Banana wilt is threatening the world’s most popular variety of the fruit

[DrQ]

Banana wilt is threatening the world’s most popular variety of the fruit, scientists say​

The fungal pathogen behind the banana disease is different from the one that wiped out an earlier banana variety in the 1950s.

(CN) — The most popular variety of bananas may be headed for extinction thanks to a spreading fungal pathogen called Fusarium wilt, researchers say. But they're hoping to prevent that fate.​

​

A team of scientists have spent the last 10 years studying the fungal pathogen and published their research Friday in the journal Nature Microbiology, offering promising insight for the creation of methods to slow or control the spread of the fungal disease threatening the banana crops.​

 

[DrQ]

Scientists May Have Found a Way to Save The Banana From Extinction​

Scientists May Have Found a Way to Save The Banana From Extinction

Did you know that the bananas you eat today are not the same type as the ones people were eating a few generations ago? The banana you might have had with your breakfast today is a variety called the Cavendish banana, while the one that was in grocery stores up to the 1950s was a variety called...

www.sciencealert.com

 

[Brett]

Scientists May Have Found a Way to Save The Banana From Extinction​

Scientists May Have Found a Way to Save The Banana From Extinction

Did you know that the bananas you eat today are not the same type as the ones people were eating a few generations ago? The banana you might have had with your breakfast today is a variety called the Cavendish banana, while the one that was in grocery stores up to the 1950s was a variety called...

www.sciencealert.com

my smoothies need bananas

 

[Superchief]

I've been eating a banana every day (usually in a breakfast shake) for as long as I can remember. I worked for a company in the 90's that produced fungicides. Our product was effective in preventing most banana diseases and we sold a lot in banana growing regions. At that time, most were grown in tropical areas that experienced high pressure for disease development. Fungicides were the only effective prevention/treatment method, so it was impossible to produce organic bananas in those tropical areas. I'm not sure where the available organic bananas are grown today, but I don't buy them since they have their own natural packaging that keeps the non-systemic chemicals from getting into the fruit.

 

[moonstone]

Our landlady in Belize has a brother who is a fruit farmer just outside of Corozal. She was telling us last winter that he and other area farmers are worried about a new fungus getting into the country. The Belize government has some pretty strict laws for importing fruits and vegetables to prevent any disease or parasites from getting in. Bananas are not a big export crop in Belize but we see hundreds, or maybe thousands, of them brought into town every week. Bananas are not sold in bunches like in Canada & the USA but rather split apart and sold singly. We buy 7 for BZ$1.00 (US .50 cents) every few days.

Until we started going to Belize I never realized that there are so many different varieties of bananas. I just thought they were just as we see them in our grocery stores. Bananas can vary in size from quite small (2-3 inches fully formed), called the apple banana (delicious btw), to regular size, and normal yellow to purple or green when ripe. Friends down there gave us some green bananas from their plant (they dont grow on trees) and I set them on the counter to wait for them to ripen. After about a week I went to move them and they were mush! I didn't realize, and they didn't tell me, that those bananas were the green variety and already fully ripe when they gave them to us. They all have a slightly different flavor as well. The regular yellow ones taste different down there, likely because we eat them a day or so after they are picked ripe from the plant. The ones sold in the US and here are picked green then shipped and ripen in the stores.

~Diane

 

[WaikikiFirst]

as long as they save the daiquiri variety, we'll get by

 

[Stayls181]

The thought of losing the most popular variety of bananas is unsettling. I hope the researchers' findings can lead to a solution to prevent the extinction of this beloved fruit. It's fascinating that they've been studying the fungal.

 

[DrQ]

The thought of losing the most popular variety of bananas is unsettling.

We are going to lose them, we are just hoping that they will be replaced by a variety that is resistant to this fungus for the next 50 some years.