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Notice the Blue Java Right  -  Ice-Cream Left in photo above

Note: The real name of the Blue Java is: TARS 18018 - ‘Blue Torres Strait Island’

There has been lots of controversy over this greatly mislabeled Banana Plant in Florida and around the U.S. It is the “ice cream” Banana Plant.

We grow both the Blue Java and Ice-Cream banana plants. Our Original Genuine, Certified Organic Blue Java Banana Plant pups come from mature plant corms.

What’s the difference?

Ice-Cream Banana Plants have a very distinct pink petiole, a pink edge on the leaf and a pinkish hue to the stem of the plant, a chalky coating over the whole plant gives it a unique look.

The way to truly tell if you have the real one or the imposter is to fruit is, The genuine Blue Java fruit hands hang differently than Ice-Cream, there's a distinct knuckle at the top of each fruit and a very clear separation between each fruit right at the main stem, where Ice-Cream Banana Plant fruit Hands are fused together and all connected to the stem as one cluster.


Blue Java Banana Plant Knuckles


Certified Original Organic

Blue Java Banana Plants

The greatly mislabeled in Florida “ice cream” banana.


Does that term “Blue java ice cream bananas”!!!! Get you excited? I bet! It did me as well.


Unfortunately if you purchased any tissue culture plants, you've been had....…


That's right folks, sad but true.. now the question is do they exist? Yes they do.…


So here's the story, because I've told a ca-zillion times, I figured I'd just post it here.


A few years ago someone learned of a banana called the “blue java banana” that is rumored to taste like vanilla ice cream…


Yes you see Blue java banana plants being advertised everywhere!, and lots of people believe they purchased a Blue Java Banana Plant, but they didn't. It's no fault of their own, the nursery that sold them the plant told them it was a Blue java Banana plant.


The photos I've seen are ridiculous, photo shopped and colored blue like this one.


So there were a few large batches of "blue java" tissue culture that hit the market, (and still are) thousands of them, only problem is that they're tall Ice-Cream, the fruit is great so don't be upset if you purchased one,


I purchased a few a while back and I was also very excited of course as I'd been wanting this variety to add to the collection, the pot and signs said "blue java ice cream banana"


I grew it out to fruit and they were delicious, but they were not blue java, I returned to the nursery that I purchased them plant from, informed the owner of what I'd learned after fruiting the plant, and they still sell them as blue java..… even after I brought it to their attention.


What gets me is that the company that sell the tissue culture plant labled Ice Cream banana says that it is also know by the name 'Blue Java' as you can see by there website, here is a screen shot of what they say:














So I decided to call the tissue culture company that is growing and distributing them. And they emailed me back several times. Here is there response below:


On 9/29/2021 1:40 PM, Ty Strode wrote:

Hello Sam,

We sell a variety called Ice Cream, not Blue Java – they are not the same.   It is a line we have carried at Agri-Starts for about 30 years now.   Four different points in time we have tried to get Blue Java going, but it has always struggled.  We get a little bit of production and then the culture crashes.  Our customer base knows our variety well, at one point in time we questioned if it was a variant of Ice-Cream as there are many similarities.

 

On 9/29/2021 3:44 PM, Ty Strode wrote:

That’s been long debated, very possibly a variety of Ice-Cream.  There is endless dialog online about it. The two plants behave differently for us in the lab.  Ice-Cream is a lot easier plant to produce.  The leaf of our Ice Cream is thinner than Ice-Cream.  Unfortunately there has always been some mystery to it.  The fruit is phenomenal.  


The only question that they did not answer is why they advertise them on there website as Blue Java.


My thoughts:

It’s a shame that a supplier that makes the “tissue culture plants would not know what they are cloning. Tissue cultures are supposed to be true to form!


What's also disturbing is that they know that it is not a Blue java and they continue to sell them to nurseries as stated above.


To me the term Java means Coffee so the Blue Jave should have been called the coffee banana plant lol


The real name of the Blue Java is:

TARS 18018 - ‘Blue Torres Strait Island’


Catalog of Musa Accessions Maintained by USDA-ARS TARS

https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/60900500/images/CatalogFinal-v1.0-web.pdf


With that said; I made it my point to find a reputable grower and purchased a good number of Blue Java Banana Corms, propagated them and I now have many of the Original Blue Java banana Plants.


They were guaranteed to be 100% true to form, Certified to be the “True” Organic Blue Java Banana Plants. Not a not a variant subtype that are being passed off these days.


Every verity of Banana plants taste differently.


All my Banana plants are 100% organically grown and are all from second-generation parent plants and not tissue culture they produce fruit sooner because of corm and plants are larger mature pups. most all nurseries sell tissue culture Banana plants when are from test-tube lab. you can tell a tissue culture plants because all are the same size at the nurseries and are usually thin.


As stated above the Blue java banana plants do not propagate from tissue culture slivers in test tubes. So if anyone or nursery says there Blue Jave banana plants are from tissue culture, it is false.



I made a good Blue Java Comparison Video (See Below)


Blue Java VS Namwa Banana Plant Comparison. with Bonus Footage at the End.


I needed to do a long overdue comparison of the Blue Java Banana Plant VS Namwa Banana Plant Video, with Bonus Footage at the End.


In this video, I point out the differences between that Blues java banana Plant and the Namwa banana Plant.


Hope you Enjoy.














https://youtu.be/Evwm-jJP618



Contact me on Facebook if your interest in finding out more about the Blue Java or Namwa Banana plants.


Thanks

The real name of the Blue Java is:

TARS 18018 - ‘Blue Torres Strait Island’

Both the Above Photo and the Below Photo are Blue Java.






(See in Catalog) Catalog of Musa Accessions Maintained by USDA-ARS TARS

https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/60900500/images/CatalogFinal-v1.0-web.pdf

Real Blue Java Bud and Blossoms Below.

The below Photos are actually the Controversial Namwa, can you see the difference in color and blossoms?

The True Story behind my Blue java and Namwa Banana Plants.


It took me many months to locate the source, I then had a conversation with them, they liked my channel and were kind enough to ship me some corms from each of there best in show winning plants. since they are a private grower entering plant competitions. they asked me not to divulge private info, which I have respected their request.


here is another interesting fact. Most Namwas that are being distributed around Florida and the US are not true Namwa plants, they come from the tissue culture company that I mentioned on my BJ page. there tissue culture Namwas are a variant and have thinner leaves and a few other characteristics.


The Original True Namwas have a deeper taste and better texture, hence the Ice Cream name was formed, not because of the flavor but because of the texture. the Namwas that I have came from the same source. Both the Blue Javas and Namwas that I imported come from the parent plant of the strain and have the true genetics of the parent plants. They are not a variant subtype that are being passed off by being mislabeled by the tissue culture company.


I went head to head with that company, I even asked for them to stop misleading nurseries that pass them off to consumers. but to date, their website page has not changed. they are still listing them falsely. since early on I was also a victim of their false advertising, I was going to pursue the matter, but that would be more trouble than it's worth.


I consider myself a good researcher and myth-buster. I strive to seek out true strains that have the true genetics of what I seek. That's why another country China has spies infiltrated into our farmer's seed sources trying to get their hands on our seeds so that they can gently reverse engineer and crop seeds. which is not a good thing for our food source here in the US.


Will update further when find the time.

Ok so as stated the confusion is that: Namwa is called and sold as Ice Cream and Blue Jave is also known and called Ice Cream. I have both in the freezer. Most nurseries are selling Namwa as Blue Java, go figure.


The Namwa aka Ice-Cream comes from tissue culture in a lab.


The Real Blue Java come from a living Parent Banana Plants corm or sucker.


OK so now for the good news, both the real Blue Java and the Namwa aka Ice-Cream both tastes great.


Namwa aka Ice-Cream comes from tissue culture lab

TARS 18018 aka Blue Java comes from Blue Torres Strait Island, the nicknames of both are not because they taste like ice cream as people are saying, but it is because they both have a creamy texture like ice cream when ripened on the plant.


I hope my thoughts on the matter explained both well.

Thanks for visiting.


To the right I’m harvesting real Blue Java

In this video, I’m harvesting real Blue Java and giving a taste test  


Hope you Enjoy.


Click here to see Video