Banana Plants after Texas Hard Freeze

No need to cut down the entire banana plant after a hard freeze. Watch my YouTube video to see why.

Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/qqjAN3Zg4iM

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Why Did My Persimmon Trees Die?

Finally, I succeeded growing a persimmon tree after failing three times in a row. Below is a Giant Fuyu persimmon tree that I recently planted in the winter. I bought it as a bare-root stick from a mail order nursery. Now, it is one of the fasting growing fruit trees in my backyard. Although too young to have fruits, persimmon glossy large leaves make it beautiful to look at and quite ornamental. Before this, I have planted one potted and two bare-root persimmon trees which died after a few months in the ground. Here are the three mistakes that I made. Giant Fuyu persimmon tree after 5 months in the ground Planted It Too Low My backyard has dark rich clay soil that can be hard as rock during drought or turns into a long-standing puddle when it rains. No fruit tree likes constant wet feet. When I pulled the dead persimmon tree out of the ground, there were barely any roots. To help with drainage this time around, I planted the Giant Fuyu tree on a mound with grass cutting and dried leav...

Growing Sungold Cherry Tomatoes in the South

I am growing about half a dozen of heirloom and hybrid tomatoes in my garden this year, but Sungold deserves its own post. From my experience, Sungold is one of the best tomatoes to plant in the South. In areas with mild summer, tomatoes grow like weeds. We struggle to grow tomatoes here and Sungold makes it really easy. Sungold cherry tomatoes on the vine Plant Profile Sungold is an indeterminate hybrid cherry tomato. It is a fast growing plant and early producer. Although I started the seeds after other tomato varieties, Sungold was one of the first that I harvested. It can tolerate the heat and humidity very well. Below is a Sungold tomato plant in my garden during the peak of the summer. After a month long heatwave in Houston, it is the only tomato variety that still flowers and sets fruits. The other tomato plants just look stunted. The Sungold plant in the image is a 4-foot wide bush, growing next to an apple tree. I purposely wanted to give it partial shade. As you ca...

Growing Jujube Trees in Texas Clay Soil

As Houston continued to burn in record heat, my garden looked really sad during this time of the year. All winter squash vines got roasted. Many tomato plants either have shown signs of blights or were already gone. Even the grass has turned brown. The jujube trees, on the other hand, were growing better than weeds. Both the Li and Shanxi Li jujube trees have flushed out flowers for the second time and still maintained their beautiful glossy, green leaves. Jujube tree flowered the second time. Plant Profile Jujube is a deciduous tree that grows in zone 5 through 10 and requires little chill hours. From my experience, it does well in clay soil and has no problem with heat, drought or pests. The Shanxi Li jujube is self-fertile, but the Li only produces a few fruits by itself without cross pollination. The cons about growing jujubes are the tree has sharp thorns and its roots can be invasive. I heard the jujube roots can run and grow suckers over 20 feet from the tree. Since my bac...

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