Re: bananas... are they on the way out?

it sounds like a lot of alarmist hooey to me, donna. if you go to the going bananas nursery's web site
[http://www.going-bananas.com/], you'll see that they list 80 or more varieties in several different species and including a few yet-to-be-named hybrids.

yes, they are mostly grown from pup--because that's the fastest way to get a tree and, hence, a crop. and because the plant dies after producing one crop, growing replacements from seed would seriously affect banana production. but seeds are available. there are several tropical seedsmen who offer them. [i think even rarepalmseeds has them.]

there was an interesting article in the new york time last week about the source and survival of the washington navel orange. since it truly can't be hybridized, i would think it would be closer to being doomed that the banana would be.

At 08:03 PM 1/24/03 -0600, you wrote:
Hey Jim and other southern warm weathered usually gardeners... this came
thru on a different list, wondering how true it is?

Donna

<snip>
By the way, speaking of bananas.I saw an article on my MSN homepage
about bananas.  They forecast that bananas will not be an affordable
fruit found in grocery stores within ten years.  Turns out that
commercial bananas do not set seed.  They are all grown from pups
(suckers) from another plant.  The article forecasts that since the
bananas are all identical, with no genetic diversity, that a virus or
parasite could easily wipe them out.  The call was put out for someone
to find a way to breed bananas and get some genetic diversity while
still maintaining the fruit that we love!
<end snip>

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