Want Them All

Surprisingly, this summer has seen very few "hot" days, i.e. over 100 F. The last 3 days have been 100+, today was 110. Even the papaya looks sad. Most of my plants have been soaking in the heat just fine, until today. Hopefully, the banana fruits will be OK. On the other hand, the jujube, citrus, and super dwarf cavendish show no ill effects from the intense heat.

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LilRaverBoi

Ouch, that's some bad sunburn on a few of them! Did they get dried out badly or were they watered regularly (as needed)?

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palmtree

Ouch! They definitely need a good soaking in that type of heat and even then they can get burned. Mine werent ill when they saw a record high of 105F but it was very humid which might have saved them.
Hope they recover and the fruit comes out okay, Im sure they will!

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Location: New York City, zone 7b

cherokee_greg

wow does not look good. The 110 degree did not do that to mine .It was a hot one today 110

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Greg zone 9 Fresno,CA
http://gardenjot.com/garden/view/1980/Gregs-Banana-Farm

nph

I live in Dallas where we have had close to record heat and 17 days over 100 degrees. Several of my bananas look like that and my take is that even though I have increased watering they got beat up since I was away for my mothers funeral for 10 days and used the sprinkler system (modified to use hoses directly to the plants of course).

To me it looks like they needed water and were not overwatered. Is that the general consensus here after seeing these pictures?

TommyMacLuckie

They look like they don't have mulch on and around them. Why is that? That could help possibly. Where I live we've had many days over 100 degrees in the sun, up to 130 easily, as does a lot of the southern part of the country. 110 being recorded in the shade, that would not burn the plants. It's way way way hotter in the sun. None of my bananas have done that this year (I also water the hell out of them). The surrounding environment could also be aiding in the burning of the fronds as well. Just hot hot hot period.

Want Them All

To answer you guys' questions:

The black stuff around each tree is mulch, the reddish/orange material is wood chips. The soil around the plants was not dry, kinda moist. Still, I watered them all during the day. I think what made it worse than just the heat was the wind. Hot air blowing around is not good. I have several other banana plants in the front yard that were barely affected, as they were shielded by the house and some taller trees. Those photos are of my backyard, total, full exposure, south facing. I'm hoping only the leaves were damaged, and the plants will recover. Starting tomorrow, supposedly we'll get back to normal summer temperatures.

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DoctorSteve

Wow that stinks! I live east of San Francisco and it was hot the last few days as here as well. It was in the hundreds somewhere. My Goldfinger did fine, though I have it in a spot that only gets about 6-8 hours of full sun. It is usually in the 90s here in the summer so I didn't want take a chance on it burning. It has been a cool summer though, so I will have to see how my bananas can take the normal summer next year. I am more concerned about the winter.

Nicolas Naranja

Banana plants like all other plants keep themselves and their leaves cool by evaporating water out of their stomata. The problem in California is probably not only the fact that it was very hot and sunny, but that the air was also dry. If you have 110 degrees in the shade and 20% humidity, the evaporative demand is going to be so high that a leaf will either close its stomata or will fail in trying to move enough water through the stomata to keep cool.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

jimhardy

Is it possible this could be from fertilizer?


This is a common problem for me if I get to happy with the miracle grow )-:

Velutina

You are talking about a heat index of 130F. A heat index is how hot it feels to a human, taking into account humidity. That number is useless for bananas. Bananas have no problem taking high heat with high humidity. In my greenhouse, it would get to 125F (real temperature) plus 80% humidity with no problems. At my house in Las Vegas, things are a bit different. My bananas were doing great this year even with 105F and 20% humidity. Then hell week hit. Official number for Las Vegas was 112F, but my house is in a low elevation that somehow collects the heat. Humidity dropped to 2% and weather stations in my area reported 114-117F. My personal thermometer read 116F. The only bananas that survived were in the shade.

People saying high temps don't effect their bananas likely have a relatively high humidity level. I would guess most people posting on here have never experienced 110F with 5% humidity. You can mulch and water all you want, but your bananas will still fry.

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Adam