Ohio'sBest

Ouch. That's cold.

BullShark

This leads me to a question on bananatomy... the p-stem is essentially made up of leaves but the wide part of most of the leaves seems to fall off leaving only the leaf stems to form the "trunk." So, does that mean if the wide flat part of the leaf dies from cold but the p-stem makes it through ok that the banana can start again from where it left off when things warm up? Or would that re-set its growth cycle somehow?

Bob

You just hit the million dollar question. I believe after watching Scot Nelsons video, not that it covered this, that it does set the plant back somewhat by putting an unatural stress on an otherwise tropical plant that would not experience these temps therefore any dormant period in their native environment. Still it would seem to me better than storing dry in the basement as far as not stting back the flowering mechanism. Then again, do some varieties, say California Gold as opposed to a Gros Michel handle these things better. I'd guess yes. Eventually with good records we can all come to some concensus on this.

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BullShark

I've been thinking that perhaps some especially cold hardy bananas could be worked into the rotation to make up for the winter and viente cohol may be part of the solution as well. I am currently growing the following varieties,

-Praying Hands
-Blue Java
-Dwarf Orinoco
-Dwarf Cavendish
-Hua Moa

I know the Hua Moa will probably not like the winter but the others are said to do ok. The variety I think are Dwarf Cavendish have made it through a winter without any cover but I didn't take very good care of them till this year, they were in poor soil and got no water unless it rained, so I don't know really what to expect from them.

I'd like to be able to do this without structures but I have been toying around with a couple ideas for temporary or portable greenhouse type things made from PVC pipe.

Richard

Consider adding:
Sweetheart
Dwarf Brazilian

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sbl

I agree. I had 3 large stems that made it thru the winter with no leaves, 2 have bloomed, one with 18 fingers and one with 15. The stress is probably why I only got these small bunches. One of the ones that bloomed was only protected by an overhanging tree, the other 2 that survived the winter were wrapped with landscape cloth --the pseudostem not the leaves. There was one other large stem that was unprotected, but fully exposed--it did not make it even after being cut back to 1/2.

Bob

Bullshark...........off topic but , are you watching "shark week" on discovery channel? Started today.
oh and I'd give Raja Puri a try.

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BullShark

I don't get cable/satellite/whatever so I mostly just watch dvd's. I did buy a Shark Week collection one time but it was mostly dramatizations of shark attacks which I don't find especially interesting. As I mentioned a while ago I've had close contact under less than ideal conditions with a couple "maneater" species and was left unharmed so I tend to view such dramatizations as sensationalist entertainment at best or negative propaganda at worst. I'm more into the scientific and what you might term "totemic" aspects of sharks.

I have about 3 more relatively warm months ahead of me but unfortunately I'm short on pups from anything but my Dwarf Cavendishes so I'll have to wait till next year to try timing banana production with pups of different ages. In the meantime I can assess my plants response to our winter and I have planted the corms relatively deep so even the Hua Moa should be in no risk of dying.