RandyGHO

It has been a while since posting. I thought I would post my banana wintering results. I wintered, in the ground, an Ice cream, Apple and Goldfinger.

You see in the picture I made a Tee-Pee like structure with ten foot sections of 1 1/2" thin wall PVC pipe. Each made a tent when wrapped in plastic and each had a 100 watt flood light controlled by a pipe freeze thermostat set at 35F. This gave me about 4-5 degrees heating.

The lowest temperature for the year was 25F with the warm winter we had this year.

The Goldfinger stem did not survive but the root did.

The apple and ice cream which are both a foot across at the base survived and are putting out new leaves.

This year I am switching to dwarf banana plants and i will use two 100 watt flood lights next year or a single 200 watt heat lamp.

Hopefully I will have my first bananas this year.

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Thinking outside the peel always.

2woodensticks

good to hear,sad to hear..ever try thermo tape???i do know some people have good success..

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got to love em..{neotropical rattlesnake..cascabell}

CountryBoy1981

What if you put blankets over the plastic to hold the heat in from the ground. You should be able to get a couple a goodwill or somewhere fairly cheap. It all comes down to holding heat in from the ground which that plastic sheeting will not do.

Pancrazio

Interesting. Can you tell us a bit more, regarding duration of the cold spell, and your rainfall pattern during this winter?
Thank you.

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Italian fruit forum

waggoner41

Since heat rises it might be best to put your lamps low in the tent.

The idea of using blankets around the bottom has already been presented but I'll double down on that.

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Soil Type: Black Loam

Abnshrek

Well I have an Orinoco that went unprotected that had 6' of p-stem and a 2' leaf. Of the one's I protected (IC, GF, D Braz, Cali-gold, PC, PH, Raja Puri & D Orinoco) D. Orinoco is the wimp of the cold hardy no doubt about it. IC's all got burnt after I unwrapped them.. They will recover so its all good. :^)

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I'm a Nannerhead :^)

RandyGHO

The average rain fall per week was around 3/4". We had 700 plus hours with the temperature below 45F. Longest number of hours in a night below freezing(32F), I am guessing here, maybe 8 hours.

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Thinking outside the peel always.