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Old 05-16-2008, 11:57 PM   #20 (permalink)
microfarmer
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Location: Zone 9 Sack-o-tomato, CA
Zone: CA zone 9b
Name: Senor Excessivo
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Default Re: Anyone growing bananas in dry climat

It was 103 today and my plants seem to do just fine in the heat. I have new leaves coming out all over the place, with no sunburn.

I use drippers for good soil saturation and drip sprayers for bringing down the heat and bringing up the humidity. I'll run the sprayers for less time (about 30-45 minutes @ 4-6 gallons per hour per sprayer) and the drippers for a couple hours (1 gallon per hour per dripper).

My drippers and sprayers are on 2 different supply lines, with 2 different valves, limited to 35 psi. I'll run the sprayers once every day, and my drippers every 2 days when this hot and every week if under 90 deg.

I don't have a lot of sandy soil so it stays more moist even if I miss a day or two. It seems to be enough for the bananas...

My Ensete Superbum (which I thought was dead) came back with no water since the middle of October...in a container...in my garage with only a shoplight. It didn't start to grow til it got to 90 degrees in my garage and then pushed out some new leaves. I stripped off all the dead outer leaves, and they had wet mushy rot in them despite the severe lack of water.

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Originally Posted by pitangadiego View Post
There is no excuse for still having grass. I haven't mowed in 20 years. With all that space, I could plant another 100 bananas.
My new hero...

Last edited by microfarmer : 05-17-2008 at 09:16 AM. Reason: correct spelling mistake
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