rubiksc00p

Long story short, we had a section of our yard overgrown with an ugly 30 yr old bird of paradise that was no longer blooming and an overgrown bunch of cannas. I stumbled across banana growing and realized that I could grow them in my zone! Since my mom has always liked banana plants, we've always had at least one growing, but I didn't know that there were any edible varieties that would grow in zone 9.

I got a Goldfinger, Thousand Fingers, and a Dwarf Brazilian off ebay, and planted them! So far the Brazilian is thriving, the thousand fingers is doing decent, but the goldfinger seems to have totally wilted. Hopefully it might still pop a new leaf, but not looking good.

Anyway, just thought I'd introduce myself and hope to glean some wisdom from y'all! And if anyone has any good plant suggestions for zone 9, fire them my way.

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Dwarf Brazilian, Orinoco, Namwah, Raja Puri, Goldfinger, Super Dwarf Cavendish

37.667910

Welcome.
THey'll do fine in your zone. Even the Goldfinger should recover. Sounds like it may be a watering issue with the wilting.

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zfallon84

Would that be too much, or too little? I have two Dwarf Namwah pups. They seem to be wilting (but, maintaining green) and one leaf on each plant seems to be seperating away from the PS. (I know this is an old post. Just looking for help.)

beam2050

namwah leaves peal away from the pstem normally. got pics. pics would help.

its been a cold march in the Jacksonville area. frost every night for days. bananas are struggling. hopefully Friday will be the end of it.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Tytaylor77

Wow y’all have been getting frost! That sucks!

It’s been in the low 40s for at least 1 night a week here! It’s messing with pup growth bad! Will this winter ever go away!!

90% of new banana plant owners overwater! The minimum you should water right now is once per 10-14 days! New roots needs soil on the dry side to grow! Pictures would help but I would just let it dry and do it’s thing! They normally can sort theirselves out. The more you do to them the worse it makes it usually. Also if it is pushing new growth out of the middle that means it’s fine! The middle “roller” leaf is the actual growth!

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150+ Varieties!!. See profile for list. Help me add more!

www.bananapups.com

beam2050

yes dropped down to freezing briefly one night last week, had frost ever since. supposed to get down to 34 tomorrow night. lost all my new green leaves except for one struggling namwa about a foot tall. made it thru 32 degrees and everything. funny.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

edwmax

Most nights for the past week & half have been in the mid/low 30's with early morning frost and a couple of night at freezing. My Orinoco & 1000 finger pups show a little frost burn on the new leaves but otherwise doing well. ... Night time temp should be back up to 50s by tomorrow night for the rest of the week.

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beam2050

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

zfallon84

Wow! They do that well at freezing? A neighbor of mine lost all of their bananas this December. Another neighbor a few blocks away lost theirs. All recovered quickly with the small number of days that were in the 80's about a week or so ago. Even mine have grown a little, despite my over watering.

zfallon84

Ok. Then my problem has been over-watering. A few plants seemed to develop small amounts of rot,despite developing new leaves. I removed those bad sections, brought them into my mudroom with the water heater (warmth) and grow lights, and will put them back out when it warms up. I will temporarily avoid watering them as well. Thanks for the help!

beam2050

sposed to get to 32 last night. got to 34. like me just.......a bit off.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

edwmax

Got down to 30 F about 8 am. We're back up to 33/34 F at 8:30 am

Beam, put some Jack Daniels in your coffee, drink with you grits & eggs and get down, ... not off.

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beam2050

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Kegas76

Shouldn't that be Jim Beam?

There was frost on my neighbor's roof this morning but they say it was 39F. I thought we were past this.

The Jan cold blasts killed my 3-4' VC to the ground but two little pups came up in Feb. Each evening that its supposed to get into the 40's I've been running out, covering them with a taped up cardboard box and shipping blanket. The past few nights its been near 40 so I've also added a balled up wad of christmas lights under the box. Both pups are hanging in there and even slowly pushing leaves.

My Orinocos and 1k finger have been perfectly fine while being completely neglected.

beam2050

be a few miles from ya for the next week tend to my nanners there. was there a couple of weeks ago. neighbors say that it got down to 16 degrees there in January. mine were fine beside the water and slightly sheltered from the cold. be in chaz. see you when I get back.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

edwmax

For the past few nights temps have dropped down to 39 - 42 degrees. The ground temps are 51° @ 2" and 58° F @ 8". My Orinoco, Dwf Orinoco, 1000 Finger are doing fine & still pushing. Yesterday & this morning, I see the Raja Puri and Cali Gold pups are showing a little green & pushing.
.... .... i dumped a bunch of chicken manure (& one egg) on those 10-12 days ago.

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