tall red cold damage
 

I'm putting this in "Ornamental Bananas" because I have no idea if the friut is edible or not...

My "tall red" has been the fastest growing as well as one of the most beautiful bananas in my collection. This is a new one for me, I bought it as a 3 gallon plant at Home Depot last spring.

Did I mention that it grows really fast??? :goteam:

Anyway, I noticed that when the temps started dipping into the 40's that the leaves started to yellow. Now we've seen the low 30's a couple of times but still no heavy frost. My Siam ruby looks terrible, but that's to be expected - no tolerance for cold there either. None of my other plants have reacted to the cold this way, everyone still looks great except for shredded leaves from falling live oak acorns.

Russell

Re: tall red cold damage
 

Mine had next to no wind resistance. I removed them after loosing several bunches of fruit each year. Looks like you are somewhat sheltered with all the big trees, maybe you won't have that issue.

Re: tall red cold damage
 

Mitchel, that's interesting. My tall red is the most exposed banana I have, and I haven't had any wind related problems UNTIL this cold damage showed up. You can't see it from those pictures but there are several broken and hanging leaves now, but never anything during summer storms or TS Ida.

Sorry to hear you gave up on them. From what I've seen I'd recommend it to anyone who has plenty of space - but I'll mention the wind too.

Russell

Re: tall red cold damage
 

My reds are in a greenhouse and kept very dry

Re: tall red cold damage
 

You STILL haven't planted that poor thing in the ground???

Re: tall red cold damage
 

Next spring.

Re: tall red cold damage
 

Tall Red is edible but most red varieties hate cold. Probably not the best choice for your growing zone!

Re: tall red cold damage
 

It has been a while since I've posted anything, but a couple of friends have asked about this so I figured it's time to update...

So the 2009/10 winter was the worst we've had in years (my tall red's first), followed by the equally terrible 2010/11 winter. This poor thing barely hung on. Both winters killed every banana to the ground including huge plants. The only things to escape were basjoo and Daj giant, but that's another subject. Thankfully, last winter was very mild, and things seem to be returning to normal. What was in the summer of 2009 the biggest and most beautiful banana in my garden is a shadow of its former self. Luckily, I didn't throw it away and what's left this year looks like what I started with in 2009. One thing I've learned is that not all bananas are created equally, and this one is VERY sensitive to cold. Hopefully, by the end of the summer it will be back to its former glory.

Now I have to relearn how to post picutes so I can do some updating. Hopefully it's like riding a bike...

Russell

Re: tall red cold damage
 

We grow a tall red banana in OZ that we call Red Dacca, is this the same as the one we are seeing here. Ours is a vigorous grower with tasty plump red fruit.

Re: tall red cold damage
 

Russell,

Sorry you couldn't make it the other day.

I'm curious about your Thai Black. How has it faired?

What other ornamentals can you report on from our severe Winters in 09/10 and 10/11?

All three of the bananas you brought me are doing good.

Re: tall red cold damage
 

I see that you and I are in the same zone but that doesn't mean a whole lot when lows can vary. I lost maybe 2% of the bananas I had after the hard freezes of '010 when it got down to 18F here in Mandeville and I know it got down to 13F in Fairhope.

I've yet to figure out why some are fine and others outright die but it must be due to the region of the world they are native to and what zone they originate from. So even though bananas are a true tropical plant, some seem to be MORE tropical than others, which means they just die as in totally dead when it freezes while others just come back fine.

Re: tall red cold damage
 

I have a Black Thai and it's doing fantastic.

Re: tall red cold damage
 

It only hit 18 here (Pensacola) and I'm only about 30 miles from Fairhope but they have that large exspanse of open water that the cold air can push across and slam into the shoreline.


Did you protect (wrapping or caging) the Thai or did it just come back?

Russels is in a protected area (by trees) and his does not get a lot of Sun if I remember corrrectly. How is your situated?

Re: tall red cold damage
 

The Black Thai is exposed. No protection. It gets sun but not full sun. It competes with Ornata and a Saba. Soon it will be getting much less sun as it isn't coming so over the middle of the yard anymore.

It came back just fine from the freezes this past winter. I'm going to see how Gros Michel and Double Mahoi do this winter (which we should get, we should get some pretty good freezes this winter).