endeitz

First, I found a link to this forum over at GW. It is so nice to find another forum, since the GW one is lacking in many ways. I have found alternate forums now for both banana and citrus (my favorites!). Thanks for the good work guys!

Now, for my question. I asked over at GW to see if anyone had California Gold they could sell me. But now, in browsing this forum I see that some think that the Dwarf Brazilian might be more cold hardy. I am in 8b, and currently have a Dwarf Ornico (I think, I bought it long ago before I even knew what a banana plant looked like, so I will post a pic in the "identify this" forum eventually). I am looking to add to my edible collection (I have a Basjoo as well).

Do you guys think that CA Gold or Dwarf Brazilian is a better candidate? I have kept my current dwarf alive by covering with a frost blanket, and including a 20 gallon container full of water under the blanket. The leaves are a little ragged, but no bad damage yet (down to 22F overnight, with warmer temps during the day). I was hoping to find another dwarf variety that I could treat similarly.

Regards,

Ed.

JoeReal

I will post pictures soon this coming spring time. After a series of more than 30 frosty nights todate, it seemed that my Dwarf Brazilian are a lot better looking than California Gold and Dwarf Orinoco. Tis winter season, I still have a few green leaves on my Dwarf Brazilian, all of the outer sheaths are still lively green while the manzano, raja puri, misi luki, dwarf orinoco, california gold, thousand fingers have all of their leaves fried up and the outer sheath starting to blacken and turn brown.

Even if some are side by side planted, there is still that microclimate effect. The taller ones gets fried up first, as an example.

endeitz

Thanks for the info. What protection to you use (if any) and at what temperature do you employ it? I tend to put a spun polyester frost blanket on if I see freezing weather forecast overnight. Then I look at the 8-day and if I see any marginal evenings in the future, I just leave the blanket on. That way, I don't have to constantly add or remove the blanket.

It may be that I would be better off just covering for the first freeze and leaving the cover (which allows some percentage of sun through) on all winter. I know that it won't grow much in the winter, regardless of whether the cover is on or not.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the leaves are already looking a bit ragged with some yellowing, so I don't know if another 2 months of winter will destroy them completely. This is my first winter of trying to protect the plants (in the previous two winters they have frozen back and regrown from ground level, after I cut the rotten bit off).

I am encouraged to hear of your results with the Dwarf Brazilian. Because dwarf bananas suit my landscape and covering approach, I will be ordering a Dwarf Brazilian come spring. Do you have a recommendation for a suitable online grower (they never have this type at my nursery/HD)?

Ed.

JoeReal

Some online growers are here like Jeffrey sells banana pups. The polyester blanket is best if you dye them to dark colors and you can drape them over the entire winter. I did that to my bananas and have observed prolonged protection compared to other folks in our area, but the problem is the very strong winds that blow them away, followed by very clear early pre-dawn and calm winds and cover blown away, I just couldn't win this winter. I will anchor the covers much better next season's winter.

www.going-bananas.com would usually sell with the correct cultivars. A little bit more expensive than others but their plants are top quality. Avoid the eBay tissue cultured plantlets like the plague. I've had many mislabeled cultivars from those cheapo plantlets and knew only after 3 or 4 years. With growing-bananas, so far they are 100% correctly labeled.

I don't sell my banana pups, but just give them away if there's available and you come and dig them out, or have an exchange. But after testing more than 80 cultivars in my yard, I have stopped exchanging bananas, only with other scionwood, but I am always at the losing end when it comes to postage due to the weight of the pups and so have minimized my exchanges altogether.

I have already given about fifteen California Gold pups for free, have given away more than 20 Dwarf orinoco pups for free, Misi Luki, Mysore, Raja Puri, and about 15 Dwarf Brazilians, I have given away more than 200 banana pups for free todate. Sometimes I exchange them. Even if I would sell them for $50 each pup, they are not simply worth the effort (digging, cleaning, packaging, mailing, trip to post office, time lost in all these could not be compensated for $50, so why bother?), so I just give them away if you come and get them. But for exchanges, I would do the whole nine yards. If the Ae-aes are cold hardy enough when planted inground and would grow back every spring, I would have planted a lot and give them away for free, but mine died even at temperature of 40 deg F, they are simply not worth it.

I'm keeping only 8 banana cultivars in my yard in main residence (have about 2 dozen in my other properties) and won't bother with anything anymore unless there is a new cold hardy cultivar recently introduced by FHIA.

endeitz

Joe,

You have an impressive collection and obviously tremendous experience in this area. I appreciate the tip regarding the grower (I will probably hold off any orders until spring), and the dyeing of the frost blanket. I assume the darker color is for increased absorption of infrared.

I am curious as to the effect it might have on the amount of light reaching the plants. Is the idea to shade them for the most part? My understanding is that tropicals can be damaged when exposed to strong sunlight under colder conditions. However, will the leaves of a banana survive under extreme low light for several months? I know so little about these things.

I have had good luck adding a water reservoir (I use 20gal Rubbermaids) of some kind under a blanket (for other cold-sensitive plants, this is the first I've tried with bananas) to increase the total heat capacity in the "mini-greenhouse". I do not have a data logger for my thermometer, but the temperatures are attenuated somewhat during the night based on spot readings.

The mean number of freezing days per month in my area looks something like this (from http://www.met.utah.edu/jhorel/html/...e/min32.html):

[Month] [Number of Days]
November 1
December 5
January 8
February 4
March 1

I see you are in Davis. I think Sacramento is near there, and Sacramento shows a similar (but slightly warmer) trend as to here, with a (1 7 7 2 1), so I am hopeful I can take a cue from some of your techniques. Again, I appreciate the information.

Ed.

JoeReal

Ed,

I simply dig out some banana pups, put them in my garage, and never water them the entire winter, and let my flourescent bulb (a total of 80 watts for the entire 312 sq ft area) stay on, occassionally shutting them off for a whole day. The result is that all the leaves stay green on all of my tropicals.

Just before I bring them out, I turn on a couple of my portable flourescent shop lights that are over 125 watt each and let them bake the plants of a whole week to condition them to the outside light and by the time the forecast will be more accurate, I simply wait for one week solid no frost. I then bring them out after the frosty nights and the intense light conditioning, and let them start out in the shady areas first. This way I have minimal leaf damage. The entire winter without watering, sometimes I have grown one to two leaves more in the garage with almost constant 80 watt lights and no watering.

Joe

karensacramento

I would love to dig up acouple pups from your yard JoeReal.
thankyou for your advise.I am a new member from Sacramento.
KarenSacramento..

bencelest

I asked first.

__________________
Banana Nut

Westwood

Joe , these ladys are fighting over your cali gold pups LOL .me i just want your 40 n 1 citrus tree LOL ..

hey as always thanks for the info . i too have a simelar set up but its my reef tank light the bananas are leaning twards . Tammy

Hurry up summer get Your blooming buds going LOL .

crocus is blooming tulips starting to get there blooms yippy for spring

bencelest

I was just kidding.
She can have my "share".

__________________
Banana Nut

Westwood

Benny LOL i too was kidding please keep your share Joe doesnt mind that we dig up his plants . do ya joe ? hey any one wanna split the gas in the Excavator ? LOL


How are ya benny ? I didnt see your post until just now tammy

bencelest

Hi Tammy.
I'm fine.
I have my eyes on now on bananas.
I am so excited learning this new plant specially growing them in my area, zone 9.
But I am learning a lot and I am jotting down all the answers how to grow them up to fruiting.
For many years now I've been growing bananas but I never was successful to having even one fruited let alone even one flowered on me.
But learning new tricks in this forum inspired me to do it again.
I just killed all of my non fruiting bananas and bought me a bunch from ebay from different sellers. Now I have more than 15 varieties growing inside aquariums and protected space in pots in my yard. I think I had abaca plants that's why they didn't flower.
When spring comes I'll transplant them all (newly acquired)to the ground.

__________________
Banana Nut

Westwood

hey Benny , when i lived in panama we had them like crazy. MOM lived in coose bay has a couple of small plants in the house 4 ft tall blooming yrly. ( hope there edible ones) so i got back into it .

Now i have a few and some pups i got 2 blooms last yr but um Damn raccoons had broken them off . i also have plumerias here too and soon Taccas . ya know i do have a pup of the raja if ya wanna try a Pup let me know Tammy

PS i brought every plant i had in this yr after looking my fav banana last yr and never knew this wonderfull list with all these great people exhisted .

they have saved my plants and Citrus org saved my citrus LOL im on too many Forums for my " TROPICAL Hobbies" seriously reef tanks citrus tacca bananas OK if i win PCH we are all going to the rain forest just to visit Deal ?

bencelest

Thanks for the offer. But I already bought one but it is a small plant around 8 inches tall and cultured grown. And you said you have a pup. Maybe this Spring, I may take your offer. It is still kinda cold here. It goes down to 39 * F sometimes.
I've been busy also on my job.
I am also in and off on citrus forum and citrus growers forum.
Plumerias are nice but I don't know how to take care of them. My wife loves them.

__________________
Banana Nut

bencelest

Tammy: [quote=hey any one wanna split the gas in the Excavator ? LOL [/QUOTE]

What excavator?
Me and my kids dug all the bananas with 3 shovels and a machette. (lol).
With the arctic blast that past us over I think Joe doesn't have anymore pups to spare. He'd be lucky to save one for himself. MHO.

__________________
Banana Nut

Tropicallvr

Joe real- I was wondering where you bought your Dwarf Brazilian from?