sbl

I just noticed my 4th banana bloom for the yr--the 3rd Orinoco. I guess I will be learning about getting a late bloom thru the winter--we have about 2 months til frost. What is the earliest you can expect to use Orinocos (as green cooking bananas?

CValentine

Wish I knew sbl...
But CONGRATULATIONS!!! ~Cheryl

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. - Jimi Hendrix

bencelest

Why try to save it by putting Christmas lights around the fruit and wrap the pstem and leaves and fruit with burlap first then clear plastic. Turn on the C lights only when frost is present at night if you want to save electricity. I saved my first California gold bunches that way and was able to harvest the fruit the next summer.

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Banana Nut

sbl

That is the kind of thing I am planning on--may use some different materials for wrapping, but with cooler and wetter weather predicted for this El Nino winter I will probably need to prepare for low 20s.

bencelest

Any protection will help. Good luck!

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Banana Nut

sbl

The bloom is looking pretty small--it may not be worth the effort except for learning. I may be judging too early ( it has not opened yet), but it seems very thin compared to the others.

coast crab

Yikes, I hope not for both of us! Maybe my live oak will give me the protection I count on. No heroics here, whatever happens happens.

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sbl

I found a weather site that listed average monthly maximum and minimum temps for El Nino and La Nina conditions--by city. The average monthly minimum for Jan in El Nino yrs is 21. That will be pretty hard to deal with.

Bch Grl

SBL, can you post that link? Sounds like good info to have!

Margie

bencelest

Yes. Can you see the Salinas area CAlif?

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Banana Nut

planetrj

I'm not so familiar with Pensacola's frosts, but the winter of 07 here was horrible with record frosts (when we had our "100 yr frost"). Though my manzanos and Blue Javas lost about 50% of the top fruit to freeze crack and stone, the bottom half of the arms were fine, and the Orinocos lost about 5 or 6 on the top hand. That was with no protection. I'm sure if you draped a cloth over the top of the arm, you'd have a good chance of not having loss, depending on how cold the ambient temps get there at night. Orinocos do take a little longer to ripen, but they can be finished off the tree if they are at least plumped up. When it seems that the night temps get too cold (maybe below 30), then it's time to use the good ol' machete about half way down the phytostem and let it finish in a warm room over a couple weeks.

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you will never have enough bananas ^_^

sbl

I was a little wrong--it gives averages by county, not city, but it is a very useful link.

AgroClimate - A service of the Southeast Climate Consortium - » AgroClimate provides important new tools to help agricultural producers in the Southeaster United States understand and plan for climatic conditions

coast crab

Then that changes alot for me. Mobile County is a huge county with big differences between north and south and east and west, in relation to the bay, rivers and the gulf - and elevation. My tree canopy, low elevation and closeness to downtown and the waterfront make a big difference in my winter damage compared to farther west. I'm sure you can relate depending on where you live in Pensacola.

Don't forget the trash bags of rotting leaves trick.

R

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sbl

That is true, but I don't know how they woud get a county average. Like you, I would probably be on the higher side of the average--maybe 2-3 degrees. You can also use the deviation from normal in El Nino yr to get an idea of how much lower you might expect from your normal.