Cultivar: Musa Blue Java aka Ice Cream
Location: San Francisco Bay Area (zone 9B)
Propagule: Very healthy Sword Sucker (thank you Crazybanana!) Pic of the sword sucker about a year after getting established:
Date of Acquisition: Aug(?) 2015
Date of first flower opening: Aug. 2017 (2 years from planting)
Mature bunch to the left, bunch that flowered perhaps 2 months ago to the right:
Date of maturity: August 2018 (~1 year from first flower opening, ~3 years from planting)
Height: Didn't measure, but the pstem appeared to be somewhere between 12-16' tall.
Propping needed? Definitely. These will fall over once the fruit start getting heavy.
Difficulty: pretty easy, didn't seem anymore difficult than any other banana, but does require a bit more effort to maintain.
Vigor: Decent I guess. Not crazy fast growing compared to others, but not slow growing either.
Cold tolerance: decent, but lots of leaves turned brown, even though we didn't have any hard frost. Dwarf Brazilian and Rajapuri seem to be more cold hardy, but they may have just been more protected due to their shorter height....
Other: Seems to have taken forever for the fruit to mature! Sets a good amount of suckers, but not as many as say American Goldfinger. Others have mentioned to not remove suckers while fruit are forming, as this can stun the plant and mess up fruit production. Plus, the P-stems will probably fall. It's probably wise to follow that advice.
Surprisingly, I haven't been able to find an in depth, honest taste report for the real deal Ice cream AKA blue Java, so here's a new thread! Feel free to post pictures and your opinion as well!
There's so much junk on the internet, mainly set up by online stores trying to pass off tissue cultured Namwah as the real deal Ice Cream (with great success unfortunately). Some stores, such as Florida Hill Nursery, even show Namwah as the photo of their Ice Cream! Unbelievable.
I also remember reading claims that "it tastes just like Ice Cream" and something to the extent that you can eat it with a spoon because the texture is like Ice Cream. Some fingers have just turned completely yellow, and I tried them:
At this stage, there's very little sweetness, and shockingly, it's quite
TART! When you smell the un-peeled fruit, it has zero aroma at this stage (I have 20/20 smell, if that exists). I had no idea this banana has so much acid to it, what a pleasant surprise! I actually enjoyed it at this stage, but my wife spit it out in disgust. My guess: You either love this one or hate it. We'll see what the real deal Ice Cream tastes like when it's at peak ripeness. I suspect the peel might need to almost turn brown before you get enough sweetness to balance and mellow out the acidity.
TO BE CONTINUED.........