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View Full Version : North Florida--what to do for winter??


Oblofusc
12-02-2008, 10:49 PM
I have several banana plants, large and small, different species, and most of the leaves on the larger ones I can't cover are already fried from a few frosts.

Before winter's over, there will probably be a couple of hard freezes.

I'd really like to keep as much intact as possible so things get a good head start in spring, so maybe I can get most of them to start to fruit BEFORE September and October.

What to do? Just wrap as much of the stalks as possible before any hard freezes? Is there anything else to do?

Is it better to lop everything off at say five feet and just cover the entire group of stalks with a good insulating blanket before any freezes?

Chironex
12-12-2008, 07:39 PM
There are many posts about this subject, simple search for "overwintering" as a keyword.

Simply Bananas
12-12-2008, 09:56 PM
In SC, I let them be.
One year I topped them out 1/2 of them out, the others I left.

I noticed no difference during the next summer.

I got a lot of fruit.

nullzero
12-19-2008, 01:48 AM
Let them be and have evolution sort it out. It reminds be of last year when I purchased 10 banana pups in November and all were dead except one in January. I was over confident, thinking I would be fine without cold damage in SOCAL. I wish I could ID the last remaining banana plant (all I know its a fruiting variety).

On a side note this year the last banana pup surviving is very strong indeed. I left it out this week even though we had the big freeze storm here in California. Checked today after 3 days of cold winds and freezing rain.... Its fully green and looks healthy as ever! Just a few tattered leaves from the wind.