View Full Version : Hurricane Irma Damage
ElPlatanoSaturn
09-16-2017, 01:52 PM
I live in Polk County, FL, which means I got winds of over 100 mph! (Yikes!). Considering what could have happened, the damage really was not bad. No roof or fence damage at all, and I never lost power, which was strange, but I'm not complaining.
My bananas look pretty rough now though, and both of my fruiting plants fell over.
Ripsaw
09-16-2017, 02:27 PM
Hi, I used to live in Mulberry, Polk, FL. Nice looking naners before Irma. I now live in SW Florida and am happy that I did not get the storm surge of 20' forecast for my neighborhood. I get a lot of wind damage here and lost my mango tree (so sad!) which just had a bumper crop of fruit.
Anyway, my opinion is to leave those fruiting plants alone, especially the one leaning on the fence. Cut the bunch as you would normally when it plumps up. I get a lot of wind damage here and just try to prop the stalks up when this happens Usually am successful at getting the bananas.
As for the any of the plants that have not fruited, cut them just under the the bend. They will send up more stalks and should survive. I cut mine broken plants two days ago and they already have one to 3 inch stalks coming out of the center. I will try to send a photo later.
Hope this helps. Ask your neighbor not to bother the plants and be happy to share some fruit with them. Good luck!
imclumbi
09-16-2017, 09:56 PM
We live in Davie, Fl. South of Ft. Lauderdale. All of our Mature fruiting bananas and next years replacement trees are either on the ground or snapped in half. House is ok but bummer about the yard and garden, trashed. Lots of tornadoes around as we were on the dirty side of the storm. Hope all in the path are safe! Just got power back after 6 days! Yes!
rottiedog46
09-17-2017, 01:21 PM
I live on Ramrod Key, Fl. The eye went over my house with a 4 - 5 foot storm serge. Have not been able to return yet. Planning on waiting until power, water and sewer are restored. I do not expect to be able to grow bananas again for at least a year. You g to need a lot of rain to wash all the salt out of our so called "soil".
cincinnana
09-17-2017, 07:15 PM
I feel for you fellas...
No electric or utilities is not a good thing to go through.
Hurricane Ike took out our essentials (outskirts of Cincinnati) a few years back for a week and a half.
Sh$t, shower, and shave from the garden hose before work. Propane, charcoal and Ice Just like a big Ol camping trip.
20 miles out from where I live was all good .
It is amazing what you can cook in a wok for a week out of your failed freezer.
My 80 something parents and two of their as old neighbors fled Naples to Macon, Ga. in an 18 hour convoy from hell, which normally takes 8 hours.
They are now safely in our homes (my two brothers and I) in Cincinnati as they sort out the losses in Naples, Fla. We love our new refugees from Montana.
This stuff brings you down a couple of notches.......older folks, grandparents, somebodys parents ,folks not internet savvy.........would not trade it for the world...,,,,,,,,,,,,,really.
Cincinnana.......
edwmax
09-17-2017, 08:36 PM
I can feel for you guys ... i had my 4000 watt gen set wire into my service panel and back feed the bus- bars. (OF course I pulled the main) .... This gave me lights though out the house and powered 2 frigs, a freezer, 4 computers and the phones (until the phone Co. backup batteries failed on the paragain boxes at 12 hrs).
My range is gas now. But a few years ago I had an all electric kitchen and I kept a Colman camp stove for emergencies/power outages and it did come in handy for one week.
Botanical_Bryce
09-17-2017, 09:15 PM
Seems to me like everyone north, east and south of me got hit harder than me. We lost power and lots of down limbs, but not near the flooding Hernando and Marion counties are getting. My property waterlogs easy so that created some problems with some bushes and one banana toppling over. I was worried my mobile home got knocked of the foundation but came home to everything being perfectly intact. Did lose all my fruits though.
cincinnana
09-17-2017, 09:28 PM
Forum member Kubali (Lakeland, Fla) is still without power needs a better/bigger temporary generator to get through this to keep the fridge/freezer going.
This is temporary till his wife and kids get power.
edwmax
09-17-2017, 11:26 PM
Forum member Kubali (Lakeland, Fla) is still without power needs a better/bigger temporary generator to get through this to keep the fridge/freezer going.
This is temporary till his wife and kids get power.
What size is his gen now?
cincinnana
09-18-2017, 06:43 AM
What size is his gen now?
Actually I do not know .....Kub just said had a tough time keeping everything powered.
He might be switching out and plugging in appliances as he needs them.
Hopefully power will be restored soon for the folks along the path.
edwmax
09-18-2017, 07:21 AM
Actually I do not know .....Kub just said had a tough time keeping everything powered.
He might be switching out and plugging in appliances as he needs them.
Hopefully power will be restored soon for the folks along the path.
He must be using a extension cord from the generator. If his gen set has 220 outlet, then he should be able to have lights as well as powering the frig and freezer. He needs to wire into the service panel. But a contractor size gen set (30 amp ?) can not power Central HVAC, hot water heaters or electric range. ... I was only pulling 8 to 12 amps from my set set during the outage.
Patching into the service panel is not hard. Simply add a 30 amp or 50 amp double pole breaker (size doesn't really mater here; the gen set is fused too) connect wire (12 ga min) to the breaker and panel ground and connect to the generator with an L14 plug. This will back feed the panel bus bars. .... BE SURE TO DISCONNECT THE MAIN BREAKER BEFORE SWITCHING THE NEW BREAKER ON; and disconnect the hvac; hot water heater & elect. range (any other large breaker ??). ... Remove the new breaker & wire to the get set when power is restored.
obdiah
09-18-2017, 09:09 AM
Glad you came through with out two much damage can you salvage your fruiting plants
my wife and I were in bath nc with our boat waiting to take it out of the marina and anchor
but it never turned north so we stayed in the slip any way hope all you Florida folks can get back to normal soon
beam2050
09-19-2017, 12:42 PM
I feel for you fellas...
My 80 something parents and two of their as old neighbors fled Naples to Macon, Ga. in an 18 hour convoy from hell, which normally takes 8 hours.
.
we kept our power and after the bananas were pruned and set back upright we evacuated, after the hurricane. that was Tuesday. going north there were maybe 6 cars in sight in our lane the whole time, that was I 75. but south bound was nothing but cars and trucks. solid from I 10 to north of Atlanta. at night the lights from the 3 southbound lanes were almost blinding. nothing but a long ribbon of lights, non ending. wish I would have took a pic. we got a hotel room at 11 pm and Wednesday it was the same thing. we were headed to Tennessee.
we went right back to Irma in Tennessee for 2 more days. don't you know I let her have a piece of my mind. you betcha by golly.
imclumbi
09-19-2017, 07:15 PM
Propped up a nearly snapped in half Dwarf cavendish to save as many bananas as possible. Found this twin. Anyone seen this?
Banana Gallery - twin_cavendish (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=62355&cat=2819)
[Banana Gallery - Saba (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=62141) http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=62355&filefix=.jpg]
(credit [Bananas.org - View Profile: imclumbi (http://www.bananas.org/member.php?u=26345) imclumbi])
Tytaylor77
09-19-2017, 09:59 PM
Yes! It's very very common. I've had a lot on Veinte cohol and goldfinger. PM me your email and I can show you a Goldfinger bunch that had 10 or so "twins". No clue what the actual term is for them! Very common though!!
Congrats on the bunch. Hope the connection is ok and it continues filling!!
imclumbi
09-20-2017, 08:54 PM
Any way to tell if the connection is ok? And the bananas will continue to fill? I have some broken in half where all the leaves are brown and some that have still retained some green in the damaged leaves.
Ripsaw
10-12-2017, 05:30 PM
I live on Ramrod Key, Fl. The eye went over my house with a 4 - 5 foot storm serge. Have not been able to return yet. Planning on waiting until power, water and sewer are restored. I do not expect to be able to grow bananas again for at least a year. You g to need a lot of rain to wash all the salt out of our so called "soil".
Thinking about this. Try some potted bananas and make some raised garden beds. I had salt water over my property a few years ago and it took about two years to get salt to leach out.
Modfiying soil by irrigation and adding amendments will help, and raised garden beds will work if you really like gardening and don't want to wait.
:nanadrink:
kaczercat
10-12-2017, 06:13 PM
Hey Kevin? from youtube?? sorry to see the damage but glad you're ok. I know you were waiting paitently for them to bloom.
ElPlatanoSaturn
11-05-2017, 08:03 PM
Hey Kevin? from youtube?? sorry to see the damage but glad you're ok. I know you were waiting paitently for them to bloom.
Wow, didn't expect anyone to know my YouTube channel. That's cool! And if I remember I only posted one video ever
kaczercat
11-05-2017, 08:31 PM
Wow, didn't expect anyone to know my YouTube channel. That's cool! And if I remember I only posted one video ever ��
there were I think one or two.
vBulletin® v3.6.8, Copyright ©2000-2020, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.