Quote:
Originally Posted by rwood1754
Hi, I taked to a guy in El Paso years ago. He had Raja Puri that he said did quitre well there even with the cold & snow.
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West wall is the best in winter, but little hot in summer. I have some bananas by a west wall. Last sumer I had netting over them. They survived below freezing this winter (ice creams) & now too big for netting. I think I will put something in front of the wall to shield the bananas from the heat. It is around 90 degrees now & they are doing quite well here in Phoenix. I have a raji puri in my front yard that took about 25 degrees okay & the stem survived. It was 17 degrees in my back yard as we had an unusually hard winter. The minimum here shouldn't be below 25 as zone 9b where I live. I had a 3 year old pineapple plant that did okay by the west wall just covered with leaves & cloth. That really surprised me. The first year if planted late I try to shade my bananas while they are young. The second summer at my other house 116 degrees didn't faze my orinocos or raja puri bananas or any of the 10 other varieties I had, but I lost all of them when I had to move. Now I have ice cream, goldfinger, basoo, cardaba, brazilian, texas gold, raja puri & just starting an African rhino horn, & going to try california gold & makong giant again as wasn't successful with those two last summer. The makong grew like crazy under the shade, but couldn't take the AZ sun, but I planted them too late and it was too hot. I actually killed it by overwatering as my soil mixture didn't drain well. Now I use mostly palm & cactus mixture as good drainage as I have heavy clay like soil. I've had more problems with my young bananas being too wet then anything else. Good watering when needed (I use my hands in soil to check dryness)with good drainage, but not having the roots constantly wet. Surprisingly, I've lost most of my young plants by them being too wet here in Phoenix? At my other place, the water didn't matter & I even had irrigation. You can't save the leaves if it frost, but the stem I can here. But in colder areas if the stem is frozen cut it off just above ground & cover with leaves, then with someting to keep the leaves dry. Come spring, the more cold hardy like raji puri will send up a new plant.