Kate,

Go to bananas.rog, you will find several other banana growers in the Panhandle. Your sizes above are a little off and your missing the best one which is California Gold.

Thank you for the site. I am not surprised the sizes or even the varieties are way off. I have read so many garden books/Ag. bulletins/ articles on what grows here and the sizes and even the growing conditions vary wildly from one source to another. I am coming to an understanding that all the books can do for me is show me pictures. For real advice, I need to talk to people who actually grow stuff in my area.
Kate

tophersmith,
I tried to go to the site through Google and then directly with www.bananas.org but it will not come up at all. The problem does not seem to be my computer since it pulled up other sites listed on the Google page. I will try another day. Maybe they are down for servicing.
Kate

There has been a problem with the software.

Thanks for the info, because I have been trying to log on too.

I live 16 miles north of Panama City, and have SDC, CalGold, dwarf Namwah, dwarf Brazilian, Ice Cream, and Pisang Raja. We're 8a in my location, and our winters are most similar to Crestview. No "Gulf Effect" here! Getting fruit is a challenge, and depends upon the weather, and also blooming/fruiting habits of individual varieties. My most reliable fruiter and best-tasting is Ice Cream, although a couple of my others may be as good if they had a chance to ripen well.

In order to get ripe fruit, the trunk has to send out an inflorescence by July 1st or so. Ice Cream usually does this, however, this was a particularly brutal winter. Our first frost was the first week of November last fall (usually is towards the end of December), which shortened last year's season, then February and March were cold with too much rain. Result was a loss of all my tallest trunks which would have fruited this year.

Right now the only developing fruit I have is CalGold, but I regret making room in my banana patch for this variety, as I much prefer dessert-types. Dwarf Namwah and Brazilian are good, but they have a tendency to bloom late summer/fall, which means that there isn't enough time before frost. There is always a chance of a "surprise" of a trunk that gets "almost there" in fall, so it's ready to go in the spring.

Unless you're very industrious, I wouldn't bother protecting them. I tried it once, and the winds made short work of THAT idea! Just stick with hardy types, and recognize that you won't necessarily get fruit every year. You will, however, get lots and lots of lush landscaping! Bananas give about the best "bang for the buck" of just about any plant I know of!

Just Fruits and Exotics in Crawfordsville carries some hardy types.

BTW, Ice Cream gets 15-17 feet, and is one of the most vigorous types you can grow.

-Bruce C.

Here is a link that might be useful: Just Fruits & Exotics