Authored by: pjmelton on Thursday, January 15 2009 @ 01:45 PM GMT+4

All hail the apple!

I actually read this article when it came out and found it fascinating and horrifying how, as usual, humans can be so short-sighted. And it seems the more power you have, the more short-sighted you are.

Luckily for me, I can't stand bananas.

---
Paula

Authored by: imhennessy on Thursday, January 15 2009 @ 05:46 PM GMT+4

I think I was in high school when I read an article about the search for a new banana.

I had kind of assumed that, given ten years and a bunch of really rich companies depending on the research, someone had already developed a new banana.

I'm going to miss bananas.

ivan

Authored by: NorahCook on Friday, January 16 2009 @ 12:46 AM GMT+4

There are lots of kinds of bananas... and in tropical countries, the yellow Chiquita fruits that we think of as bananas are not considered the best tasting or the best to grow or anything like that. Bet you it was monoculture, growing just one type too tightly packed together, that is the cause and the method of spreading of this disease.... So hopefully there are other, tastier strains of bananas that may prove resistant? Maybe?

Authored by: cbridge on Friday, January 16 2009 @ 04:03 AM GMT+4

Yes, this is indeed a monoculture problem. If I am recalling this correctly,
the current threatened variety is not the first to succumb. The basic type
has been heavily promoted, & for some reason the marketing geniuses in
charge are clinging for dear life to that idea of an "ideal" banana.

And there is also the problem of pesticides used in central America but
banned in the US. Bananas grown in Hawaii are the way around that one
(more expensive of course).

Authored by: cgrotke on Friday, January 16 2009 @ 03:21 PM GMT+4

We use to grow them in Florida.

Bananas are like big stalks filled with water and they grow quickly. A
shoot that pops up can be a tree-sized in a year. Their roots are small
and the trees are easy to knock down, though pretty strong in storms.

After they give fruit, we'd cut the bunch and hang it upside down (if
you hold the part where your bananas connect, that's the lowest part
of them while growing - a bit like fingers sticking up into the air).

Watch out! The syrup-like water inside the tree comes out clear, but
leaves a brown stain.

We'd cut down the trees after they gave fruit to make room for new
ones to come up. With a sharp saw, you could cut the tree at the
thickest part of the trunk in four or five pulls of the saw - very easy
and fast.

Oranges are the one I worry about. Florida growers were looking at a
disease last year that was infecting trees and causing the oranges to
change color and dry out, and the only known cure was to destroy the
orchard.

Orange trees are real trees, unlike bananas, with a woody trunk and
solid branches.

Authored by: tomaidh on Friday, January 16 2009 @ 03:34 PM GMT+4

There used to be a few Banana "trees" growing in the Mt.Snow base lodge, but they're not there any longer. I don't know if they ever yielded fruit.