Janelle525

So how did everyone do with the freeze warning? I'm near Bradenton and we definitely had a frost though they said it hit 35 I think it was a bit lower. I was sick so I couldn't do as much as I wanted to do and I'm seeing lots of leaves browning, I covered the smallest bananas and they would have probably died all the way down if I hadn't. Very disappointing!

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

Janelle525

Here is most of the damage. The first is of a super dwarf cavendish that had a rack of bananas, not sure they will make it, though that's okay as they are so itty bity! I have been leaving on old leaves so it's just the brownish maroon color that is the recent damage.

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

cincinnana

Wow.
It's a good thing the cold was not prolonged.
Those plants would be starting from ground up.
Hope for a speedy recovery

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Janelle525

Thanks! It definitely could have been worse. A tropical fruit tree grove called Sulcata Grove just 30 minutes south of us actually fared worse, she showed a video of everything on youtube and her bananas look awful! I wonder if it's because I am in between houses and right next to a retention pond it wasn't too severe. The namwa in the corner didn't have too much damage, that one is closest to the pond, but does take easterly winds pretty hard.

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

75north

Seems like people all around me got hit really hard, even several hours south of where I'm at in Orlando, but somehow I lucked out.

Mine look a whole lot like yours. Some partially browning leaves but nothing too bad. Might have a couple racks of bananas not make it/be really slow to fill out, but the plants will be fine overall.

There were some surprises as far as how the different types handled cold. This is anecdotal of course, but FHIA18, Monthan, and Virupakshi were completely unaffected by 32/33 degrees. Namwah, Mysore, SH3640, FHIA3, Pitogo, and (shockingly) Patupi had very little damage. Dwarf Brazilian did surprisingly poorly relative to its reputation as a cold tolerant type, though overall it's still fine.

Akula

I think all your plants should make it. The leaves are toast but the main plants should be good. If the plant was fruiting the fruit probably won't make it.

Heavy potassium feeding helps to lower the freezing points of the plants and make them a bit resistant to the cold. We are talking a couple degrees not immunity..lol.

wstrickland1

Bummer on that Janelle but consider yourself lucky. We were practically in the 80s up until New Years day. I mean we SWAM in the pool New Years weekend. New leaves pushing everywhere. Grass was green(ish). Then......several to many nights in the 20s, as low as 20 degrees. Needless to say it's not a pretty sight.

Janelle525

Thanks everyone, I do think I fared pretty well. Just a bummer that even in a 9b/10a climate you can get some freezing temperatures. Thankfully not for very long. I've lived here now for 3 winters, the previous two we only saw one or two nights of cold temps, not even in the 30's. This winter has been much more cold. We definitely moved to this area specifically to avoid the cold! haha.

Here's to hoping for amazing growth in the hot wet season!

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

Janelle525

Sorry to hear! January can be pretty brutal! Hang in there, spring is right around the corner

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

bananimal

I did ok. No brown leaves. No fruit was hanging. We never reached freexing temps.

stkfox

I’m at the top of the bay in Tampa and made out pretty well. Temps hovered about 34-35 thank golly. I have a huge bunch on right now that I would have hated to lose. But we’re not out of Feb yet, which I believe to be the coldest month around here.

memawtaterpie

I'm in North Tampa. Put some incandescent Xmas lights around the bananas then covered with frost cloth/bedsheets. The kokopo banana was the most affected with some of the topmost leaves getting frost damage, but it wasn't that bad. The orinoco had zero damage and keeps putting out a new leaf every week like nothing happened

Valor_X

It hit worse here in Texas down all the way to the coast
Hit 28 for 2 nights in a row with 10-20 degree wind chills the first night

My smaller plants look like they froze all the way but my bigger ones still have green stems

My Praying Hands was flowering too sadly

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Varieties I'm Growing

From Corm/Pup
Dwarf Cavendish ○ Super Dwarf Cavendish ○ Grand Nain ○ Niño ○ Manzano ○ Raja Puri ○ Tall Namwah ○ Blue Java ○ 1000 Fingers ○ Praying Hands ○ Orinoco ○ Variegated Florida ○ PR Red ○ California Gold ○ FHIA-03 Sweetheart

Plantains
Puerto Rican Dwarf Plantain ○ African Rhino Horn

From TC
Truly Tiny ○ Manzano ○ "Blue Java" ○ Dwarf Namwah ○ Thai Black ○ Veinte Cohol

Backyard Banana Joe

In Orlando most leaves that were not covered are dead. Going to have some miserable puny dwarf Cavendish bunches. Some bunches were mature enough that they will be fine, just not fill out any more.

Robbertico18

We caught 2 mean frosts a week apart up here in Savannah at the end of January and my garden is lookin sad.

So far it looks like everything will bounce back tho