Ice Cream Banana Tree

Great banana tree! I grew her in 6b in a pot and brought her in for winter and all the really windy days. She stayed indoors when spring came as she was growing beautifully in my stairwell, she gave us three bananas that were amazing. It was really cool having all my citrus and a 12 ft banana to wall out of my room in the morning. Im growing her babies and will have a greenhouse for them to thrive in this winter. Husband hates the gigantic pots he has to move, but that goes for all my giant fast growing trees this size.

This is the second year this banana has bore fruit! First year it made a gigantic bunch from a single stem. This year two stems bloomed and made slightly smaller ones. We don't care to cut the stems back - it can do whatever it wants and stay healthy :) Zone 10a, occasional frost in Jan-Feb. We spray it daily during hot and dry days, and it's happy as can be. It sends a flower spike around August, with fruits ripening around April. Takes about 8-9 months. Fruits ripen sporadically on the bunch, even within the same "hand" it's not uniform. But they catch up to the "overachievers" in a matter of 3-4 days. The flavor is smooth and mildly cavendish-like. It makes for great smoothies, Foster French Toast topping, fried bananas, and just fresh eating. It's a gorgeous plant with no pests, and bees love the flowers! We peel sheaths away as the flower keeps dropping, and bees get all the nectar they want. It's growing outdoors. and gets afternoon coastal wind, exposed to sun throughout the day with no shading, but heavily "mulched" with ground covers and concrete slab that it's partially under.

I loved growing my ice cream banana tree. It was a beautiful addition to my apartment with its large gorgeous green leaves. It even flowered and made fruit, growing indoors the whole time! It was fascinating to see the flowers through their whole development and to learn about their botany. I made sure to give it banana tree-specific fertilizer, which I think enabled it to make fruit and grow so tall. The fruits were small but they were fun to try to eat nevertheless. We also ate the banana flowers which was also exciting. I am sure growing it outside would have enabled to fruits to grow bigger. The tree grew new pups as well so we could have grown a whole new tree from it. Well-worth the investment.

We were hit hard with bad temps this last yr . I had covered the tree trying to save it but it was in bad shape after the freeze. I thought I had list it. HOWEVER. . . it's back n has new 5 leaves on it. Plant seems to be growing n ok. Time will tell.