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Bananas

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Oct 17, 2017.

  1. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    A very popular fruit. Read this and I'll augment:

    The Banana Problem - Food Republic

    The variety mentioned is by no means the only one eaten by people. Those others have a variety of tastes; some very good IMO. But very few are suitable for long-range transport. More than 20 varieties (do not know how many) are grown in Puerto Rico.

    Brings us to cultivation. All bananas that I know are vegetatively propagated. After harvesting the fruit, you hack stem at ground level and new sprouts happen. Can (and should) divide the root clumps. So while bananas are very likely heavily damaged in Puerto Rico now, they will sprout again. Same for any hurricane place.

    Because of this veg. prop., a single variety has very little chance to change its genome. So, if it is every susceptible to some fungus etc., it will always be so. This along with the vast monoculture thing, is why popular varieties keep getting into trouble.