Joe,
You have an impressive collection and obviously tremendous experience in this area. I appreciate the tip regarding the grower (I will probably hold off any orders until spring), and the dyeing of the frost blanket. I assume the darker color is for increased absorption of infrared.
I am curious as to the effect it might have on the amount of light reaching the plants. Is the idea to shade them for the most part? My understanding is that tropicals can be damaged when exposed to strong sunlight under colder conditions. However, will the leaves of a banana survive under extreme low light for several months? I know so little about these things.
I have had good luck adding a water reservoir (I use 20gal Rubbermaids) of some kind under a blanket (for other cold-sensitive plants, this is the first I've tried with bananas) to increase the total heat capacity in the "mini-greenhouse". I do not have a data logger for my thermometer, but the temperatures are attenuated somewhat during the night based on spot readings.
The mean number of freezing days per month in my area looks something like this (from
http://www.met.utah.edu/jhorel/html/...e/min32.html):
[Month] [Number of Days]
November 1
December 5
January 8
February 4
March 1
I see you are in Davis. I think Sacramento is near there, and Sacramento shows a similar (but slightly warmer) trend as to here, with a (1 7 7 2 1), so I am hopeful I can take a cue from some of your techniques. Again, I appreciate the information.
Ed.