Lilith

Everyone from Florida on this forum will know what I am talking about when I say that a severe thunderstorm blew up out of nowhere and hit my property today. We get these storms in summer that are pretty unbelievable. It was sunny, about 92F, partly cloudy sky one minute, and lightning bolts were hitting the ground in the front yard and the wind was gusting at 50 mph the next with sheeting rain.

In the span of 5 minutes, 8 trees fell over on my property.

One fell on the greenhouse vent. But, guess what?

My stand of Musa Basjoo (6 trees, 5 of which are about 12 ft tall, fully leafed out with leaves a full 6-8 ft long) took the brunt and caught the crown of the tree so that it was just leaning on the vent a little! I was able to chainsaw the tree up ( it was a 15 or so ft tree give or take) and I don't think the vent is damaged.

2 of the Basjoo too major hits though and I had to top them, but they will just sprout back out in a week or so. LAter in the summer you'll never know they were damaged.

Thanks, Basjoos! You saved my greenhouse vent!

I was planning to drive down to Sarasota tomorrow to go to the Tropiflora summer sale but I will be chainsawing up the other 7 trees instead. One is about 50-60 ft. Its leaning on another tree. Just call me Ms. Paul Bunyan!

Fortunately, none of this mess fell on my Ae Ae.

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11/2008 Outer Banks Marathon 26.2, Kitty Hawk NC--3:50
2/2009 5 Points of Life Marathon, 26.2, Gainesville FL--4:00
4/2009 Boston Marathon, 26.2-- 4:38
10/2009 Marine Corps Marathon, DC, 26.2--457
1/2010 Houston Marathon, 26.2--3:55:09
2/2010 5 Points of Life Marathon, Gainesville--415
Halloween Day 2010 Marine Corps Marathon, DC--
2/2011--Austin TX Marathon--

Carolina

Thank goodness for the basjoo.

I lost my greenhouse back in November. Hubs promises to have it operational by winter... and if he doesn't... visiting days will be on Wednesdays and Sundays. Hope they give me the orange jumpsuit and not stripes. Stripes makes ya look fat!

NANAMAN

Gina Anne, I'm sorry to hear the news of damage to your property, but glad to hear it spared the green house and Ae Ae. Between hurricanes, and a small tornado a couple years ago, I'm just about through repairing damages to our property. After a new roof,A/C unit,and plaster repairs inside,I'm just now finishing up an exterior paint job! Fortunately, any damage to the bananas is short lived and they bounce back nicely. I know it could always be worse, so I just try to stay grateful. I hope your recovery is quick and as painless as possible.

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MediaHound

I had the same thing happen here...
Had to prune back many of mine: my Sabas, my Jamaican Reds, the blooming Ladyfinger, the Orinoco stand, the Ice Creams, the Apples, on and on.
The skies darkened, the wind started blowing, and I ran for my machete.. good thing I did, too, I saved some in the nick of time, they were really getting shredded.
I have a family member not too far from here who had a mature coconut tree snap about six fronds in 60mph gusts of wind and rain.


Good thing your greenhouse got saved!
The denser they're planted, the better they fare... and everything else around them.

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

Lilith

Its been a long haul with tree work here since the 2004 hurricane season. We took direct hits from both Frances and Jeanne and between the 2 back to back in 2 weeks were out of power for half a month and initially lost 29 trees. My property is 5 acres, and the back 3 acres are densely wooded. The front 2 are thinned, but still its forested. We back up to a state nature preserve and have a creek that drains the property.

The 2 storms in 2004, as well as a record 10 inch rainfall later that winter in December, elevated the water table to basically swamp levels on some parts of the property for over a year. Areas that had been dry forest turned into bogs. I have a friend who is a wetland biologist for the EPA and she looked at it and said it would be classified as an emerging wetland in some places! Then the drought started, and the poor trees probably didn't know what to think!

All that was very hard on some of the mature trees left standing in the front portion of the property. We have lost an additional 25 trees, some in excess of 100 ft and probably 50+ years old, to fungal disease and root rot. All species: oak, pecan, hickory, sweetgum, pine....but these latest ones (we have lost 10 since this May!) have been at least partially attributable to the drought making the sand unstable around the roots. When it pours rain like it did yesterday, they suck it up too fast, get topheavy, and a big gust of wind just topples them. SOmetimes it doesn't even take the big gust, they just plop over.

I am not sure when it will stop if ever. I'm pretty nervous because I know the law of averages says that eventually one will fall on the house.

__________________
11/2008 Outer Banks Marathon 26.2, Kitty Hawk NC--3:50
2/2009 5 Points of Life Marathon, 26.2, Gainesville FL--4:00
4/2009 Boston Marathon, 26.2-- 4:38
10/2009 Marine Corps Marathon, DC, 26.2--457
1/2010 Houston Marathon, 26.2--3:55:09
2/2010 5 Points of Life Marathon, Gainesville--415
Halloween Day 2010 Marine Corps Marathon, DC--
2/2011--Austin TX Marathon--

xyzzy

Not much better in the UK. We had weeks on end of gales last December, some gusting to 114mph.

I keep my bananas under the cherry trees in winter. The cherry trees are spreading ones which are low and wide and not felled by winds. They protect my bananas from wind and frosts. The only frosts here are caused by wind chill while the air is still about 3 degrees C, so no wind = no frosts.

P.S. I'm in the warmest bit of the UK, some parts get heavy frosts.

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There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.

cactus6103

Make sure you say a thank you to your Basjoo, then give it a little extra fertilizer for its trouble. Good job! Red

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Family, Friends and Bananas

Sailfish

I can relate to those storms.
I think the last 20 years here we have had more damage from no name storms than hurricanes (not really, i'm just saying they are bad)

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MediaHound

Terrible, Lilith...
That's really upsetting.

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.