Bananas.org - Dwarf Brazilian

Quote:

Originally Posted by chong (Post 139261)

Chris,
Those Strawberry trees, are they the Jamaican Strawberry trees that have fruits that starts out green then yellow than red globular, around 3/8" diameter? Scientific name - Muntingia Calabura? I miss that fruit. That tree is almost a pest tree in the Philippines because it grows profusely. There is no commercial value there because the fruits ripen fast once picked. The fruit is super sweet like fig with really tiny seeds. The leaves have medicinal value and dried to make a great tea.

Not to be off topic, just to let you know that the two smaller Dwarf Brazilians that you sent me are the only one, from the generous shipment you sent me last year, to survive the Winter. The giant DB corm didn't even sprout.
I have one of them in my temporary home in Richland, WA, but I think that I will bring the other one there as well just to be safe. I did have them in my greenhouse all year, but the lack of sunshine is what I think that is really hurting them. I will post pictures soon.

Those are awesome pictures you posted! Thanks.

Chong

Chong,
You are too good!
Yep…our Strawberry Tree aka Jamaica Cherry (“Muntingia calabura L.”) bit it…it tasted just like Cotton Candy…all of our Coconut Palms, Sugar Apples, Macadamia Nut, Plumeria and many others also died.
Jamaica Cherry
Bummer about your bananas..I know Dwarf Brazilians are one of your favorites. You had a lot going on traveling with work. How is the greenhouse doing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Daw (Post 139272)

That's a terrible damage. I do share your pain. Losing so many adult and healthy plants must be... simply very difficult.
Have you made plans what to replace them with?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mushtaq86 (Post 139288)

That is such a terrible loss.How long did the cold spell last.The problem with growing nanas and other exotic plants is while they can be replaced,but time and effort cant be.

Thanks for the kind words!:nanadrink:

It was tough for everyone.....we lost trees we planted 15-18 years ago...many other board members got hit equally hard.

We are still cleaning up (chopping/trimming dead treas).

Quote:

Originally Posted by mushtaq86 (Post 139288)

That is such a terrible loss.How long did the cold spell last.

Coldest winter in Tampa since 1969 ends Saturday

Coldest winter in Tampa since 1969 ends Saturday

By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune
and KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune
Maybe you've heard this during the unrelenting winter, or even thought it yourself: "I can't ever remember a winter like this."

There's a good reason. Unless you were around four decades ago, you've never seen a winter like this. Well, finally, after months of shivering under the oppressive cold “yes, this is Florida“ winter is over.

At 1:32 p.m. tomorrow with the start of spring, we can bid a not-so-fond farewell to a winter of sinkholes, sleet and soaring electric bills, ruined crops and a deadly toll on wildlife.

Most will remember the brutal cold of early January when freezing or near freezing temperatures sliced into 12 consecutive nights in Hillsborough and forced strawberry farmers to run pumps relentlessly to protect their crops. The result: sinkholes, dried-up residential wells, caved-in roads and a school closed. The cost: millions of dollars.

Records compiled by meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Ruskin show that December, January and February ”the months meteorologists consider winter” were the coldest in Tampa since 1969 and the 10th coldest since 1890 when records started here.

The winter set records in Tampa and St. Petersburg for consecutive days that did not reach 60 for the afternoon high. The old record in Tampa was seven days below 60 in January 1956. In St. Petersburg, the run broke the mark from December 1995.

And March has continued the trend. Temperatures were below average all but two days so far this month.

The invading onslaughts of Arctic air even brought sleet and some snow to parts of the Tampa Bay area, something that hasn't been seen in 30 years. Frigid air combining with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico brought the wintery mix of freezing rain and sleet across inland sections of Pasco, Hernando, Polk and Citrus counties and even a dusting of snow in a few places.

Finally, on the first day of spring, forecasts call for the afternoon to hit 77 degrees, the normal temperature for March 20.

Behind it all was abnormally warm water in the Pacific Ocean called an El NiÃ±o. It caused shifts in the jet stream that allowed slugs of frigid Arctic air to plunge farther south into Florida.

The blasts of icy air reached all of the state except the Keys, said Amy Godsey, state meteorologist.

Every county in Florida except in the Keys opened cold weather shelters at some point this year, she said.

"The number of Arctic outbreaks was unusual," she said. "We had 12 days in a row when much of the state was below freezing."

The cold did have one positive effect on the winter weather in February. There were no tornadoes in Florida during February, the peak month for twisters during a winter dominated by an El NiÃ±o.
That was unusual, Godsey said.

The air was too cold to allow tornadoes to form when storm systems moved over the state every few days, she said.

Here's a look at some of the winter's impact in Florida:

Agriculture

By some estimates, tomato growers lost 70 percent of their plants this winter.

The loss led to a scarcity of Florida-grown tomatoes. And when they could be found, they were more than $3 a pound. Some restaurants served up salads and burgers without tomatoes.

Growers continued to wait for warm weather in March, hoping for a rebound crop. It has warmed up some, but not enough to quicken a second harvest.

"It hasn't been warm," said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. "It's kind of a sad deal."

The 12 consecutive days of freezing temperatures came at a time when the strawberry crop of eastern Hillsborough County was at its most vulnerable. Farmers tried to save their crops by spraying millions of gallons of water from the aquifer onto the fields. The aquifer drained, pocking the landscape with sinkholes and depressions. Residential wells went dry.

Aside from losses from the cold, farmers were required to pay costs of repairing wells of people living near the 7,000 to 8,000 acres of strawberry fields in the Plant City-Dover area.

It all added up to a pretty slim year for growers, they say.

"It's already a losing year," Florida Strawberry Grower's Association Executive Director Ted Campbell said at the end of January. The 12-day freeze, he said, "is absolutely unprecedented.''

As temperatures crept above freezing, and after all that water had been pumped, the Southwest Florida Water Management District had received more than 600 dry well complaints from Plant City area residents.

Sinkholes Vs. Roads, School

Three eastbound lanes of Interstate 4 were closed by a 24-foot-wide depression for four days in January, a situation linked to strawberry field watering. The Florida Department of Transportation spent $300,000 to repair it.

And the bill to taxpayers kept rising. During the cold snap, Hillsborough County commissioners added $2 million to a contract for stabilizing sinkholes, bringing the county fund to repair ground depressions to $2.6 million.

Eight roads inside the Plant City limits were damaged by sinkholes or depressions.

Besides Interstate 4, two major highways in eastern Hillsborough “U.S. 92 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard “ were damaged by sinkholes or depressions.

Officials say about 80 sinkholes or ground depressions formed because of the strawberry watering during the freeze. One was adjacent to Trapne ll Elementary School and forced school administrators to transfer students to other schools.

Cement mixers loaded with grout filled the void, estimated to be between 80 and 120 feet deep.

Students will return to the school on April 19, when they return from spring break. The cost: $600,000, said school district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe. "A good majority of it," she said, "will be paid for through insurance."

Plant City officials this month had to spend $255,000 to shore up the ground around a water tank that is threatened by a sinkhole.

The city drained the 500,000-gallon tank in January because of unstable ground.

The cost was the most inexpensive option presented by an engineering study, for which the city paid an additional $57,000.

Cost Of Keeping Warm

Residents trying to stay comfortable in their homes during the January cold snap ran up their heating bills. Some Tampa Electric Co. customers paid three times as much each night to heat their house compared to the first 11 days of a normal January.

It costs 23 cents an hour to run a heat pump when it's 55 degrees outside, roughly the average low temperature in January. But, it costs 85 cents an hour if it is 33 degrees outside, or just about the average low temperature over the first 11 days of 2010.

If the increased power use pushed customers' consumption over the 1,000 kilowatt hour threshold, a higher rate kicked in.

The Toll on Wildlife

The January freeze also took a crippling swing at some critters that call the Sunshine State home.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said that more than 3,000 shivering sea turtles have been rescued and taken to various facilities throughout the state this winter.

The frigid temperatures also killed fish. During the first few weeks of January, the commission's fish kill hotline had received hundreds of reports of cold-related fish kills across the state.

Biologists say that when the water temperatures drop, fish don't typically die from the cold, but they do become more susceptible to disease. So, even fish that survived the chilly temperatures became susceptible to fungal infections.

Manatees were unable to come in from the cold and the snap resulted in 193 manatees from around the state dying from cold stress, according to the Save the Manatee Club. The cold kill was the largest die-off of sea cows ever recorded.

Another 151 manatee deaths between Jan. 1 and March 5 were classified as undetermined or unrecovered, some likely also were caused by the cold, the club says.

State officials say the previous record for cold stress deaths among manatees is 56, which occurred in 2009.

The cold also reached into the briny depths around the Florida Keys. The snap that dropped the water temperature to 45 degrees was enough to kill all of the coral along the Keys in 10 feet of water or less, including reefs as far south as Key West and the Dry Tortugas.

"Decimated," said Allan Marshall, vice president of biological operations at The Florida Aquarium earlier this month. "They have recently become deserts."