west-tx

I live west Texas and I'm hoping to experiment with growing a couple of bananas this summer. Though it is hot and dry here, my small garden remains fairly lush with minimal watering. Most of the rainwater from my roof is directed into my garden and the flower beds are deeply mulched to retain the moisture. My main concern is the lack of humidity shriveling up the leaves. Does anyone have any input? Does it seem futile to grow bananas in such a hot and dry environment? Should I keep them in part shade (instead of the reccomended full sun) to protect them from the brutal mid day heat? My small garden is well protected from the wind and cannas grow pretty well here. Thanks for any advice!

sunfish

Tropicman

I live just west of Amarillo,this will be my first year growing bananas here,like to know how you protect from the wind,it destroys more than the heat here at my place.

caliboy1994

Try planting them against a wall or fence.

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Tropicman

Wind blows very had a different direction everyday,on average 25 mph gusting to 45mph almost everyday!But yes will have to plant next to the wall of the house and hope for the best!

west-tx

I live in Lubbock, and this will be my first year trying bananas. Just like by Amarillo, the wind can be relentless in the Spring and the outflow gusts from summer thunderstorms frequently reach 70mph. I live in an older neighborhood with lots of trees, my backyard is very small and is surrounded by a high fence, my house blocks two sides of the backyard, and a neighbors house is quite close and provides shelter from the wind as well. All this keeps my backyard fairly protected. I will let you know how it goes. It's possible that this will be a failed experiment, but I sure would love to have some tropical greenery in all this dust.

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.

rwood1754

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.

rwood1754

The Texas Gold is one that should do okay in your area. It can take both heat & cold. Aaronsfarm.com is where I got mine. I recommend the larger corms. Plant in cactus-palm mixture with some good soil mixed in. Water enough to settle the soil. Then wait until signs of growth before more water. Usually takes two weeks plus here. Then wet soil all around, but keep it off the corm. Then wait until a leaf actually forms. Then I water again. Then I just go by the dryness of the soil or the look of the leaves until it really gets going, then normal watering. This is the way I've had to do to get them going here in "Phoenix". The corm will usually lose the surrounding leaf stems & dry. If they look rotten, I tear then down to the solid corm (bulb) area so they will dry. A good size corm usually won't dry out. I am more worried about the corm being too wet & rotting here. Other places like Florida, they seems to plant them * water whenever. But that has never worked for me here in Phoenix. Also here, I have to keep the water off the plant itself. The mineral salts tend to burn the new leaves & they come out with brown spots. Our water in my area is really high in mineral salts, if you spray your windows & don't wipe them off....salt deposits all over the window.

Abnshrek

I think TG is nothing more than a D. Orinoco.. I find them lacking when it comes to withstanding cold, but recover well in the spring. Personally I think Orinoco is tough as nails where as cold is concerned.. You leave it whole till spring then trim the leaves after last frost.. This year the one in the yard is trimmed down to just over 6' of p-stem so fruit should be no problem this year for that one. :^)

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rwood1754

I haven't had a chance to compare the Texas Gold to the Orinoco growing at the same time. But I agree, the TG is probably a just a slight variation of Orinoco or another close one. The same with the California Gold, etc. All probably just a slight variation of the more well known bananas like the Orinoco. Last winter was rough & I didn't have any Orinocos to see how they would have withstood it, but in the winter of 2011, my 2 Orinocos didn't even suffer frost damage to the leaves. They were in the front yard, with just screen wire around them & plastic over the top screen wire. And it was 29 to 30 degrees more than once in the early mornings. So the Orinoco is one of my favorites for withstanding cold.

sunfish

I think it's Texas Star. Never heard of Texas Gold

Abnshrek

a D. Orinoco is a D. Orinoco isn't it Tony? :^)

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sunfish

My Texas Gold was not dwarf

Abnshrek

So it was as big as Texas? I thought you had a TS? lol :^)

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sunfish

A T.G. is a T.S.

Abnshrek

so how big did it get? :^)

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sunfish