In the last year I've planted 5 bananas. They all grew like gangbusters from May through September. Now the ones without wind protection look horrible, brown, like they want to die. These ones are a dwarf orinoco and a rajapuri. My bananas with wind protection look better, but not happy. They are an ice cream, a manzano and a dwarf manzano. Is this just their winter look in Zone 10a? I know colder climates chop and mulch them. I'd like to keep the main pseudostem going.
musa acuminata
I am not familiar with the winter weather conditions in your area, but I am surprised to hear that the dwarf orinoco and the raja puri were looking like that without a freeze. I have both of those and they looked great until we had 28 degree nights-which I don't think that you have had?? They went through 32 degrees great-I was surprised
I assume that you have had very windy conditions there? Even so, the bananas would look shredded, but I don't think it would really affect them in other negative ways-such as turning brown....
November was a bad month. We hit 28-30F a few times. What's worse is the almost zero humidity that accompanies it. Watering could kill the banana as soon as it freezes again, and no water is hard as they are heavy drinkers. The ones exposed to dry winds definitely took the biggest hit.
Terry, Both those bananas are realatively hardy, and even though they will look a bit frazzled after your heavy frosts, just cut off the dead leaves and when the temps start to warm up a bit, they will grow new ones. My Musa Basjoos lost all their leaves after we had a week of temps in the 20s, but during the following week, when the lowest it got was about 40, I was surprised to actually see the plant trying to put out a new leaf. Of course, our recent temps that dropped into the upper teens (16-18 degrees) pretty much put them to sleep for the winter.....
I think that if you peel back the rotten new leaf, you will see a green new leaf under that, and that it will start to put out new growth. This is what I did when we had 28 degree a few weeks ago, then we had really warm weather and that is when the new growth started to push upwards. I think if we didn't have the 17 degree weather this past weekend-which really put them past new growth, that they would have been fine. I am surprised to hear those night temps-is that usual for you in the winter?
I think that I would water the bananas in that situation-because the ground isn't going to freeze if the night goes down that low for only a few nights, and the day is above freezing-our ground didn't freeze then, because the ground retains warmth longer than the air. Also, for the most part, plants handle the cold better if they aren't stressed out from being dried out. I know as a annual grower that when I have pansies in pots and it is going to be a hard freeze, that they go through it better with wet/moist soil better than dry soil.
I'm planning on leaving all the brown leaves on until they just fall off. In spring I'll trim them down to the nice green leaves. My raja puri was planted in October of 2005, so I'm hoping to maybe see flowering or fruit in 2007. My palms simply slowed down and don't look mucg different than in September. Bananas react more immediately to the weather.