Skeet:
I have more info regarding the type of banans to choose from
I assume Pensacola FL is in zone 9 just like where I live so you want a banana that will survive the winter in your area.
here's some more info. You can decide which variety you want to grow by choosing the best for your area. and the type you like most.
Raja Puri 8-9 ft very sweet, medium size, cold hardy
Abyssinian(green)
Abyssinian(red)
California Gold
Dwarf Orinoco 6-8 ft, heavy bearer good eating quality, cold hardy
Ice Cream 15 ft, best tasting -vanilla
Praying Hands
Dwarf Brazilian 6-8ft very sweet

All of the above are tried and true that will survive zone 9.

The varieties that won't survive are the following unless you protect them or as others are willing to do, dig them out and winterize them in their garage sort of hebernating them till spring comes and replant them back to the ground.
Here they are:
Grand Naine
Williams Hybrid
Gold Finger (FHIA-01)
Dwarf Cavendish 8-10 ftHighly recommended variety for overwintering indoors is Dwarf Cavendish. Dwarf Cavendish will produce a "store like" banana and fruits at a very low height. Generally 5-7ft range.
Green AeAe - (all green, no variegation from Tissue Culture)
Zebrina 5-7 ft foliage only excellent coloration
Super Dwarf Cavendish
Mysore

If I were you I would choose the dwarf kind for ease of handling so they won't be so heavy. But even then, they are heavy. I need my 2 sons to lift them and move them.
But these are experienced by others of different localities. As Joe said, he is changing his views as to the hardiness of his citrus trees as to what happened during the last arctic blast. Each localities may experience different results.
The hardiness of some plants are relative to the topography of where they will be planted.

Here's the 2nd warm night can do to your banana. Green is not only pronounced; they are green.

Thanks Benny, Very good information-- I think I will go with the Dwarf Orinoco.-- It is quite possible that the one I have is a Dwarf Cavendish--it fits the size description-- and it rarely makes it through our winter (only when we do not have a frost--about 1 in 10 winters). The bananas are a little shorter than store bought though-- maybe due to conditions.

As for moving them inside, it was a lot less trouble than I expected, and they were a lot lighter when I went to plant them.

Have you tasted the California Gold yet?

Also, I remember Joe mentioned that there are two types--I think one was astringent and the flowers were inedible--what type is Orinoco.

Skeet

Orinoco is type ABB. A triploid hybrid between dessert type (Acuminata) and two genomes of cooking type (Balbisiana). Thus Orinoco is more of the cooking type and will be good dessert type if really ripe.

Skeeter wrote:

Thnaks Benny, Very good information-- I think I will go with the Dwarf Orinoco.-- It is quite possible that the one I have is a Dwarf Cavendish--it fits the size description-- and it rarely makes it through our winter (only when we do not have a frost--about 1 in 10 winters). The bananas are a little shorter than store bought though-- maybe due to conditions. As for moving them inside, it was a lot less trouble than I expected, and they were a lot lighter when I went to plant them. Have you tasted the California Gold yet? Also, I remember Joe mentioned that there are two types--I think one was astringent and the flowers were inedible--what type is Orinoco. Skeet

No, Skeet. I am new to the banana thing.
What I was doing before was all blind thing. Just guessing. I get help every now and then from Joe but I was not particularly interested.
Now IAM. VERY MUCHO.
The only banana that I tasted was the chiquita that you buy from the store. Here. But in the Island I stuff myself with different kinds. ALL KINDS

Thanks Joe, I have another banana question-- when I was in Mexico, we bought some bananas in the local farmers market that were very small--maybe 3 inches long and less than 1 inch diameter-- but they were very sweet-- do you know what kind that was?

It has many names. But in the Philippines, we call it senyorita (senorita with enye for the n). In the tropics, it is one of the fastest to mature crop too. 6 months from a 2 ft all pup, you get bloom, then 3 months later you get fruits. It is the first banana plant I aver planted when I was 4 years old. Dwarf and red colored pseudostem, because of its over productivity, it is one of the cheapest bananas in the Philippines. Too bad the fruit has very sort shelf life. Purely a dessert type banana, very good for making banana split sundae.

But here in the US, sometimes they sell for three times as much as the regular cavendish. In the Philippines, they are still the cheapest banana but most wonderful to eat. The Philippine market values the cooking type bananas much more than the dessert types. In here, the only reason why cooking type bananas are valued more beause of their scarcity.

Can you get that variety here and will it grow in zone 9?

Here in Salinas, at the mexican produce they sell small bananas which are very very sweet but the only drawback is the cost. 99 cents a lb vs 35 cents for regular bonita or chiquita brand bananas.
I hope Joe can tell us it can be grown at zone 9.
I will surely be interested growing them.

I found a link that has some info that might be useful to banana fans in zone 9 climates:

http://www.al.com/living/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/living/116074894162930.xml&coll=3#continue

I also found this-- WOW if you want info on bananas!

http://webebananas.com/home.html

We Be Bananas boogles my mind. Too much info but if you click the banana.org it is much tamer and I am a constant visitor there.

I know the guy (pitangadiego) who owns the website. He's very good and also a member here but seldom visits this forum. He grows many things but he has the most number of banana cultivars that has fruited successfully in the entire western half of the US.

I am dying to get a hold of senorita from the Philippines. Haven't really found its equivalent here. For me, it as the most potential for a rapid growth banana crop, imagine, it can sprout, bloom and fruit within a year. The only thing to figure out is during the fruit filling period, it should be timed during the last warm months of the year. You can grow them in pots the entire winter, then transfer to the ground during spring, and by fall you have wonderful fruits. Then dig out only the pups for the next cycle. It won't be a lot of work compared to digging big plants. It doesn't matter if it is suited for zone 9 as that scheme could work even if it is not hardy at zone 9. It doesn't need to be in the ground the entire winter. Thus my keen interest on this cultivar. There are several senorita strains even in the Philippines. One of these days if I have the resources, I would apply for importation permit and get them. There are other senoritas that I have seen floating around but they are not the same ones that I remember planting in the Philippines.

Joe:
I'll settle for anyting similar and also anything that are small and sweet but preferably dwarf. If it will take more time to fruit it is OK by me.
Do you have any idea?

Actually I am not new growing bananas. I just don't know how they behave or how to take care of them. I also did not know the kinds of bananas I were caring for. They just did not bear fruit on me. Now I know I will have fruit next year.
Here''s some of the bananas that I planted. Pic taken 12 20 04

These bananas stayed like that all green and healthy all throgh the winter of 2004. Apparently they were hardy.