View Full Version : Lowest temps for Saba?
blownz281
11-29-2013, 07:58 AM
It has hit 30 here at a few times at night. I have not wrapped my 12-15 ft Saba plants yet. I have in the past but wondered if I really needed to? Orinoco,basjoo and several other types of banana plants do fine never being wrapped. Some will still throw up leaves during the day temps. I know these are hardier then Saba,but not sure how hardy it is?
eddiemunozep
11-29-2013, 10:31 AM
Good luck, let us know how it goes.
I have several varieties that are outside away from the house and I am not going to do anything special to protect them. Maybe my young mango trees.
venturabananas
11-29-2013, 12:30 PM
Judging from the ones growing around me, Saba is quite hardy -- about the same as Orinoco.
blownz281
11-29-2013, 04:03 PM
What are your lowest temps?
venturabananas
11-29-2013, 05:17 PM
Low 30's.
Olafhenny
11-29-2013, 06:51 PM
Hi Blownz,
I am committed to experimenting. Thus if you have several sabas, you might want to
leave one unprotected, but cover the others and see, what happens.
If your area is subject to short bursts of light frost, you will find, that the leaves are
affected long before the PS, simply because it takes much more time to penetrate into
the greater mass of it than the thin leaves. Accordingly there will be plenty time to
"chicken out" and still cover up when you see damage to the leaves, unless you have
an extreme, sudden drop in temperature.
You may want to look at:
http://www.bananas.org/f10/experiment-how-much-cold-can-banana-19329.html
These pictures were taken on October 30. I finally put the plants into hibernation 10
days later, after another bout of several hours of -3^C (26^F).
There was still no damage to the PS and even parts of the leaves looked still sound.
I have no direct experience in this, but I believe, that the leaves and the PS of all
bananas are “created equal”, as far as frost is concerned. It is the corm, which you
need to worry about. Thus I would mulch around the bases of the plants. If you
preserve the corm, you preserve the survival of the plant.
It would be interesting to find out how much actual frost kills the corm and how much
may be attributed to the combination of 'cool' and 'soggy', i.e. rot.
pitangadiego
11-29-2013, 11:00 PM
No problem at 38F
blownz281
11-30-2013, 08:06 AM
I have stuff to cover them so I guess I might as well. Thanks.
They can take less than 30 no problem if you wrap in frost cloth. But Saba is nowhere near as cold tolerant as Orinoco and way less than Nam Wah in my view.
blownz281
12-04-2013, 02:27 PM
Yeah I planned to wrap like I do in the past,was just curious thanks guys.
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