aruzinsky

How well do banana plants grow in California without irrigation or other special care? I ask because I want to know whether replacing burned vegetation with banana plants will prevent future wild fires. I suppose there are other plants that contain high percentages of water that might be planted but, I am asking about banana plants because we are more familiar with them.

The weatherman said that the air in Chicago will be hazy from smoke from California wild fires.

Checker55

Depends on the specific location. Near the coast in Southern California would be the best possible scenario in my opinion.

crazy banana

Good idea, but besides water requirements, you also have to take winter temperatures into consideration.
I have a Pisang Ceylon banana mat inland at my horse barn where we had to evacuate twice. I water whenever I can, but temperatures went up to 115F and fried the leaves a few weeks ago, though the stems survived.
Every winter we get some nights with temperatures below 25F which also kills at least the foliage.
At my house near the coast temperatures are more moderate year round and the plants are less stressed or will recover quicker.

pitangadiego

They should do as well as you will without food and water.

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Richard

Without irrigation they're dead by July.

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aruzinsky

Thanks.

I note that there is plenty of information about landscaping around houses for fire protection of houses in California.

http://www.napafirewise.org/Doc/Livi...rochure%20.pdf

As I recall, if heavy rain follows wildfires in California, there are mudslides. There is no information on which nonflammable plants prevent soil erosion or which will crowd out flammable weeds. Apparently the CA government doesn't want to take its own advice on public land. Somehow, it is the homeowner's responsibility. The government plants new trees in burned forests, thereby, perpetuating the problem.

37.667910

As Richard so precisely said. They would be history fast without irrigation. Super hot, and extremely dry, humidity as well as precipitation.

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edwmax

Never heard of 'nonflammable plants' . All plants will burn! Some may be resistant to igniting due to their high moisture content vs. pine and other conifers.

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edwmax

If California would use prescribed burning during the dormant months then the fire hazard would be greatly reduced.

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Richard

aruzinsky: "I note that there is plenty of information about landscaping around houses for fire protection of houses in California."

It's marketing B.S.

Correct. In brush-fed California wildfires, temperatures on the leading edge exceed 1700°F. There's a reason the brush is termed Chaparral.

A better solution is to establish burn zones -- akin to flood zones. When a fire starts in one you only contain it to the perimeter. Admittedly it's a hard sell to people who don't understand that fire is a major portion of California natural history.

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pitangadiego

There was one estate in Santa Barbara that was planted all around with banana plants as a fire break. It was never tested to my knowledge but was approved by the fire dept. Oh, and they were irrigated.

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Akula

3.1 inches of rain for the year per Richard's chart? Wow! Our driest month is 3.89 inches here. Raining again today.

Climate in Pensacola, Florida

Richard

That's at my location 6 miles from the coast in Vista CA. Santa Barbara is about 100 aeronautical miles north and they received 8 in for the same period. Meanwhile where bananas are native they receive anywhere from 60 to 200 inches per year.

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Rollind24

Where the fires are happening I wouldn’t expect them to last long. I live in Sacramento area and the heat when it picks up will fry mine quick without water.

aruzinsky

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonflammable

"not easily ignited and not burning rapidly if ignited."

https://www.uv.es/jgpausas/papers/Pa...r-managers.pdf

"Non‐flammable plant species have evolved traits that resist ignitions with some combination of characteristics such as thick bark, succulency, simple leaves, or relative height without low branches (Fig.2a,d)."

Australian Succulents - What are the REAL environmental weeds?

"The only non-flammable plant in the landscape is the Opuntia."

SoCal2warm

I have a Pisang Ceylon. It struggled at first (another smaller Pisang Ceylon pup I had died over the Winter) and grew very slowly but it is now growing better. Once the pseudostem got over three feet tall it was a bit more vigorous and the fronds started looking more lush and green than the previous two years. This year surprisingly it was able to make it through thr heat wave (up to 105 degrees at one point, which is unusual here) without baking, just a few of the tips turned brown but the fronds all look pretty lush and green. It was kept very well watered. Several other tropicals suffered more damage in the heat wave than it did.

South of Irvine, about 15 miles from the coast, so the climate is about half coastal influence and half desert. It's in a fairly sunny spot that gets full sun during the hottest part of the afternoon. (But there are several other plants around it that may be helping to raise surrounding humidity levels a little bit) Zone 10 (solid 10, between 10a and 10b)