How much rain can my plants stand?
 

We had a very hard rain here last Friday. Our yard is still soaking wet.
Heavy rain is predicted again. It's raining already.
I just want to know if I should pull and pot up my plants that are soaking wet? I don't want any to get root rot. :(

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

Anna, maybe you can lay some plastic around the stem for a few days
so that most water will fluid away from the corm? Just an idea cause I
don't know how wet the soil is. I think this will work for a few days not
for the long run, you have to remove it when the rain stops.


Ron

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

I wouldn't worry, they'll be fine (as long as it doesn't freeze or something on top of it as well). Bananas are actually rather good at handling floods, I've even seen them being grown permanently in nearly mud...

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

They do take ALOT of rain, more than I thought. Most of my bananas outside survived the extremely wet winter we had here last year.

Erlend

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

Thanks Gabe. We have a lot of rain here also and you let my mind at ease.
And starting tomorrow the 5- day forecast is 34*F low.

Benny

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

The only problem I have personally had is heavy winds after a good rain. It's my theory that that the plants takes up a lot of water during a big rain making it heavier than usual and more prone to blowing over or snapping in half during strong winds. Of course I have no scientific proof of this, it's just what has happened several times in my garden after a big rain.

A few years ago when we had the heavy rains I had one planter that had standing water for days and the plants showed no Ill effects from it, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

The sogginess is not good, and some roots may rot, but it is still relatively warm, and it will dry out - so don't sweat it. You can't change the rainfall, anyway.

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

Thanks, everyone! It poured like crazy again today. Yet down the street a couple of miles it was dry.

Re: How much rain can my plants stand?
 

This time of year is not a good time of year for bananas to be sitting in water, but being in Cal doesn't hurt. It's cold and wet that will do a banana in. The roots do need oxygen though, or the plant will eventually die. It would have to be submerged for a pretty long time for that to happen though.

On a side note, one species that is supposedly extremely tolerant of water-logged soils is Musa itinerans.