Welcome to the...
...
First Day Of Winter...
JoeReal...I hope your bananas made it thru the pogonip ok. I live out of the general fog zone at a bit higher elevation (about 134 ft. ASL) so didn't get it here. Please keep us informed of the shade cloth sunscreen and how your other bananas are doing in general.
I am a new banana grower. I had 5 red bananas from Home Depot (and prolly just ornamental) that I killed last winter by planting them late, in the wrong place, and not knowing anything about them or their needs. After that failure, I read a lot of info online (gotta love the internet!!) and am better prepared to care for them properly. I'm still making mistakes, but not as tragic...
I now have 6 bananas (Ice Cream, Goldfinger, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. Red, Ca Gold, and Super Mini Dw. Cavendish) and am growing them in 20 gallon containers. I got them in the middle of July so I didn't think they'd get to full size by winter so decided pots were the best option til next Spring istead of digging them up a couple months after planting...
Five of them were mail order from Florida and am very satisfied with the company I bought them from, Green Earth inc. (
http://www.bananaplants.net/bananaplants.html). They came packaged well, were very reasonably priced, and didn't come with pests or diseases. I would purchase from them again. The only drawback is (in my opinion) a limited selection.
The gentleman I got the CA Gold from says it does very well in his town of Modesto. I went to his 'plantation' and although he plants them out in a field, it backs up a subdivision and he seems to get a bit of extra warmth from the paved surfaces around his newer neighborhood and the intensive planting of homes maximizing the pavment in the area creating a warmer microclimate than the surrounding orchard/farmland in the general Modesto rural areas. He also grows many sub and full tropicals around his home and he is very good at it.
I live in an older established neighborhood with 1/4-1/2 acre lots with the occasional 1+ acre parcel (one of which my property backs up to) and less pavement causing less thermal mass. I've gotten heavy frosts and temps to about 20 degrees.
It's been bad enough in years past to cause all the leaves to drop off my established lemon trees. By the way, even though they look dead, they do grow back, but don't fruit for a couple years...
The P/O had 4 vertical irrigation pipes with lawn spray heads on top in the canopy of each lemon tree when I moved in and I used them once. It created the most unusual tree shaped ice sculpture you can imagine, and the trees didn't lose any leaves, but I think encasing lemon trees in ice is prolly going to lead to unwanted breakage.
I've since removed them. It may keep the surface layer of the canopy at around freezing as opposed to 20 degree air tempurature and have some merit if the citrus is propped up preventing breakage, but is not viable for bananas.
A tip I learned for winter protection for my citrus is to keep bare ground around my citrus (something I've been a bit lax about...damn Bermuda grass...) and to water during the day when a heavy freeze is expected. The daytime sun warms the soil and it gives off the warmth during the night. I do not think this is a viable option for bananas though, as wet, cold soil is counter-productive.
I also string Christmas lights in my trees (looks pretty, but I don't think it works too well). Maybe if I put in more light strings of the larger type bulbs...
I did use a catalytic propane heater under the canopy one year, but it led to rotting and black fungus of the fruits and wet leaves, so I abandoned that method.
I am now in the process of going back to the bare dirt/watering method and trying to kill all the Bermuda grass/Dallis grass/Yellow Nutsedge/Morning Glory infesting my yard.
I do use black plastic mulch (got it with my home so trying to use it up) for weed control in the veggie garden during the summer and it is very effective on most weeds, but the Bermuda just runs like crazy under it.
It is also effective for raising soil temps in March facilitating earlier planting and I may have some sucess with it around the Bananas in the winter to keep the soil dryer to reduce the possibility of rot, and elevating soil temps for added cold protection during the winter. I do not know if it will mess with the banana's dormancy though causing the corm to think it's Springtime.
For those of you shocked by my non-eco friendly use of the plastic...when the plastic is gone I will switch to a tillable dark paper mulch instead, reducing my contribution to the landfill. The problem with that is all the unwanted seeds and rotten peppers/tomatoes that are collected on top during the growing season that I was wrapping up and throwing away. Maybe pulling it up and hot composting it will be better than just tilling it in. I have not been a sucessful hot composter though. I always did want to start a worm farm...
Since our coldest nights are also wind free, I also think Christmas lights wrapped around the banana Pstem 'may' help some, but it won't do much for the leaves on top.
All this of course is just a guess. For this year, my bananas will sit in their containers, in my garage, until the winter has passed, and the warming sun of Spring once again shines on my gardens...