Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

In the next few days we are expecting the worst cold snap since 2010 here in Florida. I am posting this in advance so we can take pics to document the effects on our bananas and compare. I hope many will join in for some real life comparisons of different varieties. Please put your before and after pics in the same post (It makes it easier to compare instead of scrolling through dozens of posts) and try to take them from the same place for proper comparison. This should prove useful and sad...

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

I wish I had gotten some before pics. We are already suffering up here. All leaves are dead and I fear stems will not last the night. Ground temp is 52 going into tonight, we lost 3 degrees last night, so hopefully not much worse than that tonight. Tomorrow I'm digging up corms.

Plants are California gold, dwarf Orinoco, Ice cream, Florida and either a dwarf Cavendish or double Mahoi. My super dwarf was already in a pot and moved to the garage where it doesnt drop below 50.

Looking forward to seeing others results. People are freaking out here not knowing what to do with this cold!

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Going to be some sad photos that's for sure.

I added a string of 25 C9 incandescent Christmas lights to each banana grouping and adjusted/tightened up the frost cloth December 30th but it seems like a futile effort at this point when facing five days in a row of 12 hours per day below freezing. I also dug up four little raji puri's and put them in the garage.

I'm expecting my banana patch to look like a giant pot of boiled collard greens by Sunday.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

It is on its way........for sure..

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

21 last night! Still only 31!

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

They have us down to 31 here, now... It sucks. Last time I had bananas on the hurricane ruined them, now my 3640 bunch will freeze. They are nowhere near saving. It's doubtful any will recover enough to flower before next fall, just in time for the next hurricane or to be frozen again.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Overnight low of 23F here and presently 32F at 10 am.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Ouch, any bananas would be toast at those lows.
Crazy winter.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

23° last night and only 36° at 1:30p today.

I think everyone know what 'dead' brown looks like, so I don't need any before pics. Except for a few pups all the plant leaves died since12th of December due to night temps in the low 30s. ... So my question is which plants will come out again when the temp warm back up to the 50s?

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Got down to 43 here last night in SW Florida. Brought all 8 pots inside, they survived the 43 degree weather they were out in for 5 hours before I got them inside.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

right now its 40 degrees, this morning when I got up it was 32. but none of my new green leaves since the last brief freeze have not been bothered by the cold. yet.

my weekly forecast for this area keeps going up and down for highs and lows. here its supposed to start warm up this weekend. good luck

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Well I went ugly early. I cut down all but two of the six. I'm not talking those two in the move anyway so o figured we will see what happens. My dwarf Orinoco corm is huge! I had to muscle it into a 27 gal tote and the tote buckled a bit as I was giving myself a hernia getting it into the garage. My Florida stem was splitting with ice. DO actually looked fair but was turning around the edges and the pups were done. I don't expect or would do well with a few more nights of this.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Hard to say, but probably the most protected corms---and even that depends greatly on the variety's resistance to cold, and the length and degree of the cold snap and the actual damages caused.
Use extra mulches with thick fluffy organic material to insulate and to speed up recovery.
Best of everything, edwmax!

Gone Bananas,
Mark Anthony

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

I hear ya, brah! I've been in New Smyrna for a year and a half, and I'm starting to get really aggravated with all the problems/challenges. It would be so nice to get through 2018 with no more hurricanes.
Good luck with your plants! My 4 month old Namwah looks really brown, and my Orinoco's leaves are so shredded from wind it's hard to tell if they'll make it - the leaves look pretty sad.
Maybe next year we could have an earthquake instead...

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Looking at your weather for yesterday, I'd imagine your leaves are no longer green? I got 25f for your area online.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

yep, no longer green. been 25 degrees for the last 2 nights. one more night to hit.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Ouch!
Thats pretty brutal. I have a dwarf Orinoco that barely survived 27f last year. They are wearing frost blankets this year!

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

chances we take, I put some frost blankets on a few smaller ones. everything is mulched up fairly well.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

4 nights of mid 20's. was supposed to be above freezing tonight. its 30 now. smaller plants that did not grow fast last year the p-stems are mushy. a couple of months to go. :ha:

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

It hit 17 here one night! We had teens down to the gulf! Crazy cold. Worse part was the whole next day it never got out of the high 30s. That’s the bad stuff. Normally it warms up fast here after the sun pops out.

I have everything in ground. Pstems will reset. We will see how corms do. Especially sensitive ones like AEAE, Florida, other AA types and other variegated types.

Maybe it will equal out with above average spring temps!
I’ll give updates how all mine survived. Only a couple were covered. Some had no protection. Smaller corms had hay and most had paper boxes/bags to keep water away from the corms. So most should have been mostly dry.

This was a very good test!
Hope everyone recovers great this spring! Remember keep the corm dry and don’t touch it. Give them plenty time to pup!

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

you are one of the people I know to watch. I know yu are running at least 10 degrees colder than I am in the winter. watched you last year.
you run about the same temps as edwmax. believe eds got his eyes on you to.
you are a great inspiration to this forum and I want to thank yu.
tear in my eye, blow my nose. :ha:

I am near the ocean. my temps usually are about the same 60 miles north of tampa. toward the center of florida the temps get much colder.
and my little nanners will be just fine.
I just got to be a man and put my flip flops on and get to work.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Here is an after freeze photo.....in the bombogenesis zone.
An absolute nuclear winter here.
Note the white fallout and darkened skies.


Cold spell by
Hostafarian,
on Flickr

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Well, my bananas all got burned pretty good last week. Somehow my camer lost the before pics and after pics I took so I had to go take new after pics and there are no before pics, so here goes...
My Brazilian fared the best, followed by the Namwah. No big surprises there... Brazilian is the big mat on the left and the Namwah is the big ones on the right...



The GM on the front left is burned but still has some green which is a surprise, and the FHIA 17 in the far back just doesn't like cold. The frost two weeks ago about did it in. On the right was a surprise for me... PC... It had zero noticeable damage from the frost a couple weeks ago which burnt the 3640 a bit and yellowed GM pretty good but it browned bad this time...



My SH 3640 is a different story... It got burnt pretty good as you can see, but I had the bunch covered and it seems to have made it thru well... I wonder if it will ever finish?...


3640 bunch after...

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Not too bad Steve!
They should all recover fast! Thanks for the update!

Thanks Beam! I’m happy to share any and all info. I’m here to share info and help, not keep secrets. I’m excited to see how everything did. I can say my citrus have lost new growth, but i see no major wood loss like i expected. It’s still early though. And we are forecasted for 25f in a few days!

Good luck guys.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

TyTaylor77 left a message or responded to one of my threads, but it is not here to view.

Ty?

Gone Bananas,
Mrk Anthony

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Checked out your photos --- most amazing! I really dig your variegated varieties, particularly the AeAe and the mottled greens. Love that banana with the purple or dark-colored psuedostem.
The "Banana Fish" is terrific!

Gone Bananas,
Mark Anthony

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

It seems I can only post pics from Flickr from an actual computer, ipad and phone don't play well with it I guess.

Anyway, I got back from Mexico expecting a pile of mush. Surprised to see my ice cream and California folks are still standing. Leaves are gone, but the stems are still green and firm.

My weather station recorded a low temp of 21 degrees and periods of about 15 hrs below freezing and high temp was in the low 40s. Luckily ground temp is not am issue here worth a low of 45 measured 2 inches below surface. That's poetically the worst cold I'll ever have to worry about here. God to see that the cali gold and ice cream weather it well!

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

after 7 days of 26 to 32 degrees at night it looks like everything is good if it had any size. some of the smaller ones that did not grow fast [2 inch pstem] are soft, at least the ones I did not cover. now we are going to get cold again. low 30s.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Finally, pics...

20180112_102459 by skrassow, on Flickr
20180112_102513 by skrassow, on Flickr
20180112_102555 by skrassow, on Flickr

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Here is the batch I dug out, just in case. All ready to move to their new home across town in about 2 weeks. Good to know I don't need to bother digging them out next year (my first winter with bananas)...just trim the dead leaves and wait for new growth.

20180102_165025 by skrassow, on Flickr

I did straighten them up and add soil after this. I am already seeing new growth on all of them, the corms were very large, one buckled the tote it was in without even adding dirt!

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

What kind of weather station do you have?

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

I use accurite. I have the 5 in 1 station mounted about 8ft high and a ground level temp/humidity sensor with a ground temp probe. It allows you to view historical stats as well, pretty handy.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Wow! You're pretty far south for such a freeze, no? Isn't your area able to grow Coconut palms?

This is a brutal winter for sure in the SE. Well, everywhere east of the West. Here in Denver, we've missed out on most of the brutal cold. It backed in here yesterday, but even so, it wasn't below zero. Back to 50s today, then mid 60s for a couple days. I'm just wondering how many palms have been killed in the south.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

People here had coconut palms until 2010, and big mango trees, too. Just over a half hour south of here there are lots of big mangoes and coconuts, but here they are all pretty small. The only bigger mango I know of in the area was blown down by Matthew...

Now we are facing round 2. It's 71 now but supposed to get down to 32 tonight. Last time they said 31. (I think it got a bit colder than that, though.) It doesn't look good for those bananas to fill in but they are still green and the flower is still opening new bracts so I am covering them again tonight even though the mama plant is pretty much devoid of leaves...

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

I'm 1/2 hour south of Daytona and it's 28 right now - OUCH! 20 miles to the west of me, it's colder than Boston (as in Massachusetts). How does this happen? If Al Gore walked up to me right now, I'd kick him in the balls. (and I'm not even a republican)

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Well, we hit 26 here this morning... Not good. Bunch is still covered as 38 predicted tonight. 31 was predicted for last night.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Wow, I am shocked that it hit 28 in Palm Bay. It was 42 here next to the lake, it's amazing the warming effect it has.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

That's a serious arctic front! Funny thing is, I just checked national temps and it shows 49 in Palm Bay. But 64 here in Denver. Not that 64 in January is all that uncommon here, but still about 18 above average.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

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I added Christmas lights to my bananas in late December prior to the first big freeze we had in early January. I will wait till mid February to unwrapp and post the "after pics". At this point I feel my efforts were futile and like spitting in the wind. Got down to 21F last night and we had almost full 24 hours below freezing from Tuesday to Wednesday. My wife is laughing at my efforts although she did help me.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

it was 20 below the last few days here in ne florida. we are building igloos and snow men today. snow ball fight is scheduled a 4 pm. peppermint schnapps and jambalaya popsicles will be served. :ha:

26 here right now.

but I think most everything is still ok. here is a pic from today. at least 9 nights of freezing temps, most down to 26 f. my snow banana, ensete glaucum, still looks ok.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

My backyard thermometer said 26 overnight Wed into Thursday. The weather station a couple blocks away got 27.6 but it is south of a canal, so that may make a small difference.... I think the "official" Palm bay temp was at almost 29... It finished off anything green the last freeze missed as well as anything new that grew since then.

I am more concerned whether this bunch might make it... I had it well covered during both freezes. With a sheet and a sheet of plastic. I also spread the sheet over the crook in the peduncle to protect it, too... The PS seems ok but the leaves are gone. So far the fingers are still green... Time will tell, I know, but I am curious if anyone else has done this before. I won't give up until they turn either black or yellow... Y'all know which one I'm hoping for...Pics here from Friday around 11 A.M. The hard freeze was overnight Wed to Thurs, so it's about 24+ hours after the freezing temps. Fingers are still green.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Akula, it seems to me if you leave them wrapped in warmer temps that could cause rotting and do more harm than good. Covering them is a pain, but I don't think they will take being covered long term, especially when it warms up a few days.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Sputinc7 you are absolutely right about the risk of rot at higher temperatures when wrapped.

I think I minimized it by covering and not wrapping the upper 70% in heavy frost cloth vs. polyethylene. The bottom third is wrapped in thick burlap. Both are breathable but I do get some visible wetness in the burlap from either sweat, dew, or rain but this seems to evaporate off.

I've had them covered prior to the first freeze in early December. The pstem feels solid when squeezed...so far.

The pstems are around 12 feet so they were a major pain to cover. I threw the cloth over the pstems like a cast net from the top of my ten foot step ladder and then used my extended pool pole to position the cloth. The cloth was heavy and cumbersome.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

use a pole and lift up the sunny side when its warm.

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Lol.... me there:woohoonaner:

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

My plants have been wrapped since December 7th which is prior to the first serious freeze of the season which was that weekend.

I decided to unwrap my banana plants (Namwa and RP) and see what they looked like today. Generally speaking they look pretty good. A few even had a bit of green at the base of the cigar leaf. There was some mildew on the old dried up leaves so I removed them and cleaned up all my plants.

I put a red bow on the RP's in the cleaned up photo to better identify them. They are in the right corner section. The rest are Namwa. I have four RP pups in the garage which I dug up which seem to be in pretty good condition.

So what do you banana heads think? Do they look okay? Do you think I got a successful result? Any advice on what to do next?

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

Excellent work! The Psuedostems appear to be in spectacular condition! Should another hard frost come your way, cover again as you did, and if temperatures sustain at near or below freezing (in the 30s F.) consider mulching a three foot ring around the corm areas with at least a foot thick base.

Other than that, your bananas look terrific, and I do not foresee any problems based on your photos.

I'll bet they look GREAT when in full foliage!

Gone Bananas!
Mark Anthony Phair

Re: Before & after freeze pics Jan 2018. What fared the best?
 

I want to document in this thread that I had two failures with my method of winterization.

One of my Raja Puri's (six feet of height) died all the way back to the ground and one of my Namwa's (seven feet of height) pstem was damaged and I had to cut it back to about four feet. Both plants were wrapped in burlap to about five feet of height and were covered with frost cloth. NO Christmas lights were put on these two plants. Temps dropped to 21F one night. I'm giving Namwa the edge over Raja Puri in regards to which one is more cold hardy based on what I saw in my patch this winter.

The following photo shows the conditions of the two plants on February 20, 2018. An RP pup (very small) is on the left growing from the original RP corn and the Namwa is putting out a new leaf on the right.