mikevan

Hmmm, let me reword this as the previous attempt I made came across as a bit rude. I'm a skeptic when it comes to undocumented claims - too many people are taken advantage of and lose a lot of money in hopes of finding their personal holy grail - in this case a cold hardy nanner - and the internet just magnifies that dilemna . The only documentation on CG that I've been able to find, even here: http://webebananas.com/bvar-C-D.html - is basically the seller's words. Except, of course, for other CG owners here on the forum kindly piping in with personal experiences with it, which indicates that it does have a decent level of cold hardiness - tho for Zone 8, jury is still out unless someone from that zone would please mention their experience with this nanner. So, lack of documentation excepting sales pitch and conflicting kinda threw a wrench in the works for me and raised a red flag, especially since it's such an obscure nanner. Indeed, "Texas Star" also claims extraordinary stem hardiness here in Texas - yet everyone I talked to that owned one indicated that it dies down to the ground every winter, contradicting the claim. So, on the internet, it pays to take things with a big grain of salt...

Nevetheless, Hass avocado's was a sport discovered by a man, as was the original sweet nanner which was a sport from a plantain field south of the border, IIRC. So, it's not unreasonable for this too to be a sport off a known cultivar that's a bit hardier and this fella got lucky and got the last one before the source dried up (I wonder how many others are out there growing). It's just that on face value, it meets the criteria of caution for me. Now that I've seen testamony from others who have purchased this nanner and experienced it's cold hardiness, that caution is a bit... lessened. As a Zone 8 resident, I'd like to hear from others in my zone about their experiences with this nanner vs perhaps the likes of orinoco, rajapuri and other cold resistant nanners... More hardiness means less effort for protecting in this zone, which here is always a win-win scenario and worth the $30+ or so... His is growing in a very protected area tho - which makes me wonder what micro-climates I can create here to increase some of my nanner's hardiness. I'm impressed by his macadamia nut tree!!!! Mine doesn't like the Texas heat so much, unfortunately, but now that it's cooling down there's finally more growth coming out.

Cheers,
Mike