Bananas.org

Welcome to the Bananas.org forums.

You're currently viewing our message boards as a guest which gives you limited access to participate in discussions and access our other features such as our wiki and photo gallery. By joining our community, you'll have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload photos, and access many other special features. Registration is fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Go Back   Bananas.org > Other Topics > Member Introductions
Register Photo Gallery Classifieds Wiki Chat Map Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Member Introductions This is the `tell us about yourself` category. Please make an introductory post here, let us know a little about yourself. A perfect place to break the ice.


Members currently in the chatroom: 0
The most chatters online in one day was 17, 09-06-2009.
No one is currently using the chat.

Reply   Email this Page Email this Page
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 05-03-2019, 10:39 AM   #1 (permalink)
Zone 6b TN
 
Location: Cumberland Plateau, TN
Zone: 6b
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 3
BananaBucks : 1,629
Feedback: 0 / 0%
Said "Thanks" 3 Times
Was Thanked 3 Times in 1 Post
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times
Default New guy from Tennessee

Hi everyone,

I just bought my first banana starts from Florida Hill Nursery. They are Raja Puri and Ice Cream.

I live at 1800 ft on the Cumberland Plateau in TN. The climate here kills a lot of plants hardier than bananas. The Warm/Freeze, Warm/Freeze cycle of our winters is brutal to most tree fruits I try to grow.

I have had dozens of plants die over the winters. Pears, Cherries, Plums, Peaches die easily in their first winter. Even apples get burst bark from freezing sometimes.


I'm not quitting though, in fact I'm adding to my collection! Bananas!

What kind of reputation does Florida Hill Nursery have? I ordered elephant ears from them before and was satisfied, but I think they sent me the wrong elephant ear this time and they won't reply to my emails.

I would like to be able to grow a short season banana that I can dig up and overwinter indoors, either dormant or under grow lights and put it out in Late April/May and have ripe bananas by first frost in October.



Some more about me:

I am a bit of a fruit collector, and still collecting despite my climate(or is it myself?) killing a good third of what I plant. I've only been at it for 3 or 4 years.

I'm a fig nut. I was a member of the Figs4Fun forum before it shut down, and am a member at the new OurFigs.com forum. I have over 60 fig trees in the ground and am selecting for figs that will bear fruit in a single season after freezing to the ground and growing back from the roots.

My other tropicals that I have to take in during the winters are Dragon Fruit(too many. I need to get rid of some), Guava, Australian Finger lime, Papaya.

In ground I have Apples of all sorts, Seedless Che, Seaberries, Raspberries of all colors, Primocane Blackberries, Quince(Doing surprisingly well), Jujubes, Rabbiteye Blueberries, Muscadines(climate kills about half of varieties), LOTS of pawpaws, (That's my other obsession, Been trying for 8 years and yet to get the first fruit.), Persimmons, (Half of the Asians dead), Plums, Pears, Cherries, Apricots, Peaches, Pluerries, Pluots, (nearly all dead after 1st Winter)

I feel like I have wasted a lot of money and labor on the things that die and it does get discouraging sometimes, but maybe with the help of the people on this forum I can keep bananas alive and maybe even someday taste my own tree-ripened fruit!
OldOneEye is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To OldOneEye
Said thanks:
The following 20 users say welcome OldOneEye to Bananas.org!
AdotKarl (06-11-2019), Akula (05-03-2019), beam2050 (05-05-2019), cincinnana (05-13-2019), crazy banana (05-16-2019), FilthKing (05-13-2019), hdynad (05-03-2019), HMelendez (05-04-2019), Iowa (05-03-2019), Johnsk9 (05-03-2019), kubali (05-23-2019), luisport (05-03-2019), pmurphy (05-04-2019), PR-Giants (05-06-2019), rottiedog46 (05-03-2019), Sarah Brubacker (05-05-2019), scottu (05-04-2019), SearchIt (05-13-2019), tve (05-13-2019), Yug (05-16-2019)

Join Bananas.org Today!

Are you a banana plant enthusiast? Then we hope you will join the community. You will gain access to post, create threads, private message, upload images, join groups and more.

Bananas.org is owned and operated by fellow banana plant enthusiasts. We strive to offer a non-commercial community to learn and share information. Receive all three issues from Volume 1 of Bananas Magazine with your membership:
   

Join Bananas.org Today! - Click Here


Sponsors

Old 05-03-2019, 04:49 PM   #2 (permalink)
 
hdynad's Avatar
 
Location: LaFollette, Tennessee
Zone: 7
Name: Darla
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 461
BananaBucks : 54,675
Feedback: 2 / 75%
Said "Thanks" 1,769 Times
Was Thanked 797 Times in 318 Posts
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 53 Times
Default Re: New guy from Tennessee

Welcome to the Org. if your wanting specific bananas it is best to buy from an Org. member with verified varieties. i am sure you got healthy plants at a fair price however i am not sure you got what you ordered, time will tell. Look up older posts and you will see a lot of mis marked bananas.
Tennessee is beautiful btw, my daughter lives in Knoxville

happy growing,

Darla
__________________
Currently growing, , DGM Highgate, Blue Java, Dwarf Red, Dwarf Brazilian , Ensete Glaucum, Pitogo, Hoa Moa, Raja Puri, Thai Black, VG Chaing Rai, Manzano, Praying Hands. Yunnan, Hawiaan Crown, Dwarf Red Plantain
hdynad is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To hdynad
Said thanks:
Old 05-04-2019, 03:24 AM   #3 (permalink)
The Banana Gang Enforcer
 
HMelendez's Avatar
 
Zone: 10B-11
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,750
BananaBucks : 192,050
Feedback: 5 / 100%
Said "Thanks" 11,104 Times
Was Thanked 5,278 Times in 1,618 Posts
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 737 Times
Default Re: New guy from Tennessee

Welcome to the banana gang!......
__________________
HMelendez is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To HMelendez
Said thanks:
Old 05-13-2019, 02:33 AM   #4 (permalink)
 
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 3
BananaBucks : 2,006
Feedback: 2 / 100%
Said "Thanks" 0 Times
Was Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 4 Times
Default Re: New guy from Tennessee

Welcome to bananas
FilthKing is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To FilthKing
Said thanks:
Old 05-13-2019, 08:00 AM   #5 (permalink)
Zone 6b TN
 
Location: Cumberland Plateau, TN
Zone: 6b
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 3
BananaBucks : 1,629
Feedback: 0 / 0%
Said "Thanks" 3 Times
Was Thanked 3 Times in 1 Post
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times
Default Re: New guy from Tennessee

Thanks, Everybody for welcoming me!
OldOneEye is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To OldOneEye
Sponsors

Old 05-13-2019, 11:26 AM   #6 (permalink)
tve
newbanana
 
Location: Santa Barbara, CA mountains
Zone: 9b/10a
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 27
BananaBucks : 3,086
Feedback: 0 / 0%
Said "Thanks" 15 Times
Was Thanked 38 Times in 13 Posts
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 3 Times
Default Re: New guy from Tennessee

Welcome to bananas!

Have you experimented with different rootstocks and grafting yourself on top? You may be able to get cuttings for free at a local scion exchange or even from other fruit fanatics.

I don't have experience in your area at all, but I'm surprised that late frosts kill your trees, I would have expected that to perhaps kill some of the new shoots and flower or such, but not the tree. Is there perhaps something else going on, like waterlogging? Or perhaps you need to get some heavy "floating row cover" to put over new trees for a year or two until they're more established?

NB: I really like Tropical Fruit Forum - International Tropical Fruit Growers - Index outside of bananas, are you there?
tve is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To tve
Old 05-13-2019, 11:57 AM   #7 (permalink)
Zone 6b TN
 
Location: Cumberland Plateau, TN
Zone: 6b
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 3
BananaBucks : 1,629
Feedback: 0 / 0%
Said "Thanks" 3 Times
Was Thanked 3 Times in 1 Post
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times
Default Re: New guy from Tennessee

Quote:
Originally Posted by tve View Post

Have you experimented with different rootstocks and grafting yourself on top? You may be able to get cuttings for free at a local scion exchange or even from other fruit fanatics.

I have started trying to monitor what rootstocks do well in my area. Not every nursery I have purchased from displays the rootstocks, but those that do I make note of and check back later. One thing I have noticed is that in regards to Persimmons, those grafted onto Diospyros Virginiana(American Persimmon) seem to survive the winters better than those on Diospyros Lotus(date-plum). Of course that is what one would expect, being that the American Persimmon is native. Still, if the scion is cold sensitive, the native rootstock won't be enough to save it.



Quote:
Originally Posted by tve View Post
I don't have experience in your area at all, but I'm surprised that late frosts kill your trees, I would have expected that to perhaps kill some of the new shoots and flower or such, but not the tree. Is there perhaps something else going on, like waterlogging? Or perhaps you need to get some heavy "floating row cover" to put over new trees for a year or two until they're more established?

It's not just late frosts. It's late freezes. Freezes that come after several nice warm sunny days. The trees wake up and start sap flowing, start leafing out and BAM! 25 degrees and the leaves freeze, the sap freezes under the bark, bursting trunks and killing trees. The temperature swings like crazy here. I remember one year it got to 23 degrees one night and snowed two inches. The next day it got up to 70-something and all the snow was melted before noon!

I'm going to start painting trunks with white latex paint and see if that helps. A floating row cover or insulating each tree is not really an option with the number of trees that I have and my limited time.

I messed up this year and planted some stuff too early. In some ways I didn't have much choice, as the nursery shipped too early and it was either plant them or pot them all and keep them protected until late April, which I didn't really have time for, but I now wish I had, because a late freeze killed all four of the persimmons I planted and two of the four plums I planted.
In the future I will never plant until after last frost unless I know the plant is very cold hardy.

But yes, if the tree is mature, it can take the temperature swings much better. It's the one and two year old trees that are high risk.


Quote:
Originally Posted by tve View Post
NB: I really like Tropical Fruit Forum - International Tropical Fruit Growers - Index outside of bananas, are you there?
I have visited that forum a few times, but am not a member. I'll take another look at it.
OldOneEye is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To OldOneEye
Reply   Email this Page Email this Page






Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Bananas for Tennessee vol-vet Cold Hardy Bananas 6 03-02-2012 02:07 AM
Growing Container Bananas in East Tennessee leasmom Container Grown Banana Plants 7 06-03-2010 11:32 AM
Best fruiting varieties for East Tennessee bananoloco Cold Hardy Bananas 6 09-17-2008 10:00 AM
Hello from East Tennessee bananoloco Member Introductions 11 09-16-2008 08:54 PM
Sad day in SE Tennessee!!! Randy4ut Main Banana Discussion 36 11-14-2007 11:38 AM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:46 PM.





All content © Bananas.org & the respective author.