On Thu, 1 Mar 2007 01:29:45 -0500, "mike mahan"
wrote:

hello fellow gardeners,

a little advice please if you are so inclined.

we live in central florida and we had a brief cold snap recently.

we have a few Traveller palms and banana trees. The cold damaged them. i
want to bring them back to full health of course. i may not be asking the
"right" questions here so please feel free to expand the scope here as to
how to bring them back.

should we water heavily, fertilize and so on? and what it the best way to
trim them which will result in the least damage to the stalks?

the trunks of the banana trees and the leaves of the banana trees closest to
the ground survived. the higher leaves are brown and green or totally brown.
the stalks to which the dead leaves are attached are still green and look
ok. where should i trim from? the trees are about 8 - 10 feet tall and they
all have new growth coming in.

similar situation with the Traveller palms. these are 10-14 ft tall. Some of
the leaves are totally brown and dead i fear. some are a mixture of brown
and green. stalks look ok. and there is new growth coming in. where should i
trim from? should i let the brown/green leaves alone of clip them?

thanks,

sammy





I may be totally wrong, but I'd cut back on water and not fertilize at
all until I saw signs of new growth, then ease into normal care. I
wouldn't want to get new soft growth started while there is still a
chance of more cold.

I wouldn't cut off any green leaves, they can still feed the tree.
Any parts that have gone brown and dry could be removed, it would only
be a matter of appearance, wouldn't have any effect on the health of
the tree.

The part of the tree that is critical is the new bud that will be
making new leaves, buried down in the top of the plant, and likely
safe.

I'm in California, my Bananas came through with little damage, some
others here in town are completely brown, They'll probably come back
from the roots, but the tops are gone.