Darkman

Well I certainly did not have a winter and only enough frost to defoliate most of my bananas in early March. That late frost was very discouraging as all my mats were fully leafed out looking very tropical and I even had seven blooms with immature hands hanging. The frost at 37 degrees took all that as the hands turned black. Only one fully formed bunch on a Goldfinger was left and it turned yellow and was eaten.

I have given away three huge Orinoco mats this spring. Each one had ten to twelve P-stems. Some I'm sure may have bloomed already if I had not dug them up. I can say this with some certainty as today I found a half leaf, flag leaf and a bloom already open on another large mat of Orinoco. That beats last years first bloom date by one full month.

I will be planting Dwarf Reds, Dwarf Namwahs and Dwarf Cavendish where I removed the three mats.

On a side note here is the story behind the UN-defoliated bananas. I have some areas that are in very heavy Live Oak shade where I grow ornamental tropical "looking" plants. As an experiment two years ago I planted several Orinocos. They have all lived and slowly grown even producing some pups. I have no doubt they will bloom this year. They have not lost ANY leaves to frost. If they bloom and produce fruit I may plant more in my shaded areas. Although it will take longer for a P-stem to mature and produce I think I will have better looking plants with leaves to support late Summer blooms.

We'll see.

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Darkman in Pensacola

AS ALWAYS IMHO AND YOUR MILEAGE MAY DIFFER!!!!!!!!

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Bob3

Interesting observation about the oaks; I planted a Blue Java at my buddy's place while house-sitting & it rarely gets hit by frost; their yard is full of old oaks.
Looks like I better start stealing acorns from the neighborhood squirrels; it's easier to plant trees than to mess with the "winter greenhouse".

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Darkman

Hi Bob,

I hope you're a young man if you are going to wait for acorns to make canopy shade. LOL

Seriously my Oaks are probably 150 years old maybe older. There is about 30 to 35 feet UNDER the wide canopy and the width of the canop is approaching 90 feet. That is just for one of the larger trees. This shaded area I grow in has about a half dozen or so Oaks whose high branches intertwine to create very very little sunlight penetration. We are talking serious shade here.

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Darkman in Pensacola

AS ALWAYS IMHO AND YOUR MILEAGE MAY DIFFER!!!!!!!!

Life - Some assembly required, As is no warranty, Batteries not included, Instructions shipped separately and are frequently wrong!

Kentucky Bourbon - It may not solve the problem but it helps to make it tolerable!

Statistics - Data that analyst twist to support the insane opinions of those that pay them.