Yellowseven, that was an interesting link. Tissue culture is definitely very new to me. The video info was educational too. I wonder why they only TC ice cream bananas exclusively instead of including other rare species such as Ae Ae or other exotic varieties which are harder to buy elsewhere. By the way, do you happen to be also the owner of the site? In any case, thanks for the link. It was an absolute eye opener!

Did your tree actually produce fruit, and you didnt try it? Or you just have never tried it in general? It looks fairly easy to separate, but it might be a bit of work. And the 'vanilla' flavor is what I am hoping to get out of my Ice cream one, that I ordered. I know it has to be separated in order to eat it. Thats what makes it so unique:). I am hoping to make it my next banana tree purchase. Yes I love TALL bananas, I want HUGE trees, nothing tiny. The ones I have ordered are all the tall or giant varieties of the ones I bought. I want them for the tropical look, I am in Fla. after all, and for the big fruit you can get from the big trees. Are there small ones that produce BIG hands of fruit?

I was looking into getting a banana and trying to do research to see which one was the best and most amazing in terms of flavor. From various reviews and different expert's opinions who had tried many varieties, I decided on Mysore. Well, actually 'pisang Ceylon' which is supposed to be an improvement over Mysore. Mysore is a variety that can get to be well over 20ft tall though which probably explains why most tropical specialty nurseries do not carry it. Several other varieties are supposed to be very good too: Goldfinger, Namwah, and 'Ice Cream'. Everyone's tastes and preferences seem to be a little different to some extent (in some cases what may be an excellent tasting variety for one person may just taste okay to someone else). Manzano is also supposed to be good, and Raja Puri isn't bad either. Someone mentioned pisang susu is supposed to be among the best, but is really hard to find.

I tasted the Gros Michel while attending the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers annual meeting in 2013. It's hard to describe the taste, but it is far superior to Cavendish. The texture of the Gros Michel is denser than the Cavendish, but very creamy. All said, I would eat Gros Michel before a Cavendish every time I had the chance!