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Florida Gardening

Frost damaged Banana Plants?

12 years ago

Luckily, the only thing in my yard that was damaged by the frost were the bananas. I tried to play it safe and mostly planted hardy native plants, but love the exotic look of banana trees. They don't look so exotic anymore. I just planed them last summer, so this is their first winter. Most of the leaves on the large plants are brown. Should I cut them off, or cut the whole stalk down? The small shoots on the side look ok, I'll try to protect them from any more frosts. I asked my neighbor what to do with the dead bananas, and she looked at me confused, and said she just leaves them be. Maybe that's best. What do you think? Just so you know, I don't have a manicured yard, I'm going more for a wild jungle look with too many plants planted too close. I'm more concerned with the health of the banana trees.

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Comments (9)

shuffles_gw
12 years ago
If you like the wild look, just let them be. Depending on the low and the variety, they should come back - if only from the root/stem. I have a couple varieties that went to 27 degrees last year and have already had ripe fruit. The dwarf Cavendish came back, but it looks like they require more than a year frost-free to fruit. I plan to get rid of almost all of them this year. If anyone wants to pick up plants in Tampa, you can have them.
organicmomma89
12 years ago
Why are you getting rid of them??? I could use a couple where in tampa are you!?

Im including my blog if you'd like to see what I am doing here in N. Tampa!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: My gardening blog
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I found your pic very interesting, as that's what my Ladyfinger bananas often look like anyway. (I don't cover the bunches and assume it's a combination of lack of water--we're in drought here--and too much sun in summer/light frost in winter.) I just cut the entire stem down when some of the bananas start to go yellow (usually not even as yellow as those in your pic) and place them in the shed to ripen. They still taste good. We're having very cold winter nights here now (it's fallen to zero degrees C over the past week) and I've noticed that of my three bananas growing in a row along the fence (Ladyfinger, Goldfinger, Blue Java), it's the Goldfinger that's suffering the most. Its leaves started to yellow as soon as the nights *began* to get cold, say about 10 degrees C. I don't know how this will affect the fruit as this is only its second winter and it flowered for the first time a couple of months ago, so the fruit is still small and green. But, as I said, it's the one that seems least cold hardy.
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hello, I live in Kentucky, so we are pretty much in the same area. If you have the room inside and your banana is showing signs of new growth after the frost damage, then by all means keep it alive, in a sunny location of course. Water when needed, use fertilizer very lightly while growing indoors. Depending on size of plant, determines the size of your corm or rhizome. Small plants will have much less corm to feed off of, thus, if you can keep small plants alive indoors then its better than making them go dormant. If you have a large well established banana at least a year old, then your chances of survival are greater when you let them go dormant for the winter indoors. To store inside, cut pstem down below leaf level, cover with cloth, in a dark cool room. No need to water,feed during this time. Once spring arrives, and the threat of frosty weather leaves, then place outside, water and feed the banana to start growth again. Now if you decide to keep them alive indoors, and your damaged bananas look awful from the frost, you can cut off the leaves and stem below the damage, and the plant should take off again. If you are growing indoors, then the process will be a little slower. If kept in a warm, sunny area, watered and feed, the plant will recover from area cut and start regrowth. This process is only if you want to keep them alive indoors, and you do not want the long stem with one leaf sticking out the top. You will loose height, however your new growth will look nicer. Or, you can cut the damaged leaves off, and let the plant continue to grow from that point with the one leaf at the top. Your choice. I hope I didnt sound to confusing.
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shuffles_gw
12 years ago
organicmamma, I am getting rid of them because I haven't had a crop in several years. Back when we didn't have a freeze every year I used to get good crops. I am keeping a few in case the weather ever gets back to normal. Right now, I need the space. I think you can e-mail me to get an address. I am very close to Dale Mabry and Kennedy. I also have lots of lobster claw heliconias and a variety of heliconia that I lost the name of. It is a 6 to 8 foot tall plant that is supposed to have big red flowers. Same story, these heliconias are in the way. If you have any nice cannas, I would accept a trade. But not necessary. I am going to get rid of these one way or another.
billbrandi
12 years ago
This has been really a strange year for bananas. About November or so, my trees decided to sprout fruit, after staying inactive all summer. I picked them before the recent cold snap. Now I have over 300 green but rapidly ripening bananas that will be ready to eat in a week or so.

Echobelly, don't worry, your banana trees are okay, at least at ground level. You may have to chop down those that got hit by the cold but by spring you will have new pups coming up. Mine did the same thing last year; I pruned all the brown off, chopped down the stalks and waited for spring.
echobelly
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks! I guess I'll leave them for a while, and then cut them back when there are new sprouts. I didn't realize they were so frost sensitive, they make a great screen from the road, hopefully it won't always be seasonal. If they fruit, that's just a plus.
User
12 years ago
I used to dig up my bananas every year and put them in the garage during cold spells. In SC, I dug them, wrapped them in newspapers, and threw them under the house, where the heating ductwork kept them very warm. Never had bananas in either place.
DunedinDan
12 years ago
I would just leave them. There's a good chance the stalks are ok. After the hard freezes of the last few years, I just removed the brown leaves and left the stalks. (I also left about 1/3 of the top leaf since the next new leaf will come out of that one). New leaves sprouted from the top of almost all of the stalks.
starryrider
12 years ago
I lived in Jax and had bananas. I took a hacksaw to them every spring to get rid of the frozen stuff. The old dead part protects the healthy part inside.
echobelly
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks dunedindan, I did notice there are signs of new leaves at the top of the stalk, I'll just cut off the dead ones after they've died back.

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