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sjh711
01-02-2012, 09:33 AM
Getting ready for a very cold next couple of days. Temps into the 20's here in Citrus county. Going to keep the sprinklers on during the freeze hours. Well water is 72* so I hope it works!:coldbanana:

momoese
01-02-2012, 11:35 AM
Best of luck to you!

Darkman
01-02-2012, 06:30 PM
Pensacola next two nights 29 and 31. Deep watered everything today.
No hopes of saving it but I have a large Orinoco blooming with four hands showing.

Chance1945
01-02-2012, 09:05 PM
Getting ready for a very cold next couple of days. Temps into the 20's here in Citrus county. Going to keep the sprinklers on during the freeze hours. Well water is 72* so I hope it works!:coldbanana:

I clicked on your weather and your forecast for tomorrow night is 18F degrees and that sent me scrambling to see what my own forecast is. Upper twenties tonight and tomorrow night. I'm in SW Alabama and we're warmer than you!

I use to work at a nursery in Pensacola and we left the sprinklers on all night once. The next day the trees were all broken from ice formation. Some nights it's a good idea to leave the water running, but I wouldn't suggest it with 18 degrees - upper twenties might be risky too.

Let us know tomorrow how you fare during this freeze. I'll be watching for your post and here's wishing you good luck during this extreme weather.

Terry

Basjoofriend
01-02-2012, 11:53 PM
Hi, on 28th June last year I also had 28F (-2C) in Lucianópolis in the state São Paulo. Also my mango trees, pineapples, cashnewnuts (cajú), jackfruit trees and bananas were frozen! Musa basjoo, Mysore and even the biggest banana tree from Embrapa (new disease resistant tetraploid cultivar) were the hardiest! Also Cocos nucifera survived with frozen leaves, they did recover now. The frosts do occur only every 10 or 11 years in my second residence here in Brazil.

Even my citrus trees were unaffected, without any damage of frost. 28F in only one night for some hours are not so dangerous for citrus trees, but for mango, jackfruit and coconut. Now I do harvest fewer pineapples and mangos than in the past year, harvest loss by frost. Only two of my mango trees are bearing many fruits, because their place is more protected. Also one Plumeria has died, now it is replaced by one Phoenix dactylifera. Phoenix dactylifera is much hardier than Plumeria and Cocos nucifera.

I have now uploaded new galleries about my yard, you will see the frost damages and the recovery of many of my plants!

Best wishes
Basjoofriend

sjh711
01-03-2012, 08:55 AM
No freeze last night but looking at low 20's tonite. If it gets below 20 I think I'm probably screwed.

ladyflyfsh
01-03-2012, 09:38 AM
They're calling for 31 here tonight in Sarasota. It's just forecast for this one night, so what do you think I should do? I have several 10' + dwarf Namwah as well as some Red Lady Papayas that are also @ 10" tall. I will cover my tomato plants and peppers but worried the most about the naners and papayas.

sjh711
01-03-2012, 09:55 PM
Good luck to you!

sjh711
01-04-2012, 02:49 PM
Well, that didn't go well.

momoese
01-04-2012, 03:16 PM
Did they freeze?

ladyflyfsh
01-04-2012, 03:43 PM
Funny thing...The plants I did not cover did great and the ones I did cover look like crap! go figure! I got some frost cloth and covered some plants and one type of cover seemed to be better than the other...but the bananas that did not get covered came though with no problems and the ones that did get covered look like they got frost bitten.

momoese
01-04-2012, 03:53 PM
Maybe the cover touching the leaves?

jeffreyp
01-04-2012, 09:13 PM
no frost here in west palm beach...:08:

caliboy1994
01-05-2012, 12:41 AM
We're having a warm snap here right now. Day temps reaching into the 80s, which is very unusual for January. Still my bananas aren't waking up. Not a single frost yet this year. Hopefully this year is frost free.

sjh711
01-05-2012, 09:40 AM
Got down to 23* and covered the plants with ice. My plants did better then my neighbor who didn't use sprinklers. They still got crushed. We'll see how they do as it warms back to the 70's this weekend.

Chance1945
01-05-2012, 10:24 PM
Got down to 23* and covered the plants with ice. My plants did better then my neighbor who didn't use sprinklers. They still got crushed. We'll see how they do as it warms back to the 70's this weekend.

It is incredible, really, how fast it warmed up. I was working outside today in a t-shirt.

Dreaminofthetropics
01-06-2012, 04:01 PM
I got hit pretty hard here in North FL I was at 20 the other morning when I went to work.I was wondering if anyone can tell me at what point I will be able to truly assess damage? My leaves all dropped down and are mush of course, but I have felt the pseudostems and they still feel pretty solid, does that mean they're ok or does it take a while to see that they're damaged???? Thanks for any help!

Nicolas Naranja
01-07-2012, 10:30 PM
Much to my surprise I had some frost at the farm Friday morning. They weren't calling for frost but it was very still and got into the upper 30s. No frost at my house, but the low was 41 here. I haven't been below 40 at the house. The worst thing has been the wind damage. I'll be happy when I get the bananas behind the house planted. It's much warmer, and I have micro-sprinkler irrigation here. I imagine all those bananas will cut down on some of the wind hitting the house as well.

sjh711
01-09-2012, 11:04 PM
Should I cut off all my dead leaves or just leave them until spring. Thanks for your help

Stan

momoese
01-09-2012, 11:10 PM
Should I cut off all my dead leaves or just leave them until spring. Thanks for your help

Stan

Remove anything that turns soft and brown. You might need to use a sharp knife or single edge razor blade to trim the soft plant tissue from the underlying healthy p-stem. Once it starts rotting it will will travel right into the healthy tissue.

sjh711
01-10-2012, 08:43 AM
Thanks Mitchel. Looks like I'll have a bunch of poles out there as about every leaf got zapped.

Stan

Nicolas Naranja
01-13-2012, 09:30 AM
You may not be able to do this, but one easy way to get rid of leaf trash after a freeze is to set it on fire. The pseudostem is full of water and won't burn, but all the dead leaves will burn right off. Several years ago I had a round banana patch with about 10 mats in my yard and it had black sigatoka and there were lots of dead leaves. I lit it on fire and it cleared out all the leaf trash and the only healthy leaves I lost were the lowest ones. Of course, you need to live in the country to do that.

sjh711
01-15-2012, 10:46 AM
Have to admit that sounds like a lot more fun than cutting them off!

Jack Daw
01-15-2012, 12:01 PM
OMG, it hasn't been into the 20s (Fahrenheit) here since the "winter" began. It hasn't been freezing at all for that matter, some 28 maybe, but I'm a zone 7b/8a, not a Sunshine State city. Best of luck to u! may your naners recover nicely.

sjh711
04-22-2012, 07:00 PM
http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/u517/sjh711/g1.jpg All of mine made it!

sjh711
04-22-2012, 07:05 PM
http://i1071.photobucket.com/albums/u517/sjh711/N2.jpg

This guy has 13 plants. 6 pups and a flowering plant.

jeffreyp
04-22-2012, 07:17 PM
looks like mysore

sjh711
04-22-2012, 07:24 PM
I bought them at Going Bananas in Homestead as Numwahs. I'll sure take your word as I am an amateur. Big difference?