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Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog : NOAA Reduces Odds of El Niño Conditions This Winter | Weather Underground

"The chance of a noteworthy El Niño event this winter is becoming more slender, diminishing along with California’s chances for more drought relief. In its latest monthly outlook on the state of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), issued this morning, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center continued its El Niño Watch but reduced the odds of El Niño conditions from the previous 65% to approximately 50–60%. Moreover, the agency now calls for ENSO-neutral conditions (neither El Niño nor La Niña) to be the most likely state of affairs from March onward."

bad news for the folks in cali, but i am glad our chances of a cold/wet winter have gone down. especially after last night's dip into the 30s

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blownz281

Link wasn't loading for me. Hope it means a mild normal winter for coastal NC🌴

SixtySix

Thirties?!? LOL Yesterday the thermometer on my porch read 12f.

Spring is just around the corner. I swear I saw forysthia blooming out of the corner of my eye and I know it won't be long before I catch a daffodil poking through.

Hoping my first musa basjoo survives this winter, when should I expect it's return?

drobbins

the pic below is a musa basjoo on April 4th 2014 in central NC



here's July 15th



They're fun to grow because the grow so fast into such a spectacular plant

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Central North Carolina zone 7b-8a
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SixtySix

Exactly what I'm hoping to achieve!

Was that your first winter? Would you mind elaborating? Interested to know when you planted it. I put a 3ft plant in the ground mid-August. It survived, but didn't necessarily thrive, up until the first frost.

Excited about the possibility of a banana grove in my backyard.

drobbins

that's actually pictures of 2 different plant
the first one of the plants emerging in spring is plants put in the ground the previous spring I had purchased as 4" plants from I think wellspring nursery on ebay. They're in raised beds full of compost and had quite a bit of mulch on them that first year. Last years winter was cold as crap around here
The second plant was donated from a neighbor and was about 3 ft tall when I planted it in the spring. The picture really doesn't do it justice, it's from July, by the time late September rolled around it was much larger and quite a sight to behold.
I mulched good that first year but other folks around here with established mats don't do anything and they seem to tolerate winter just fine. I drive by a guy's house every day who overwintered a mat as 5 ft preudostems in his side yard last year and by early May he had 12 ft tall nice looking plants. Really pretty stunning for central NC
The one in that second picture looked to me like it wanted to bloom by the end of last year so kind of expecting that early next year, but it has several pups so it should be fun to watch

check out these pics of a couple of ensete glaucom and 2 alocasia "Borneo Giant" I'm overwintering in my basement
no way those guys can survive outside but they make really spectacular plants ;-)
Index of /ensete

Dave

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Central North Carolina zone 7b-8a
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Snarkie

Did he just let them die back on their own to that height? If not, what happens if you do nothing to the stem; will it hamper the new growth? If you leave the pstems that high, will new leaves emerge at the bottom or start where the cut was made?

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Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

drobbins

I don't have enough experience to answer all your questions but the guy who's house I drive by cut the tops out of them at about 5 feet. His shot new growth out of the tops of the p-stems. I did the same with mine this year and I notice the p-stems feel pretty soft right now. I think it would be a good idea to put a plastic bag over the top of the stem to keep rain out. Warm weather, rain runs into stem, cold weather and freeze = bad news. We'll see how they do this spring, keeping my fingers crossed.

Dave

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Central North Carolina zone 7b-8a
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siege2050

We are having some strange weather here, its been in the upper 40's, 50s, 60s, and even 70's most of the month. We basically skipped January as far a winter goes, and I heard frogs peeping in a pond nearby yesterday.

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Snarkie

I've been keeping an eye on the ones that were simply left to die back as is. Since they do that in the wild, I'm sure they'll come back; I'm just curious as to how. I'll compare them against others that were cut back to 18".

All in all, I'm way ahead of myself, seeing as how mine haven't even gone in the ground yet! It's good to get a jump on how-tos now though.

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Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"