Little more than a month to grow!
Tropical Jungle
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I want to know how you keep your banana leaves from wind damage??????? Surely you get more wind than I do..living on the Ks plains???? (altho I am on top of a hill...lol!)
Ohhhh...and I meant to say...just beautiful!!!
This message was edited Aug 26, 2006 8:03 PM
lookin good tropicman! In pic 3, I think I see evidence that you do actually have a lawn!
Looks very good I am guessing your on the roof for these shots?? These are my kind of yards.
Looking good Don!! It looks like it has been a good year for you!!!
Thanks,yes there is still just a little lawn left,not much tho!!!
Yep the ole roof to get some good shots!
Wind here!!!These planted in front of the house,and then there is a row of bamboo that blocks the south wind,then the ones closer to the street are protected by the large leaf castor bean trees,and besides I cut the damaged leaves off!!!LOL
Ahhhhh...now I know the truth!!! LOL!!! Cut the leaves off!!
Looks great! Dixie
beautiful yard, tropicman! could you please identify the bright purple bushy-topped plant that really stands out in the first picture. thanks for sharing :o))
Thanks all!Those are elephants trunk,purple amaranthus,there about 7ft tall.
Wonderful!
My kinda garden!
I had so many amaranthus, I had to pull about 25 of them out at about 6-7 feet tall. Of course I put them in pots and they actually lived... Now what to do ?
Rj
wow! i didn't know they could get that tall. mine always start to flop over after a couple feet. do you have to stake yours?
Yes, they are trussed up like a mummy...hehe...can't really tell too much, but yup..propped up! I buy those long thin bamboo sticks, and for the heavy duty the big plastic ones...sent you mail...papayas are coming!
it's pretty amazing. your yard looks more tropical than mine and i'm in florida!
my kind of yard!
Thanks All!
Yes have to stake them as well,or grow them next to something to hold them up!!!
Rj,mine are going to, seed now,how about yours,If you don't remove the seeds head they'll be everywhere nextyear!!
That's the truth- I saved some of the seed heads last year and sprinkled them around- that's how I had such a good crop this year. I tried some other amaranthus- they were gold colored- hot biscuits or some funny name like that. The ones we have seem to be well suited for here. Ironically people come up and ask if I have any spare...ha! I step behind the gate and bring em out...I for some reason, can't toss plants out- I pull them out and then repot them....My friends come to my house before the nursery..LOL.
LOL.ditto here!!!
Tropic how hot are your summers? According to the usda i'm in a warmer area but i can't grow my stuff that tall.
So whats going on???
Must be you have a longer season or when its hot its really hot!
Mike
there are places though that having something reseed and be everywhere is a good thing.
Mike,
According to my American Horticultural Society Heat Zone map, Wichita should be in HZ 7 or HZ 8, which means that they get somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-120 days a year with temps above 30 degrees C (86 deg F)... Where I live is HZ 6, meaning on average we get 45-60 days a year with temps above 30 Deg C.... IIRC, Most of England is HZ 3, if even that.... In PA (and in the American Midwest), we regularly get temperatures during the summer that are above the all-time record high temps for London..... I read that recently in the newspaper when we had that heat wave a while back.
Mike,I don't think it's really the real heat,that makes things grow,in fact the 3 weeks or so,we were at 100* or more,it actually hurt my plants rather than making them grow!!!
They are really growing now that the temps are in the mid to high 80's during the day,and 60's at nite,I see more growth in latter August and September than any other time during the summer.
So the usda zone thing is daft then cause according to the site this one sent me to i'm warmer than tropic in winter. we should be using both USDA and the HZ scale to get an idea of the kind of plants.
Take my Ricinus best year ever they are nearly 2 meters and i started them in feb! But i doubt they will grow now its really cold.
Tropic i found that stripey Impomea seed today its a mixed pack so should have some for next year. Hope it looks as good as yours. I'm still waiting for some of mine to flower.
Looking GREAT Don!
That's a seriously Tropical yard!
mike,
The cold hardiness zone maps really don't impact the Tropical growers much. Sure a few marginally hardy plants get a chance outdoors but generally we in 6/7 have to bring about everything indoors.
The heat maps though do really help,
especially if you didn't growup in your current area..
Here in the Midwest we, like Don, are just now getting our best growth.
Maybe 6 weeks left to grow...........
Ric
Ric,I was just thinking that today also,6 weeks,left but are the best 6 weeks of growing of all spring and summer!!
Seems the fall monsoons have come early this year,and always on the weekends,just when I do my repotting ,getting plants ready to come back inside.
Monsoons. Think you sent them over here aswell. Its been raining all week. Well it feels like that.
So Tropic how and how and how do you overwinter those big bannanas? Some of the stuff you have would fill my house!
DUDE! That's awesome!!!!!!!! What kind of fertilizer do you use? My nanners seem stunted!
Mike,just dig them up,and toss then under the house in the crawl space,hope it stays above freezing,but below 45*,if it doesn't they seem to rot,and if it does freeze they will rot also.
I compost right in the flower beds I grow them,all grass clippings and pruings go into the flower beds,all thru the winter,then in spring once they get planted and grow a leaf or two,20-20-20 peters,weekly
Tropic. Crawl space under my house!!!???
English houses don't have them. Its all bricks and cement.
I use blood fish and bone fertiliser. Not sure if you guys have it but its like steriods for plants. Well probably depends on the climate. But yeah compost everything.
Tropic how long can the plants stay in there with no light? I have a few fantastic Brug's i would love to keep but can't bring them in the house i have a brick out house thats unheated but now windows. It should stay frost free but won't they die from lack of light?
Mike
TMan,You hard works shows again as always! I wish I would have got to see your place while I was close to you.
Hey Mike you are in the same zone as me. I don't even have an outhouse I just bring everything that won't make it thought the winter into the house and if we have a warm spell I'll haul what looks bad back out for a little light. How far is your out building? Maybe you could run an extention cord if it doesn't have electricy and hang a grow light.
Just a suggestion.
Jeri
Wow... that's Kansas? Thought it was cornfields out there. What happens to everything in the winter?
wheatfields - not cornfields!
Mike not sure how long they can stay dormant,but 4 months for sure,after that they start to dry up,if the corm gets completely dry,then it's over for them.
The brugs can also go in a dormant stage,with out much light but the roots still need water,about once a month should keep them from going completely dry as well.
Root,glad to see you resurface!How's the southern hospitality treating you???
When I get down to Alabama to see my kin folk,it's hi honey,hey sugar!Man o man do I ever eat that up!!!!
Thanks Capt!
But we also grow a lot of fieldcorn around wichita,when I was a kid,I'd sneak into the fields and pick and eat it raw,when it was good and ripe and milky,then for dessert,I'd eat some watermelon too!!! Ay the yesteryears!!!
Watermelon????!!! And all i get to look at is oil seed rape. Its nice and yellow when in flower but smells likes cats wee and has trillions of pollen beatles that cover the county for 2 weeks in the summer. Its like a plague.
Tropic cheers for the help. This is my first year trying to overwinter stuff so we will see. Every year so far i've sarted from scratch. So really pleased when anythings gets taller than me. Last nights wind has broken most of my tall stuff though. But today is really humid.
When do you dig stuff up? Do you wait for the first frost to burn the top leaves or just use the same date every year?
Out with my camera in a bit so will take some pics.
Mike
Our frost date is usually around second week of October,give or take a week,it may frost then,and not again until November.
I watch the forcast really close,and if it looks like it's gonna be a week of frosty weather,I start bringing in the most tender of the tropicals,and so on,until a hard freeze,a little cool weather might kill a few insects,most tropicals can take a nite or two of cool temps,into the mid 30's without damage.