Bananas.org - View Single Post - Did I Over Do It? Over Over Wintering in the Desert

hanabananaman · 11-21-2013, 07:52 PM

Fellow desert dweller here, I am still learning a lot but I don't think you can get away with wrapping your stem and leaving it that way for the whole winter in our climate. We get many days that are warm enough to cook it under that plastic and cloth is probably safer. A few years ago we were 80F on new years day. I would only wrap them when we get freezes and unwrap them in the late morning. Until the brutal cold spell last winter I easily kept my leaves when my yard dipped to 28F for a short time in early winter. I had about 500 gallons of water in numerous containers spread around the 3 - 8ft plants. I also had the large Christmas lights strung all over and a few catalytic propane heaters that I lit about 4AM. That side of my yard was noticeably warmer to my skin than the 28F on the other side. I let the lights touch the stems last year and that was a mistake, you might get away with the tiny lights touching the stem but the big ones caused deep mushy rotting very quickly. Like you pointed out we get so few freezes each year, that's why I went a little crazy with my efforts because there is so much to gain if you can get them through the winter with leaves intact. We have some winters now and then that I know I could get the leaves through, I hope this is one of those milder winters. Well once the leaves were toast my job got much easier I left some of the upper petioles on to use as supports for the Christmas lights to hang from over the cloth that I wrapped the stem with. One other unrelated thing I have learned is if you are growing in containers with hard water the pots need to be flushed with large amounts of water a couple times each year (at least a couple times). I have a few plants that started to grow well again after I flushed them a few weeks ago. You must follow up with fertilizer right away. My inground plants have done well without flushing because we had a couple of very heavy rains on 2 occasions in the last several months. In Phoenix anything over 1 inch is a heavy rain which does not happen too often. Without those heavy rains I would have considered flushing them as well. Containers are too small to effectively flush with rain given the limited amount we usually get here. If you can gather rain to flush them that would be the best way.
Good luck
Larry

11-21-2013, 07:52 PM	#5 (permalink)
hanabananaman Location: Mesa AZ Find me on the map! Zone: 9-10 Name: Larry Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 111 BananaBucks : 57,963 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Thanks" 230 Times Was Thanked 143 Times in 68 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 183 Times	Re: Did I Over Do It? Over Over Wintering in the Desert Fellow desert dweller here, I am still learning a lot but I don't think you can get away with wrapping your stem and leaving it that way for the whole winter in our climate. We get many days that are warm enough to cook it under that plastic and cloth is probably safer. A few years ago we were 80F on new years day. I would only wrap them when we get freezes and unwrap them in the late morning. Until the brutal cold spell last winter I easily kept my leaves when my yard dipped to 28F for a short time in early winter. I had about 500 gallons of water in numerous containers spread around the 3 - 8ft plants. I also had the large Christmas lights strung all over and a few catalytic propane heaters that I lit about 4AM. That side of my yard was noticeably warmer to my skin than the 28F on the other side. I let the lights touch the stems last year and that was a mistake, you might get away with the tiny lights touching the stem but the big ones caused deep mushy rotting very quickly. Like you pointed out we get so few freezes each year, that's why I went a little crazy with my efforts because there is so much to gain if you can get them through the winter with leaves intact. We have some winters now and then that I know I could get the leaves through, I hope this is one of those milder winters. Well once the leaves were toast my job got much easier I left some of the upper petioles on to use as supports for the Christmas lights to hang from over the cloth that I wrapped the stem with. One other unrelated thing I have learned is if you are growing in containers with hard water the pots need to be flushed with large amounts of water a couple times each year (at least a couple times). I have a few plants that started to grow well again after I flushed them a few weeks ago. You must follow up with fertilizer right away. My inground plants have done well without flushing because we had a couple of very heavy rains on 2 occasions in the last several months. In Phoenix anything over 1 inch is a heavy rain which does not happen too often. Without those heavy rains I would have considered flushing them as well. Containers are too small to effectively flush with rain given the limited amount we usually get here. If you can gather rain to flush them that would be the best way. Good luck Larry Last edited by hanabananaman : 11-22-2013 at 12:43 AM.