Bananas.org - Hurricane Prep

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Hi all,

It’s looking like a real possibility that we will be having a strong tropical storm or low end hurricane move through Louisiana this week. My question is: how do I (or even bother) prepare plants that have racks of bananas? It was a mild winter, so there are lots, but they are nowhere near ready for harvest. What should I do?

Kane

Re: Hurricane Prep

I use support on my bunches made from 2" PVC pipe. I got the main pipe at Ewing Irrigation which was cheaper than Big Box. The Ewing people cut the 20' pipe into 16' legth. I then got a short 2" Y and a two 2" elbows to make the "U" at top to cradle the peduncle. I then threaded green stretchie/tie ribbon through the top "U" in order to secure the top of the support around the pstem.

The above system worked to get two big namwa bunches through 40-60 mph that hit our area last year. One of the storms snapped the base of a twelve foot unprotected namwa clean off so we had some wind.

I have read that for banana trees that are not expected to fruit within the next four months i.e. next years crop, it helps to remove some of the leaves to reduce drag and the parachute effect on the plant's pstem. This prevents the pstem from toppling or breaking and there is plenty of time for the plant to regrow leaves for fruit development.

Re: Hurricane Prep

@ the worst you can split a 2x4 and tie it together..

Re: Hurricane Prep

Thanks for the tips guys. As of now things are looking pretty good for the bananas. Hopefully we don’t get too much more wind now that the rain has picked up. I’ll keep you posted!