Last edited on 9 Oct 2019. View history
Ice Cream Bean
Ice Cream Bean
How to sow ice-cream bean: Transplant young tree or start from seed
Sun requirement for ice-cream bean: Plant in Full Sun
The Ice Cream Bean, Joaquiniquil, or Monkey Tamarind tree is a small, fast-growing, evergreen tree in the Legume family (Fabaceae). It is native to the hot, humid tropics of Central and South America. The tree produces large, 30cm pods that resemble those of tamarind. The pods do not open when ripe, and contain black seeds the size of lima beans surrounded by sweet, cottony pulp that tastes similar to vanilla ice cream. The tree is grown as a companion plant to shade cacao, coffee, tea, and vanilla crops because it has a broad, moderately dense canopy and fixes nitrogen. Beans and pulp are quickly perishable and harvested as needed when ripe. They are eaten fresh or used to flavor desserts and make the alcoholic beverage cachiri. In folk medicine, a decoction of the leaves and bark is used to relieve diarrhea, and root decoctions are used to treat dysentery. The Ice Cream Bean tree has white flowers and a contorted trunk with gray bark. It flowers and fruits year round and does best where annual daytime temperatures are between 23-30°C. Temperatures below -2°C will kill mature plants and new growth is damaged at 0°C. Mature trees are somewhat drought-tolerant. Seed germinates readily and self-sows when pods fall to the ground. The trees are threatening to become invasive in Australia.
- 0
- plantings
- 0
- harvests
- 0
- seed packets
Ice-cream bean facts
Lifespan
Height
2500cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For ice-cream bean, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 18°C and a shortest growing cycle of 365 days at its best temperature, about 3103 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your ice-cream bean will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Plant ice-cream beans with
What people are saying about ice-cream beans
Nobody has posted about ice-cream beans yet.
Sign in or sign up to post your tips and experiences growing ice-cream beans.
Who's planted ice-cream beans
Nobody has planted this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your ice-cream bean plantings.Ice-cream bean harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your ice-cream bean harvests.Find ice-cream bean seeds
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Inga edulis Mart.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Fabales Leguminosae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -2 °C |
| Life form | tree |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | poorly (saturated >50% of year), well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about ice-cream beans
Resources outside Growstuff.
