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cold fruit
this is a couple pics of my D. orinoco if its not let me know anyway it started blooming about a month ago I have built a plastic greenhouse around it.the plant is wrapped with lights and the bottom is mulched around the edges.So far it has been working great unfortunately I forgot when i built this thing to make a access area to peak at the plant. so when i cut through the plastic to take these pics i ccould really feel the heat inside. It has not been cold yet we had one quick light frost a couple days ago.My question is when it gets cold will this work I really feel like it will not freeze inside this structure so will the fruit be able to make it through a couple cold months and still develop [url=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=47370&ppuser=3890]
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Re: cold fruit
Cool, literally!!
So I expect the fruit will be ready to pick in May? |
Re: cold fruit
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To remedy that, just cut a square window in your plastic and then cover it with a larger piece (3 to 4 inches overlap). Stick that on with that transparent packing tape, solid across at the top and with smaller pieces to tack down the corners on the bottom. You can then lift it up at your convenience (to peek from time to time at a thermometer, which you might have hung at the plant) :) You may have to replace the bottom pieces after a few uses. Tip: I am using 'bubble wrap' for my cover, after I uncover the heavy duty protection in spring, for better heat insulation. Good luck! Olaf |
Re: cold fruit
ok made a viewing window today from clear plastic, during the day it gets very warm and it drops quickly after the sun goes down. have four hands so far with about ten fingers each,looks like more are on the way.
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Re: cold fruit
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Congratulations! Actually I use the window and thermometer for 'venting' in April-May, when here the sun is very strong and could easily overheat the enclosure and the nights are still cold enough to threaten frost. |
Re: cold fruit
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That's awesome do you have photos of the structure you built around it? How many freezes/frosts have you gotten so far? You said none I think. I have had two freezes here in North FL so far :/ |
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no freezes yet and two light frost last week not enough to brown my unprotected plants. I have a saba now that has been slowly opening a new leaf in the last week and today i noticed some new flowers on a couple brugmansias. prety cool I hope it stays mild! |
Re: cold fruit
Hi Kat,
I have a detailed description for a bubble wrap shelter here with pictures: http://www.bananas.org/f2/my-banana-...ack-12904.html In retrospect I should just add, that you probably need to add a gable to it, by splicing a couple of tees into the centre of opposite bars pointing up, and then levelling them off with a couple of elbows and another bar connecting them to form some sort of a ‘gable’, otherwise the rainwater tends to ‘pond’ on top. The one pictured measures 2x2x4 feet high. Last spring I improvised the gable thing, by inserting a board on edge, because I did not want to take the whole thing apart again. Next summer I am considering to transform a 4.5’ by 5.5’ pond into a “tropical planter”. I intend to use the same, somewhat improved method again to enclose the whole thing. Another tip: I pounded short bamboo sticks in the ground at the proper spacing and slid the ¾ inch PVC irrigation pipe over them. I had thought, that I would have to splint the pipes to the bamboo to keep it in place, but that proved not necessary, since the whole thing turned out quite sturdy. ¾ inch PVC irrigation pipe is quite cheap, if you get is from an irrigation outfit and not from a hardware store and the tight ‘slip fit’ lets you take it apart for easy storage. Good luck, Olaf |
Re: cold fruit
Going to be a long nite for the bananas we have wind gust to 40 and temps getting down to28. Not sure if my plastic greenhouse and Christmas lights can pull it off. It's our first cold weather but it's only suppose to last one more day for now.
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Re: cold fruit
Maybe add some water buckets to collect heat during the day and release at night?
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Re: cold fruit
[That would be a good idea, though I had thought more on the lines of adding a couple of these 4 l (1 gal) milk
containers with warm water on nights when the tempt would get near freezing. But your method would require less vigilance. I have also acquired some old quilts, which I can toss over the "crystal palace" on cold nights.The combination will probably allow me to uncover the banana 3 to 4 weeks earlier,tan I did last year. |
Re: cold fruit
It was 31 or 33 in the plastic this mornin but it looks like they made it all my yard plants fell over today. Going to try the bucket idea got to do something they won't make it next time. It's a long shot to get this fruit to make it soon I will be leaving town for the season maybe I will get lucky.
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Re: cold fruit
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Yeah all my yard plants fell over too :( We were at 20 this morning when I left for work :( The stuff in my greenhouse looks pretty good but I didn't dig up any of my pseudostems :( Only have a few bananas in there. Guess I'll see how cold hardy everything really is ! I hope yours pulls through! |
Re: cold fruit
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freezing temps. But I believe, that most need subfreezing temperatures for ice crystals to form, which in turn crush the cell structures. Not knowing anything about a subject, has never kept me from voicing an opinion, but I believe, that bananas are of the latter kind, because my Basjoo survived short dips below 0^C (32^F) before freezing up ater last fall. |
Re: cold fruit
Banana sap does in fact gel and you will see chilling injury even without a frost of freeze. The low at my house was 44, the problem is that it was below 50 for the entire day and I can see some damage on the leaves.
The farm got a lot colder and I could actually tell where there was frost in places. Fortunately the frost only appeared to occur in open areas, although some of my Dwarf Superplantains seem to have taken a good hit. |
Re: cold fruit
See? I told you, I don't know noth'n from noth'n, but mouth off anyway. :)
Having said that, I do not think, that this gelling bit applies to all Bananas. It certainly did not to my Basjoo and when I was in southern China a few years ago, still in the tropics, ~200 km south of the Tropic of Cancer, I saw banana plants and temperatures were dead on 0^C (32^ F) at the time. |
Re: cold fruit
Basjoo is a different species than an edible banana so it's hard to say. I know that the various species of Anonna vary in their tolerance to cold. Of course, even with edible bananas you will see differences from variety to variety
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Re: cold fruit
what happens in the extreme high temp range,I wonder this because the other day my thermometer was over 110 in the plastic house,how hot can they take? and if this works out for me how will the fruit handle these highs and lows?
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