AnnaJW

Well, if these temps don't stop dipping into the 20's and 30's, I don't think I'll have any bananas left. I just uncovered the plants and wth the exception of a small Misi Luki, EVERY plant is damaged. The water in both of my bird baths was frozen solid. If this keeps up I'm going to have to look for a warmer climate to move to!

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-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

Westwood

Anna i Brought all my plants in from the Cold (first Blast) 2 days in bed 10 -30 g pots got to my back.

right now i have tall Green Bananas that my birds are watching , cats trying to Pee in and Dogs Hiking on. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.


OK so its not easy but i think with a mini electrical fence i can stop the cats and dogs SMILES Tammy

ITS COLD

momoese

Well Anna, I'm in West Los Angeles about 7 miles to the beach and my plants are almost all toast, at least the leaves anyway. It looks like a fire went through my stands. Between the insane winds we had and now this cold snap it's not looking good for my plants. My cats water bowl, dogs water bowl and garden hose were all frozen solid this morning. I went out this afternoon and cut a bunch of Apples and a bunch of Reds that were not quite ready but the severe cold last night partially froze the skins leaving spots on them. I bagged the remaining bunches that I could get to hoping the the plants don't totally freeze and I can harvest them later. Crazy thing is that all my potted plants and a lot of the pups that had shelter under the canopy of the larger plants survived with little damage including my almost ready to flower SDC! I have it covered now so hopefully it will come through for me. Over all I'm pretty bummed but there's always spring time to re-plant and you can bet I will!

It's supposed to be colder tonight.....so I'm going to go out late and make a fire and leave a fan on. I'll post pictures of the damage when I get a chance.

STEELVIPER

I lost 2 small ice creams,and 1 small praying hands. Just leaf damamge on the rest. All in all i got off good for it being 23F here lastnight. And yes i will re-plant also. Love Bananas to much to give up. Weather like this out here only happens once every 15 years or so.

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Westwood

momoese, We had Snow on out Beach. 2 miles away Im totally shocked this is not Oregon or Cali weather .


Dont forget Cali Gold pup (WINKS) its doing pretty good in the house slow to grow though.


Inside i keep the house toasty at 80F Due to the birds and well I cant stand cold air and havent figured out the Fireplace insert..

Should i water and fertilize these guys i have A Ice Bream pup (momoese sent) thats 7 ft tall. 30 g pot but its also going limp Grins ok leaning to one side at an angle . Help Tammy

Ill help ya with some plants anna and momoese. This is insane weather

BobbyinNY

I feel really bad for you guys out in SoCal.... I'm in Long Island, NY and we haven't gotten anywhere near those low temps yet this winter - but they're on their way now and coming here by tomorrow ... Not happy.. We're supposed to dip down to 20f by tuesday night... Most of my stuff is protected by plastic greenhouses with heaters, but it's still too cold...

nucci60

sorry for you folks, I know you put a lot of time and effort into your plants. Who could imagine you would get temps that low?

momoese

Here are some pics. In a few days all the leaves will turn totally brown with the exception of a few of the pups under what was a nice canopy! Keep in mind that I had allready removed about 30 or so huge leaves that the high winds snapped and also removed two large plants that broke in half before the freezes hit.
Apple and Reds


Dwarf Cavendish with hanging fruit bagged.


Left to right: Ice Cream, Namwah, Pisang Klotek.


Just to give you an idea, this is what the Pisang Klotek looked like in October.


My pink Cannas are not liking the cold.


Here is the fruit that I felt had a chance of ripening. I'm not sure what will happen to the spots on the Apples that froze. Maybe they will rot instead of ripening?


The Reds have a cool velvet like fur on the stalks!

AnnaJW

Tammy, I hope your back is better! My cats think the banana plants are snacks. I have to keep the ones inside up high.

Momoese, I never thought it would get that cold in your area! I hope your Apples are edible. The Reds are gorgeous!

Steelviper, it didn't seem as cold last night. What was your official reading?

Thanks Bobby and Nucci60. At least the bird baths aren't frozen this morning. But now the winds are picking up again.

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

AnnaJW

Mitchel,

That's about what my plants look like, too. I've never had frost damage on my Orinoco's, but they are totally toasted. My CA Gold has one green leaf left. I've got four smaller citrus trees I'm concerned about. I blanketed them last night, but it's hard to keep them covered when this wind is gusting!

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-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

momoese

Anna, I'm sure it's been colder where you are! The thing that really sucks is that all of my bunches, 6 total that are still hanging look like that with little spots. I guess time will tell their fate.

I have heard that this odd weather is not totally from global warming, but more from a weird El Nino we are experiencing. Any weather experts here?

nucci60

mitchel, don't you have an ae ae? Did it get damaged?

STEELVIPER

Anna- last night i woke up at 2am,and my weather station reading was 33F. Then i woke up again at 4am and the wind was blowing with a temp reading of 44F. So the wind saved us from a nite of freezing again. Of course now its windy as HE$$ out there right now.

I have never seen the weather like this before. We do get hard freezes out here once every 15 years or so. The last bad freeze here was in 1990. I remember a low of 19F. It was a saturday morning. As i was about to step out and walk to the tennis courts near my house to play. One step outside,and i turned around and walked right back in the house. But what is killing me is the wind. Sure we do get the Santa Anna winds,but that is in October and november. Santa Anna winds are supposed to be warm. These winds the past 3 months have been COLD!! Are avg. high for this time of year is 66F. And are avg. low is 42F. But this year it has been more like 55F avg high. The avg low's are no better. The prob has been that there are to many high pressure systems moving in over the great basin.(utah, nevada) There to close together. One after another. Meaning that when two high pressure systems meet, they cause the pressure gradient to squeeze. Meaning lots of nasty wind. I think that we get maybe one or two days a week with no wind. And if there is no wind , then its raining or cloudy. I live near U.C Riverisde. About a mile away. It was 26F Saturday night there. They have a large citrus station . I drove by about 20 minutes ago, and looked over at some workes while i was stopped at a red light.The workers did not look to happy. The bright spot if any. Next week is supposed to be much better. Higher day and nite temps. And maybe a windless week?

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momoese

My Ae Ae did sustain some leaf damage but hopefully that's all! I did some blanket wrapping around the p-stem and covered it with black plastic the best I could, then I placed a garden light directly under it for a little warmth. I set the timer to stay on all night long. So far it looks like it's ok but it no longer has the canopy from the Apples for frost protection. Hopefully we won't have any more frosty nights! It was still growing new leaves before the frost hit.

island cassie

To everybody hit by the freezing weather and winds, I hope the damage turns out to be less than feared initially. Just heartbreaking! Cassie

imdocrob

I have a lot of brown leaves on my nanners, they have been inside my greenhouse all winter but with the temps down in the 20's I have noticed a lot of leaf damage. I can only get the temps in the mid 40's to low 50's overnight and only warming up to the 60's during the day right now. I can't wait till this cold spell snaps. Have moved as many as I can inside right now. I hope that all I have is leaf damage. Like Mitchell said only time will tell.

AnnaJW

How are you guys fairing down south?

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

pitangadiego

No matter how bad they look, trim off dead parts, and esp rotting (brown mushy) parts. You will be amazed at how resilient they can be and how fruit can often ripen when you think it is hopeless. Be patient and don't be to quick to write things off.

We bottomed at 38 Saturday night and 40 last night, but lower lying areas all around were as low as 22. That is as cold as we have ever gotten. Only down to 40 the last two or three years. Usually coldest two or three nights are in mid-December at 38 or 39.

So the cold wasn't too bad, but the winds the last three or four weeks have taken out Brazilian (fruit hanging, lost), Pisang Ceylon (fruit hanging, landed on Solo Papaya and is saveable), Monthan just beginning to flower, and lost), Mona Lisa (near flowering, lost), Dwarf Red Green (snapped off, time will tell). and Cuban Red (staus unknown). Saba, two bunches hanging, tallest of all, and no problem. Belle, one hanging one flowering, both fine. Mysore was leaning on the Sweetheart, or it woud be gone.

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doubravsky

All my ensetes and musas looked like they got blowtorched Sun. morning. We'll see what comes back in the spring. I probably lost 8-10 expensive palms too... and the bamboo is all defoliated, and the hibiscus, and the colocasias, and and and.....

This bites!

JoeReal

just a sad reminder to us banana hobbyists that the California Citrus Industry is losing $750 Million dollars worth of fruits. Expect the prices of fresh lemons, mandarins, grapefruits and oranges to rise in the near future.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070116/...trus_cold_snap