In our area we frequently will have Lady Finger Bananas fruit-I have enjoyed them for years.Their hands of short fat fruit have to be cut and allowed to ripen indoors to avoid frost injury.However today when I visited Just Fruits and Exotics down at Medart,FL I was suprised to find a banana that like Lady Finger is a rather tall grower (12-15 feet high)but has fruit that ripens earlier than Lady Finger and flavor that is incredible-much like vanilla ice cream-no kidding if you have tried a really ripe one then you know what I mean-they are GOOD!
Here is a shot of the plants and a close up of some fruit that had actually ripened on the plant!

How cold tolerant is Ice Cream?

Hello Skeeter-
You asked

Quote:

How cold tolerant is Ice Cream?

Medart,FL where it has been very successful is in zone 8b- When you check the web you will find different guestimates on how hardy it is-here are a few-
davesgarden.com says zone 9b
Just Fruits and Exotics says zone 8b
Greenearth Inc. says zone 8

I have Ice cream bananas here in Charleston. Excellent variety.

Ice cream is growing in the test plot at Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens near Savannah, GA. I would say they get about 5 degrees colder than we do here. Even though I am a little farther North, I am closer to the ocean.

I picked up one there during their Fall Festival, when they sell pups. I also brought one I believed they called Dwarf Nanwah and one for Stan called Kandarian. I believe they all 3 bear fruit there and were highly recommended by the professor that runs the banana trials. I know Kandarian overwintered last winter and grew to 25' tall.

Here is a picture of Kandarian taken in the Spring of 2007. It was even taller last month.



http://www.bamboo.caes.uga.edu/

Ned

Wow Ned, that is some banana tree!-- I think that is one of the ones that Joe said will ripen in about 3 months.