Hurricane Ian
 

Wishing the best for everyone in Florida preparing for hurricane Ian. It is likely I will be getting damage to my bananas. I have the praying hands bunch strapped to the fence post. Hoping the goldfinger bunches survive the storm!

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

Hope you all come through the storm with as little damage as possible.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

This sounds brutal but if you are sure you are going to take a direct hit you might try folding the leaves down on your plants so they don’t catch the wind and then tie them down with a string like a sail to a mast. The leaves should still function and the plant won’t snap. If you don’t do anything the biggest risk is a snapped pstem. Toppled plants can be stood back up and shredded leaves although impaired still function. Good luck!

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

great advice thank you.

thoughts and prayers are with you in south florida.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

It looks like it's going to roll through Florida and come right up to Charleston. I blame your hurricane magnet Blue Javas for this..... :)

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

I cut down a rack of namwah and left a couple up there. The ones I left are on tall trees that aren't really leaning so we'll see what happens. I'm a bit north of Daytona Beach so I don't think we'll get too much of a storm here.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

I'm far from the hurricane but I'm getting getting 20-30 mph gusts today. I"ve got three heavy (50 lbers) Blue Java bunches hanging and although propped, they are swinging around bigtime!

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

I was hoping it would just go off and hang out in the Atlantic and disappear but all the current models have it coming right back our way ☹️

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

Definitely looks like you'll see whatever is left. Both of us probably.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

We made it through the storm, that was my first major hurricane, a pretty traumatic experience!
Bananas do not look good. Here are few of them:
Here are the goldfinger bunches. It was the best we could do at the time, though I think I would have put something in between the rope and the banana so it softened the weak point. But it was nearly 100 mph gusts here.


The praying hands went down despite being tied to the fence too. I noticed the bananas had a little yellow on them though so I cut them off and will ripen inside.


This is my largest mat of namwah. We decided to chop the tops off two pstems so they didn't bend down and that proved to be a good idea. I had a bunch in the back there struggling to ripen, the bananas are of poor quality despite such a big healthy mat. Hopefully next year's are better.



That orinoco to the right was the only banana in my yard to look good! lol

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

Sorry you lost the Goldfinger and Praying Hands! 100 mph sounds awful. I think we had 60-70 mph, but our neighbors banana grove is in ruins, and ours is thrashed.


I have a question for people who have gone through this before: what do I do with large 45° leaning banana trees (with no fruit?) Cut off the top and rope up? Leave it as it is and rope it up?

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

Sorry to hear yours are too. I have the same question! Do I prop up the leaning namwah? It's huge. I would have to go to Lowe's and pick up pvc pipes to prop it.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

i had quite a number to straighten up with irma, only had 1 this time i planted early in the summer. the ground gets so soggy that the just tilt with the wind.

while soggy i stomp/step the opposite side while pulling up gentilly as i can. when i get as far as i can i tie them to a stake i already have in the ground. sometimes you cannot get them all the way up without breaking them, but leaning slightly will not hurt. i do this while the ground is still wet or thoroughly wet them again if the ground has dried some. then i step the ground down around them when i am finished.

janelle by your the pics, you and your bananas have been thru alot. luck to you all.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

Blue Java didn't make it, not sure if it snapped at the base. Maybe the fence "saved it"?

There she goes by William Strickland, on Flickr


20220930_093242 by William Strickland, on Flickr

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

Losing such nice growth is heartbreaking. The only bright side is how quickly they will come back next year.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

It seems the bananas fold at the point of being propped up when the wind is severe at least from what I can tell from a lady who lives in St Pete her name on youtube is 'wild floridian' she didn't stake any of her 4 racks, and the only one she lost was the one that was 'saved' by the fence. Bananas can lean without breaking from the looks of my huge namwah. That thing is very heavy I can't even push it back up. So maybe not being saved is better for the ones with racks? not sure I guess it depends how stable they are.

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

So my blue Java broke and 2 namwahs broke doing nothing. My praying hands broke at the point where I had it tied off. This was a no win situation for me today. Damn shame about the praying hands

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

My Saba (20 feet+) all snapped, lost most anything that had a rack on them except for one Brazilian. I'm surprised that half actually made it still standing upright.. well, they are shredded and lots leaves broken. However, the surge / flooding is my yard is concern. We had a few feet of salt water cover the yard and bananas for about 12 hours. Any suggestions about that? Been thru numerous storms but never had this level of flooding with salt water. Thought about flushing with fresh water but everything is so soggy and have so many other things to focus on first. If you've had salt water soak bananas how'd they do? Thanks!

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

Dannng!
Maybe you can still save the bunch tho?

Re: Hurricane Ian
 

I cut them off, we'll see what happens.

20220930_165211 by William Strickland, on Flickr