Damn Jim, that's awesome! I don't think I have a chance for bananas to flower this year. My big ones got so beat up by hail earlier in the summer. The pups are in better shape and surpassing them. Gotta love the weather though! Our dewpoint right now is 87, no kidding!! Temp is 87f, heat index is 115f. And there's a "severe" thunderstorm happening at the moment.

Very neat, Jim. Keep us updated on the Iowa bananas 😀

Yea I just checked your weather a second ago when I saw your weather sticker
said the temp was 77...to see if it was an error...but then I saw it said"thunderstorm"

One of my Basjoos came back from last years trunk so,I am curious to see if it will
flower this year....lots of hail damage in my yard this spring as well....
At one point the wells around the plants were filled with it-the soil temp was
up to 60F before that happened(in April),they dropped back to the mid 40s

Quite a lot of stunted growth from that kind of crap over the past spring-

If I can keep this stuff watered through this heatwave,maybe that lost time/growth can be made up!

Yeah Jim that storm that came through dumped a couple more inches of rain in some spots. It took the temp down to the upper 70s for a little while which was the coolest we have seen at any time 24/7 for the last several days. Low last night was 81! Sun back out and it is now back to 92f (at least here at work) and the dew point is 82. I'm going to have to see how accurate the weather sticker is over time. It says 88f as I type this. Maybe it is 88 in Burnsville right now, but I'm just outside of downtown Minneapolis here. Here's the forecast for here. (local station, usually the most accurate) After tomorrow it finally cools off a bit. Supposed to get hot again by mid next week though.

WED THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUE
100 88 88 90 88 86 92

82 73 72 73 65 68 72

Oh, and I'll try to snap a bunch of progress pics this evening after work.

Sometimes those weather sticker temps lag a little,looks like your back to 95 @5pm

That must feel nice after all that rain :pukeright:

Last year was so wet...one day it rained like 3 times in the afternoon
ant went from 75 back over 90 3 times-super tropical!

97.7f here currently (6:40CST) and dewpoint is still 81! Looks like you hit the century mark today down there Jim. We are supposed to hit it again tomorrow. 103f was our highest (officially) so far this summer which was a few weeks ago. You are welcome to some of this rain though, more nasty thunderstorms on the way this evening. Watches and warnings all over.... Going to have to pump more water out of the pool again tomorrow. Water temp well into the 80s and I have not turned on the heater yet this season!

I haven't measured pool water temp. lately but it is already uncomfortably hot for me even under the sunshade. Have to add lots of water; our dewpoint is only 67 F right now so evaporation is a factor.

Cool Jim, is that a Basjoo?

Paul

Did the nanners from last year have any seed Jim?

Jim- 83.1f was the overnight low last night here! We are supposed to hit 100+ today. I'm sure you will too... Here's a few pics I was able to snap ysterday before having to take refuge inside out of the upper 90s temp and 81 dewpoint, heat index of 120. Out of the 4 large bananas I wintered from last year only two have made it. One is very slow and stunted and the other seems to be picking up a bit (basjoos). They both got hammered by hail earlier in the summer and both have been cut off to just the stem at least twice since early spring. Meanwhile their pups and the smaller bananas (last year's pups) I kept over the winter seem to be cruising right along. Also the 3 new bananas I got this year are doing well. Started as tiny seedlings and are really speeding up in this hot humid weather (Dwarf orinoco, dwarf cavendish, ensente glaucum). I need to make a new banana planter next year. I don't have the room for everything anymore.

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Don't laugh, I leave those "weeds" there on purpose. It's catnip growing wild and my cats love it!
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Y. filamentosa that flowered last year but not this year (unprotected during winter)
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Last years bloom pics are from mid Sept-to late for fruit of seed.

They are not Basjoo-my guess is some kind of Orinoco-
should have edible fruit...and may have time to ripen
with the early fruit this year!

Kory

Looking good-this years cold spring and frequent(frequent enough!)
hail storms really stunted the tropicals etc,even the(spear-pull)
Trachys didn't recover until a month later than last year.

Time to get the sprinkler on and stop the carnage!

Thats ok Jim, looks like you may get lucky this year 😈

May indeed Jesse.

Kory

That Glaucum looks awesome!

I missed it the first time.

Man oh man, gorgeous specimen photos in this posting.