[HN Gopher] A next generation catalog of cultivated bananas
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A next generation catalog of cultivated bananas
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 23 points
Date : 2024-11-12 17:53 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
| rgbswan wrote:
| "The banana equivalent to Covid-19 is spreading to new countries,
| forcing the industry to change how the world's most widely eaten
| fruit is farmed and even how it could taste." []
|
| [] https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-
| pande...
| bboygravity wrote:
| Who would've thought that mono-cultures are not a good idea in
| the long run.
| hagbard_c wrote:
| > The banana equivalent to Covid-19
|
| This is a bad comparison given that in that case the disease
| would only kill a very small percentage - less than 2% - of the
| population and mostly affect the older and weaker plants after
| which the rest of the population would develop immunity against
| the fungus. If this were the case it would not matter at all
| and we'd be eating Cavendish bananas for a very long time yet.
| That is not what this fungus does, it has the potential to
| devastate crops without any significant chance of the
| development of natural immunity.
| ggm wrote:
| Gros Michel was amazing. I have faint childhood memory. Creamier
| than Cavendish, without the same consequence of an overripe Cav.
|
| Sugar bananas and Ladyfinger have their own place. Indonesians
| seem to do sugar bananas in a caramel sauce which I hoover up in
| obscene quantities at hotels. I like both a bit tarter and
| crisper than a Cavendish.
|
| Banana flour is a digestive miracle high in inulin or inulin
| producing precursors and keeps my lower gut happy.
|
| Winnowing down to (for the west) basically one sterile cultivar
| was a huge mistake.
| trealira wrote:
| Yeah, there should be more types of bananas. There are already
| many different kinds of apples, e.g., Granny Smith, Honeycrisp,
| Golden Delicious, Fuji, etc.; I don't see why only one type of
| banana has to be sold at a time.
| icegreentea2 wrote:
| Cavendish bananas actually only make up around half of global
| banana production, however it absolutely dominates banana
| exports, especially to developed countries.
|
| Basically, this is because cavendish bananas travel well
| (they are relatively thick skinned, and ripen while traveling
| reasonably well) while still being reasonably tender and
| flavourful as a raw fruit (as opposed to other bananas with
| thick skin that are usually cooked or processed).
|
| The high diversity of apple cultivars available in North
| America is a combination of basically all apples having
| relatively sufficient storeability and shipability, as well
| as the fact that apple trees will happily grow across most of
| the United States / densely inhabited Canada. They are
| effectively "domestic". Bananas have a far more limited range
| in the US (mostly limited to Florida and Haiwaii).
|
| Breeding new strains of banana is also much more challenging
| than apples since... well, the bananas people want as a raw
| fruit are seedless. You're working with trying to hybridize
| populations of clones. This is understandably more
| challenging than dealing with apples.
| nxobject wrote:
| IIRC, banana flakes was a common wartime shelf-stable product -
| I wouldn't mind it returning.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| Where do you buy these different varieties?
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