View Full Version : California Gold
portlandorbananas
02-01-2017, 02:00 PM
I know that this type of banana has be discussed a lot on this forum. I was just curious what it tasted like compared to a normal cavendish. There seems to be one on eBay now but I am not sure how to tell if it is really a cal gold or not. Does the price seem right?
Musa "California Gold" "Rare" "Dwarf", 5-6FT, Cold Hardy Banana Plant, W/SOIL. | eBay (http://m.ebay.com/itm/Musa-California-Gold-Rare-Dwarf-5-6FT-Cold-Hardy-Banana-Plant-W-SOIL-/182417506582?hash=item2a78ee4116%3Ag%3Ax78AAOSwdzVXr84W&_trkparms=pageci%253A7a484d0a-e68b-11e6-85ae-74dbd180a840%257Cparentrq%253Aecfd4e621590a60624f8d603ffabdcc1%2 57Ciid%253A1)
Richard
02-01-2017, 02:27 PM
I know that this type of banana has be discussed a lot on this forum. I was just curious what it tasted like compared to a normal cavendish. There seems to be one on eBay now but I am not sure how to tell if it is really a cal gold or not. Does the price seem right?
Musa "California Gold" "Rare" "Dwarf", 5-6FT, Cold Hardy Banana Plant, W/SOIL. | eBay (http://m.ebay.com/itm/Musa-California-Gold-Rare-Dwarf-5-6FT-Cold-Hardy-Banana-Plant-W-SOIL-/182417506582?hash=item2a78ee4116%3Ag%3Ax78AAOSwdzVXr84W&_trkparms=pageci%253A7a484d0a-e68b-11e6-85ae-74dbd180a840%257Cparentrq%253Aecfd4e621590a60624f8d603ffabdcc1%2 57Ciid%253A1)
It tastes like Orinoco.
edwmax
02-01-2017, 02:56 PM
A cali gold is supposed to be a dwarf orinoco or an orinoco variant. The price on ebay is very high; near $50 with shipping. There are members on this forum that have cali-gold plants or corms for half that price with shipping.
portlandorbananas
02-01-2017, 06:09 PM
I would love to get in touch about getting one. The price seemed pretty high even for something that cold hardy.
Richard
02-01-2017, 06:22 PM
I would love to get in touch about getting one. The price seemed pretty high even for something that cold hardy.
It's nowhere near hardy enough for Portland. You'll have to overwinter it indoors ... and if you're going to to that then you might as well get something that tastes good. Don't buy into the hype.
portlandorbananas
02-01-2017, 07:02 PM
Thanks for the clarification. People do grow basjoos here but maybe they are more hardy.
Richard
02-01-2017, 07:11 PM
Thanks for the clarification. People do grow basjoos here but maybe they are more hardy.
Yes, the ornamental banana Basjoo is far more hardy! There are folks growing it outdoors year-round in zone 7b.
edwmax
02-01-2017, 08:41 PM
I would love to get in touch about getting one. The price seemed pretty high even for something that cold hardy.
Look in the forum 'Banana for sale'. Send PMs to the thread authors.
Also, pukpukz or Nicolas Naranja may have what you want. Send them a PM.
I've read that Cal-Gold has been successfully grown & fruited in Seattle. The Orinoco that I have eaten and grown are sweet with slight apple flavor and nice texture. Among the Orinoco varieties, there may be some flavor differences, but this I'm not sure of. ... There may be 'better tasting' banana varieties but those tend to be more labor intensive and difficult to grow in Zone 8. So don't pay any attention the the self-appointed Banana Police on the forum. Makeup your own mind.
portlandorbananas
02-01-2017, 09:32 PM
Thanks for all the input and advice!!
Starstryke
02-09-2017, 12:53 AM
Hello, I just bought that one California Gold that was on ebay. I needed to replace a few bananas that did not survive the mini winter we had down here in SE Texas. I know I could have bought a cheaper corm but I really prefer to get a plant, especially one that is about 6ft tall already. I am in Zone 9a so hopefully I can get fruit out of this one without resorting to trying to fight mother nature for the every once in a while freezes we have each year.
Richard
02-09-2017, 02:05 AM
Hello, I just bought that one California Gold that was on ebay. I needed to replace a few bananas that did not survive the mini winter we had down here in SE Texas. I know I could have bought a cheaper corm but I really prefer to get a plant, especially one that is about 6ft tall already. I am in Zone 9a so hopefully I can get fruit out of this one without resorting to trying to fight mother nature for the every once in a while freezes we have each year.
Congratulations. You just bought an Orinoco.
sputinc7
02-09-2017, 09:02 AM
I had some Columbian gold once, but that was a long time ago and not a banana.. :D
Steve L
02-09-2017, 11:10 AM
Hello, I just bought that one California Gold that was on ebay. I needed to replace a few bananas that did not survive the mini winter we had down here in SE Texas. I know I could have bought a cheaper corm but I really prefer to get a plant, especially one that is about 6ft tall already. I am in Zone 9a so hopefully I can get fruit out of this one without resorting to trying to fight mother nature for the every once in a while freezes we have each year.
Here's what survived our recent freeze in southwest Louisiana. We were 23 one night and 26 the next with 15 hours below freezing the first night:
California Gold, Dwarf Brazilian, Goldfinger, Sweetheart, 1000 fingers, 1780, and Seminole. All are in protected locations either against the southern wall of my house or inside a fenced in area around a pool. None were protected. The first one that showed signs of regrowth from an existing pseudostem was Dwarf Brazilian followed by Goldfinger. California Gold was the last. I think most folks would say the taste of Dwarf Brazilian is better than any Orinoco variant. You should try DB or Goldfinger. If you're in southeast Texas, your zone is identical to mine.
Steve
portlandorbananas
02-10-2017, 12:32 AM
I am going to try some ice cream bananas. I am going to plant some outside and some in pots and see if they survive. I am getting the feeling cold hardy is a relative term.
beam2050
02-10-2017, 03:42 AM
I am going to ty some ice cream bananas. I am going to plant some outside and some in pots and see if they survive. I am getting the feeling cold hardy is a relative term.
sometimes it is about location. in this part of florida you would want to plant your orange tree on the south south east side of a large tree hopefully one that stays green all year long. this keeps the frost off and it has a good chance of surviving. plant one out in the open you are going to kiss it good bye eventually. good luck, all you can do is try and find out.
Tytaylor77
02-10-2017, 06:30 PM
I am going to ty some ice cream bananas. I am going to plant some outside and some in pots and see if they survive. I am getting the feeling cold hardy is a relative term.
If you want an authentic Blue Java Ice Cream make sure you get it from a member here on the org who has fruited it.
Ice cream is the most mislabeled banana there is. If you buy one that is a TC say by agristarts it is not an ice cream. It is a Tall Namwa. Which is a great banana but not what it's being sold as.
Going bananas is the only one I've heard of who TC the real ice cream. And I can't confirm that.
I can say how much I love my tall namwas (which I bought as ice cream from Florida hill nursery when I knew nothing about bananas) they are one of my favorite growers. They make giant bunches of decent tasting fruit.
Richard
02-10-2017, 09:23 PM
If you want an authentic Blue Java Ice Cream make sure you get it from a member here on the org who has fruited it.
Ditto for Goldfinger. It is typically Namwa.
crazy banana
02-10-2017, 11:33 PM
A cali gold is supposed to be a dwarf orinoco or an orinoco variant. The price on ebay is very high; near $50 with shipping. There are members on this forum that have cali-gold plants or corms for half that price with shipping.
I used to have an eye on the "real deal" California Gold. The grower of the original CG is Jeff Earl in Northern California. In 2016 I have not seen any of his CG pups offered on ebay, but in past years the prices for a pup of his real ones were between $130 and $210 depending on ebay bidding wars.
Over the years I have found out that I can grow better tasting varieties than Orinoco or varieties with Orinoco taste ;)
kaczercat
02-11-2017, 06:30 AM
Yes the prices were ridiculous. Don't waste your money, if you plan on getting one get it for free. I stumbled upon some in Cuba a few years ago. Not a favourite.
portlandorbananas
02-12-2017, 03:58 PM
Oh man. I didn't know that when I got them I got 4 tissue cultured ice creams for 20 bucks from Hello Organics on eBay. I hope they are legit. No worries if they are not. I will find some later. Maybe if I get some verification they are not ice cream I can get a refund lol.
portlandorbananas
02-12-2017, 04:07 PM
Here is the amazon page for the company in case anyone can verify from it if they are legit or not. It may be hard to tell until they get bigger.https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B011Q6C7X4/ref=mp_s_a_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1486933164&sr=1-24&m=A1VAWH7OEA2YK2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65
Richard
02-12-2017, 05:42 PM
Here is the amazon page for the company in case anyone can verify from it if they are legit or not. It may be hard to tell until they get bigger.https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B011Q6C7X4/ref=mp_s_a_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1486933164&sr=1-24&m=A1VAWH7OEA2YK2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65
From the picture alone that is not Ice Cream / Blue Java.
portlandorbananas
02-12-2017, 06:45 PM
I assumed it was a stock photo of a banana. Seems like I might have been wrong.
crazy banana
02-12-2017, 06:48 PM
Here is the amazon page for the company in case anyone can verify from it if they are legit or not. It may be hard to tell until they get bigger.https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B011Q6C7X4/ref=mp_s_a_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1486933164&sr=1-24&m=A1VAWH7OEA2YK2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65
Not an IceCream - Blue Java and not hard at all to tell.
Four plants for $23 usually means mislabeled tissue cultured plants. If you are lucky, you got yourself some Namwah.
Richard
02-12-2017, 07:00 PM
I assumed it was a stock photo of a banana. Seems like I might have been wrong.
Why would someone selling the real deal use an arbitrary stock photo? Definitely a seller that doesn't know their product.
Of course, now expect that seller to get some real Ice Cream photos from this site ...
:nanadrink:
crazy banana
02-12-2017, 07:50 PM
Why would someone selling the real deal use an arbitrary stock photo? Definitely a seller that doesn't know their product.
Of course, now expect that seller to get some real Ice Cream photos from this site ...
:nanadrink:
Thanks for the hint. I better start to watermark my photos.
portlandorbananas
02-12-2017, 09:18 PM
Thanks for the info. Seems like there is not much I can do. I hear the variety I most likely got is still good though. I just hope it is as cold hardy as the blue java was claimed to be.
Tytaylor77
02-12-2017, 11:47 PM
Thanks for the info. Seems like there is not much I can do.I hear the variety I most likely god is still good though. I just hope it is as cold hardy as the blue java was claimed to be.
My real blue java is right next to my tall Namwas. Anything over 5' easily withstood our 20F low this year. It was only a few hours but still very cold. The namwa seems even more cold hardy due to its insane size/thickness. Although the bj/ice cream did start pushing leaves before the namwa this year.
I'm sure you received 4 tall namwa. You will be very happy with them. Very cold hardy pstems and truly huge plants. Make sure you give it lots of room. Mine get 16-17'. Leaves touch the power lines. No kidding.
meizzwang
02-13-2017, 05:54 PM
I am going to try some ice cream bananas. I am going to plant some outside and some in pots and see if they survive. I am getting the feeling cold hardy is a relative term.
Even the most cold hardy bananas are difficult to fruit here in zone 9 (Northern California, which is very different from zone 9 in Florida where it's very easy to fruit bananas because there's more warm days and nights over the course of a year) However, without a heated greenhouse, it's very unlikely you'll get fruit to reach maturity (you might be able to get them to flower though!) Check out my posts here for photos of what bananas look like when exposed to very light frosts and 3 months of temperatures between the mid 30's to low 60's: http://www.bananas.org/f15/cold-hardy-list-2788-5.html
Good news is you can probably keep them alive outdoors year after year with really good protection, but they'll likely die to the corm. You'll end up with a bunch of little plants that grow to a certain size, get fried during the winter, and then repeat year after year.
portlandorbananas
02-17-2017, 08:09 PM
Thanks. Any that I for sure want to fruit I will bring inside. The others will be an experiment. Sometimes we have mild winters sometimes we don't.
Starstryke
02-17-2017, 09:02 PM
Winter this year in SE Texas was two nights of 28 F followed by 70 F days. Basically if global warming keeps kicking in we may not have to cover our bananas all that much.
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