asacomm

Hello All Banana Friends,

A severe cold weather hit my overwintering banana trees just before yesterday in Japan.





As you can see, they all were totally unprotected and I could not do anything
at all to save them.
So I just can pray some one could survive.

Longwoods Tropicals

I hope they make it.

The recent cold wave in Asia was immense in scope.

Botanical_Bryce

We go through that every year here in Florida. The always do just fine.

Kat2

They're all in pots. Was there no way to protect them? Lay them down and cover with a tarp or blankets? Or did you have no warning? Forecasts here in FL are as frustrating as they were when I lived in the Washington, DC area. I swear the weather folks flip dice and project based how it falls. Rain today? Not projected. And sometimes radar shows nothing lurking. So why did an inch fall?

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crazy banana

As long as the p-stems were not hit by the cold, your plants should be okay.
We had some early morning temperatures down to 28F in December for just a couple hours two days in a row. It only affected the leaves of my banana plants which died. Now they slowly have started to push some new green ones.
The more promising fruit bunches were covered and will be decent enough in a few month. Some people say that it is not worth it to keep fruit bunches from plants which leaves have been destroyed by cold temperatures, but I have experienced that the fruits can fill in and ripen. They might not be as good as fruit ripened on a plant with leaves supporting the fruit bunch like "solar panels" but for me it is better than no fruit at all.

asacomm

Hi Kat2,

Thanks for your comments.
Without saying, there were detailed datas and infos about the cold waves.
However, as there were too unsuaul and severe to believe, I think I just neglect them.

Here is about 9b where only few snows fall in ten years and it seldom drop
to the freezing pemp. So 29F/-4C was really extraordinary.

So I just do dope some of them survive and recover in the coming spring.

Kat2

A few mornings ago I had an hour or so of 30 which was also unusual and not predicted but it didn't seem to hurt my plants. I was lucky. I hope yours perk back up.

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asacomm

Hi crazy banana,

First of all, I was so surprised that I could not believe that it dropped to 28F
in San Diego. It might be an extraordinary wheather in December, or?
The cold waves hit everywhere in the world and cuased severe casualitities
including your country.

Anyway, it is nice to hear that if P-stems are alive, they will be ok and new
cigar leaves will sprout in the coming spring.

Thanks a lot.

crazy banana

Yes, even though I live close to the beach, we usually get a few low temperature morning hours every year with a canyon behind the house. So far I have not lost any banana plants to it (uncovered banana fruit bunches unfortunately yes).
All the other years I have always covered at least one or two of the smaller pups of each variety in frost cloth but this winter I was too busy with other things and the only plants wrapped were my pineapple plants.
I think it is not the actual temperature of below freezing point but the time of exposure to it (in my case 2 mornings with two hours each).
One other important point is to have the best healthiest plants possible before going into the colder winter month with less daylight. Cannot do anything about the shorter days but for example, I do like to feed my bananas some extra potassium by the end of summer/early fall, because I believe it supports stronger cell walls of the plants.

Natureboy

Here in Florida, we've been blessed with an unusually warm winter so far (knock on wood). Lowest temps have been 34F at my house near Orlando. Just harvested a huge bunch of Namwa and still have Praying Hands hanging healthy on the tree with no cold damage to leaves on any banana plants (except a bit to a small Mysore pup). I wish every winter were like this around here!

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Praying hands: a good way to thank God and a darn good banana, too!

Current varieties: Dwarf Namwah, FHIA-03 (Sweetheart), White Iholena, Maoli, Orinoco, Manzano (Apple), Praying Hands, Dwarf Brazilian, Pisang Raja, Rajapuri, Ice Cream (Blue Java), FHIA-01 (Goldfinger), Kandarian