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Kent · 08-25-2010, 12:48 AM

Most of us in this part of California have been moaning about how cold the summer has been. Well, be careful what you ask for! Where I live about 50 miles north of San Francisco, we went from a high of 71 to a high of 107 in just three days. The forecast for today was only supposed to be 98. The forecast for tomorrow is 100; I hope that doesn’t mean we’ll hit 109. I'm afraid of what I may find when I get home from work tomorrow.

I have an 18" pseudo-stem Dwarf Orinoco pup that I potted just over a week ago. Looks like I’ve lost all three leaves, but I’m hopeful the plant will survive. Two much smaller Gold Finger pups, which I potted a week earlier in an effort to save, seem to be doing OK. Their mother died two winters ago, bad frost, bad location, and possibly a gopher, and the two pups haven’t taken off. Figured it was time to intervene. I also have a Mona Lisa with two pups that seems to have weathered the heat so far. All these were planted in ground on the north side of my backyard. I don’t think they are getting enough sun. My neighbors recently ripped out several large shrubs that were shading the small plot along side my driveway. I am planning to relocate all the bananas there. I figured I would also plant them in half wine barrels, which is what I had originally planned for the backyard. I’m looking for the barrels to provide gopher protection and improved drainage. Has anyone experimented with using CHC for banana growing media? I also plan to leave one pup of each type in 5 gal. nursery containers to over winter in the garage as insurance against another severe December cold snap.

Besides the bananas, several recently repotted citrus are looking a bit ragged. A Moro blood orange seedling in a citrus liner pot looks like its going to lose all its leaves. And it was in a location where it only got sun for half the day. To add insult to injury, my heirloom tomatoes are showing significant signs of sun burned fruit. It hurts to go from green to brown without hardly any mature fruit. Oh well, I’ve watered everything well again for the third night in a row.

Kent

08-25-2010, 12:48 AM	#1 (permalink)
Kent Kent's Photo Gallery Location: Santa Rosa, CA Zone: 9 Name: SonomaCitrus Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 20 BananaBucks : 4,147 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Thanks" 0 Times Was Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times	Too Hot, Too Fast Most of us in this part of California have been moaning about how cold the summer has been. Well, be careful what you ask for! Where I live about 50 miles north of San Francisco, we went from a high of 71 to a high of 107 in just three days. The forecast for today was only supposed to be 98. The forecast for tomorrow is 100; I hope that doesn’t mean we’ll hit 109. I'm afraid of what I may find when I get home from work tomorrow. I have an 18" pseudo-stem Dwarf Orinoco pup that I potted just over a week ago. Looks like I’ve lost all three leaves, but I’m hopeful the plant will survive. Two much smaller Gold Finger pups, which I potted a week earlier in an effort to save, seem to be doing OK. Their mother died two winters ago, bad frost, bad location, and possibly a gopher, and the two pups haven’t taken off. Figured it was time to intervene. I also have a Mona Lisa with two pups that seems to have weathered the heat so far. All these were planted in ground on the north side of my backyard. I don’t think they are getting enough sun. My neighbors recently ripped out several large shrubs that were shading the small plot along side my driveway. I am planning to relocate all the bananas there. I figured I would also plant them in half wine barrels, which is what I had originally planned for the backyard. I’m looking for the barrels to provide gopher protection and improved drainage. Has anyone experimented with using CHC for banana growing media? I also plan to leave one pup of each type in 5 gal. nursery containers to over winter in the garage as insurance against another severe December cold snap. Besides the bananas, several recently repotted citrus are looking a bit ragged. A Moro blood orange seedling in a citrus liner pot looks like its going to lose all its leaves. And it was in a location where it only got sun for half the day. To add insult to injury, my heirloom tomatoes are showing significant signs of sun burned fruit. It hurts to go from green to brown without hardly any mature fruit. Oh well, I’ve watered everything well again for the third night in a row. Kent __________________ Kent a.k.a. SonomaCitrus