, and kept in a bright window for the winter. Full sun is best but my window was a north window with not much sun. Anyways, I watered pretty sparingly (as the plant wasn't active in growth) and didn't fertilized, and sprayed every once in a while with neem oil and water (as a precaution against bugs).

So now they are back outside planted in a flower bed. The only bad thing is when they adjust back to outside, the leaves it grew indoors pretty well get tattered in the wind, sun burnt and eventually yellow and die, but the new leaves it gets once it's used to full sun are stronger and nicer looking.

Glen

It will more likely survive the winter outdoors, in the ground, if planted near (within 3 ft) the south facing wall of a building. A heated building is best, but even an unheated garage is better than no building at all. It's almost like cheating.

Don't mean to go off topic, but that brings to mind my story about the benefits of planting near the house foundation. I have a small 24" deep pond near the house foundation and had a baby goldfish survive over winter. This means that the water didn't freeze all the way down even in a zone 3 climate. My theory is that the proximity to the house foundation (heated basement) as well as good snow cover over top for insulation helped keep the pond from freezing all the way down.

Thank you all very much for the information. It will be very helpfull for me this fall when I try overwintering my musa basjoo. Thanks to all!!!

Well it turns out that I do not have Musa Basjoo but instead have Musa Sikkimensis. If anyone has any info about growing it that would be very helpful thnx much :)

Well it turns out that I do not have Musa Basjoo but instead have Musa Sikkimensis.

In all of several attempts, I have been unsuccessful overwintering Sikkimensis outdoors. Now, instead, I decapitate potted Sikkimensis, place pots in sealed plastic bags, and overwinter in a cool (minimum 40 deg. F.) part of my basement.

Unfortunetly I do not have a basement I can overwinter mine nor do iI have a garage. thnx