edwmax

I'm in zone 8b/9a and the last 2 nights the low temp was 34 deg F and day-time temp in the 70's. Soil temp at 4" is about 60 deg. F

The Bananas in my yard: Orinoco, Dwarf Orinoco, Rajapuri, and 1000 Fingers do not show any low temp burn/wilt. Their leaves & cigar leaves are bright green.

Other Nana Patch is in a low area and I think the temp got little lower than 34 or may be a little frost (?). These plants have been in the ground less than a week.

Gros Michel (3), Pisang Ceylon (5), Blue Java (5), FHA 1 (5), FHIA 18 (5); all had dark wilted leaves this morning. ...

Hue Moa (3) showed no wilt or darking of the its leaves and its cigar leaf is still green. ... This is actually a surprise for me ... was not expected.

Williams (3) showed some darkening, I think was from the red coloring, but no wilt and its cigar leaf is still bright green.

Dwarf Namwah (5) had some dark wilted leaves and some leaves & cigar leaves bright green.

May be some other forum members will post their plant low temp tolerance. This certainly helps with variety selection for banana patches.

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a.hulva@coxinet.net

Temperatures at the local weather station is not always the same as goo home. When it gets 32 or below for a few hours you'll probably see a change for sure.

edwmax

I happen to own several thermometers. ... For your info, the temperature across my county varied from 35 deg F to 30 deg F Monday morning. The UGA (University of Georgia) weather station is 2 miles from my location. Their recorded low was less than 1/2 deg higher than my reading. ....

The point of this thread is to give other members info about cold tolerance for the different Banana cultivars. This was very much info I needed to for plant selection to re-plant my patch last week! So if any other member would like to post their result and experience for their USDA Zone, I'm sure other members would appreciate the info.

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meizzwang

I wonder if having such a high swing from luke warm days to almost freezing cold nights decreases cold tolerance? It's also ideal to compare apples to apples: a recently planted FHIA1, for example, will have much less cold tolerance compared to a full mature established mat of FHIA1.

In contast to weather in Georgia, our recent temperatures here in Northern California have been in the high 50's during the day and the coldest has been in the high 30's at night. So far, no cold damage to anything, not even on a verified dwarf cavendish (one of my most cold sensitive varieties) that has zero protection. Of course, our lows are a bit higher compared to Georgia temps, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when we get closer to freezing here in Northern California.

edwmax

Please list your other Banana varieties. My DC's are inside. I will set them out this coming spring. The DC are less than2 ft tall and the pstem less than 2" diameter. It is good to know the DC can tolerate temps in the 'high 30s'.

Also, my other new plants which have a pstem less than 4" diameter, I put a cardboard mailing tube over the pstem and covered that with a black trash bag. The plants with bigger pstems I have not covered.

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meizzwang

I've only have 3 so far that have their ID's confirmed: dwarf cavendish (sampled a banana off the plant before acquiring a pup) American goldfinger, and Aeae. Now that I think about it, Aeae might be more cold sensitive than dwarf cavendish, but it's relatively protected because it's growing close to a large concrete wall.

I have the following cultivars from reputable sources, so ID is likely correct:
Dwarf Brazilian
Ice Cream
Pisang Ceylon
Dwarf Orinoco
Pisang raja

Unverified varieties:
1) possible rajapuri or some type of ABB variety, currently flowering so might be able to verify soon.
2) dwarf namwah
3) Williams
4) Musa balbisiana

edwmax

I'm not sure how the large temperature swing effects the banana plant. The 40 deg difference for the last 2 or 3 nights is not common for my area. ... The ground is still above 60 deg F., so I think the cold effect will be to the leaves. We'll see as the season progress. ... I know all the plants will drop their leaves once we have a frost. My question is at what point & SIZE the pstems will freeze. I know from past experience with the old plants (Orinoco), pstem larger than 4" diameter did not freeze when low temperatures were in the mid teens. So, I never cut large pstems to the ground.

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