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sean
08-24-2005, 10:04 AM
So as the next batch of wondeful florida weather prepares to make its way on shore in the coming days in the form of Tropical Storm Katrina are there any preparations or things I should do regarding the bananas?

Of course, I'll be moving my potted plants indoors, but the ones in the ground I'm curious if they should be propped up, trimmed, etc?

Gabe15
08-24-2005, 10:21 AM
I always thought it would be a good idea to cut large stablished bananas down, or at least de-leaf them. but i dont know, ive never lived there.

MediaHound
08-24-2005, 11:58 AM
I may cut some leaves back at the last minute. The less sails to catch the wind, the better.
This goes for many of the other plants in my yard.

Jeff
08-24-2005, 09:00 PM
Unfortunately there is not much you can do if the winds are really strong. If you have tall bananas out in the open they will probably get broken in half. I've had it happen many times just with wind gusts from typical severe thunderstorms. If they are planted near the house or trees and are sheltered some, you might have a better chance of them not getting too damaged. The great thing about bananas is even if they do get snapped in half, you can cut them at the breaking point and they will continue to grow and completely recover in no time (unless they were just getting ready to fruit!). The taller varieties are the ones that usually snap in half, the shorter varieties just get a lot of broken leaves. Best of luck to you!!

sean
08-24-2005, 09:02 PM
thanks for the advice! much appreciated...hopefully we'll be fine

momoese
08-24-2005, 09:06 PM
Let us know what happens. Good luck

tlturbo
08-25-2005, 06:48 AM
Well it is 7:30 am and I'm in S Palm Beach Co where they are predicting it to come ashore this evening. I've lived in S FL since 72 and seen lots of these and been through quite a few (3 last year). To be honest, even at a category one we have summer afternoon thunderstorms that are just as bad. Sure you are going to have some shredded plants but we're used to that.

Now LAST YEAR the eye of Charley went across the N end of Pine Island (West coast of FL) 4 miles from my condo (fishing retreat). That island looked like Homestead after Andrew. Total devestation. The moble homes were shredded and large pieces of aluminum blown up in trees. All the palm groves had all the trees blown to at least a 45 degree angle. Weird looking like they were planted that way. I lost one screen panel but two other buildings lost roofs.

Biggest problem with these little guys is the inconvenience. They close stores, everyone lines up for gas at the last minute, etc. And they cause a lot of panic. A Cat one hurricane is nothing, but the headlines read HURRUCANE ROARS TOWARD S FL. Everyone that doesn't know better goes ballistic. Right now the trees are barely moving and we could use some rain.

Anyway, guess I'll go bring in all the potted plants so they don't get torn up.

Terry

MediaHound
08-25-2005, 02:42 PM
Just got done bringing in all my potted plants and trimming the plants in the ground.
I left either one or two leaves on all the bananas.
The palms get to keep more than that ;)
It's a lot of work to prep for the storm, but worth it in the end.

The wind is picking up, the rain started a long time ago, and the satellite is about to loose the last of the tv signal. I hope the power stays on :)

Wish us good luck!

Marc
08-25-2005, 06:43 PM
7:40 pm Thursday here in Naples, Fl. I laid down my big potted heliconias and palms. I braced my Goldfinger holding a large almost mature bunch with a 4"X4". We will see what happens. Fun stuff.

MediaHound
08-25-2005, 09:12 PM
The power is out here, I'm running off an UPS.
Already lost half of my Travellers Palm (yes, it's not a palm) crown, it was blown off.
Also lost some lobster claw heliconias. The house across the street had a tree blow down. I heard that somewhere down here, someone had a tree fall on them and kill them.

Good thing I cut back the bananas, otherwise, I have a feeling, they'd be in Kansas right about now.
:eek:

momoese
08-26-2005, 12:23 AM
from what the news is showing it looks pretty wicked.:eek:

tlturbo
08-26-2005, 07:24 AM
Sorry to hear that Jarred. It's really weird though. As you know, we're in Lake Worth, just W of Boynton Beach. We had a couple wind squalls and a couple rain squalls but that was it. Shredded some banana leaves but nothing blew down. What REALLY surprised me is we NEVER lost our DISH Satellite signal once and I usually loose it in a summer thunderstorm. Power stayed on too. What a difference 20 miles or so makes. I was thinking about you because it looked like it was going to head straight out 595 and across the alley toward Marc.

Hope you guys did OK.

Jarred, go see if Home Depot down there has a neat variegated plant. It looks like a thin leaf canna but has a white cluster flower (looks kinda like a pine cone) down in the plant. Got a big clump about 3 feet tall last week for under $9. Neat variegated leaf so it should look pretty good.

Terry

Marc
08-26-2005, 09:36 AM
Lucked out on this one. When I went to bed last night I thought it was coming straight for me. It was well to the south of the Alley, took a weird south jog. now heading west in the Gulf away from us. We have had very little rain and wind only to 25 mph. Haven't had a chance to look at my bananas in the back of my house at work now.

tlturbo
08-26-2005, 09:41 AM
Hey Marc,
Yep, I looked this AM and last night it was heading straight acorss the state for you but it took a jog S just after it went past Lauderdale and came out way S past Marco. Weird but GOOD for you. Probably shredded some leaves. I just trimmed up the yard, nothing drastic. Fertilized too, nice damp ground for absorbtion.

Terry

Marc
08-26-2005, 09:49 AM
I was waiting to fert the yard to after this storm, didn't want it to leach. I plan to fert this weekend. The Keys and Cuba are getting most of the rain.

MediaHound
08-27-2005, 03:22 PM
Well I just got back from Home Depot with a nice shiny new generator.
Yes, the power here is STILL out.

The storm went right over where I am. I went out the next morning and got some good photos. One is of a house crushed by a ficus tree
:drum:

Ficus trees are shrubs. They are not hurricane proof trees. I repeat. Ficus trees are shrubs. Not to be used as trees in Florida.
Some people just don't get it.

I will post the pics soon (hopefully). Just strapped for time lately as there's so much work to do around here.
As far as the extent of the damage, the bananas did very good.
I lost some roof tiles, but that's about all I can complain about.

I got lucky though :)
I was out looking for Frangipani the next morning after the storm.
I found a lady chucking limbs of hers over her front fence, into a pile for the garbage. So I helped her clean her yard of the limbs, which she was thankful for. I don't think she knew what they were worth. Then I found some other various pieces here and there that people were throwing out.
And then the motherload.
Someone was throwing out an entire downed Frangipani tree. I gladly schlepped it home with me. I made out like a bandit... I'd say I got about 5K worth of Frangipanni there alone.
Any of you FL guys that want any, your more than welcome to some. Pieces sell on ebay for hundreds or thousands all the time. I know, I've bought many there :rolleyes:
I know your into them, tlturbo... I saw a nice cutting drying out at your place when I was there. lmk if you want some of these.. that goes for anyone..

Well anyway, I hope everyone else is doing ok.
Let's pray the power comes back on soon for those of us still without.
Also a prayer for those that lost family members, homes, etc.
I'm really thankful that it wasn't all that terrible for me.

momoese
08-27-2005, 03:47 PM
Nice to hear you made it through the storm. Looking forward to seing the pictures.

Frangipani? Are you talking about Plumeria? $1000's on ebay? We have those things all over the place here in So Cal. for cheap. I have a white and yellow that is getting pretty big. Maybe I should chop it up and sell it!

MediaHound
08-27-2005, 03:55 PM
yup
Plumeria
very expensive!
saw one the other day for over $1,000 (me thinks it was $1250) - think it said it had 20 or so tips and was maybe 5' tall.
Cant find the auction now though. There's a seller from the Florida Keys that usually has large ones for several hundred dollars, and smaller ones for less..

yup
Plumeria are quite pricey

momoese
08-27-2005, 04:00 PM
Ahh, your talking about very large trees. They get pricey here too when there that large.

MediaHound
08-27-2005, 04:09 PM
ahh ok
yea
small ones go for anywhere from $5 - $30
this tree was an oldbie

tlturbo
08-27-2005, 06:20 PM
You are quite observant - yep, planted that plumeria last weekend. It's very happy and didn't blow over Thursday night. Got it for $20.

You are a good scavenger HA HA

There is a plumeria nursery over on Pine Island right near my condo. He sells all kinds. If you want to know how to contact him, let me know and I'll get it for you.

Terry

MediaHound
08-27-2005, 06:31 PM
Does he have a website?

tlturbo
08-27-2005, 06:40 PM
Not sure - I'll check. But he sells all the neat stuff - that is about all he grows.
Terry

MediaHound
08-27-2005, 06:49 PM
cool
thanks
lmk

I have about ten kinds, always on the lookout for something really catchy.

.. anyway, a little more back on the topic :p
I just moved many of the potted plants I had stashed safely in the garage back outside. A lot of my plants seemed to like being in the dark for four days. There's a LOT of new growth!

sean
08-28-2005, 09:57 AM
ok, so I can finally check in here...as many of you know I am in South Florida and happened to be directly in the path of Katrina as she moved south over dade county.

was a horriffic night of unbelievable wind and rain. i cannot imagine facing this storm in louisiana as a cat 5!!!!

it knocked out our power on thursday at 5 pm and has yet to be restored. thank goodness for the generator i bought last year after our 3 time scare of storms!

as far as plants, all my dwarf orinoco, goldfinger were knocked down completely...i have since gone back out to brace them up, hopefully they'll catch and stand on their own.

my gorgeous jamaica red got shredded along with my dwarf namwah and dwarf brazilian.

i lost a 30 foot avocado in the front of the house that survived hurricane andrew! we were fortunate it fell in the opposite direction of the house.

all in all, i am happy that my family and i did ok, andrew was devastating, katrina has been more of an inconvenience for most folks in south fla. though 30 blocks south of me is major flooding!

i'll try and post pics when the power comes back online.

tlturbo
08-28-2005, 10:48 AM
Sean,

Sorry to hear about your plants but glad you and everyone are OK and you didn't get any structural damage. Nanners will back in no time.

Up here we just got some wind and rain gusts. Shredded leaves were the extent of it.

I have a condo on Pine Island (Ft Myers) and we're heading over there this afternoon, BUT last year, we were 4 miles South of where the eye of Charley went across the N end of Pine Island on its way to Pt Charlotte. That was a Cat 3 and the island was totaled. What a disaster. I can't imagine it being any worse. We lost a screen panel but 2 buildings lost roofs. I cannot imagine New Orleans and a Cat 5 especially since the town is below sea level. They say it will breach the levees so I would bet most of the town will be under water.

Glad you are OK.

Terry

AnnaJW
08-28-2005, 11:30 PM
Wow, Sean -

I'm glad you and yours are okay! I was going to get on here and complain about what the heat is doing to my plants, but can not do it now...