this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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Science Memes

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banaynay (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (2 children)

We picked the Gros Michel (before it got decimated by Panama Disease) and now the Cavendish because they can be mass grown, harvested before they are ripe, shipped around the world with minimal special handling, be ripened locally, and can survive all that without getting blemished.

While there are plenty of other bananas, really only those varieties could do that. Bananas cost less than a buck per pound. Other varieties would have to be shipped by air with special handling and cost many times more.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I'd like to just grow a tree in my backyard. But I don't live in the right climate. Or have a backyard.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I live in the Midwest, and had a coworker with a banana plant (I think a Cavendish). He cut it down and dug up the root ball to bring inside every winter. Every few years, the weather was warm enough long enough the thing actually made bananas.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

They need a small greenhouse for it. Leave it where it is, put weed block down 8'x8' Get 3 45deg top fittings for fence rail pipe 10' long 2 8' 2x4 boards

Make tall triangle greenhouse using the pipes for the 6 legs 4 feet apart.

Use the 2x4s on the inside to hold the pipe spacing and structure

Cover in greenhouse plastic.

Go bananas

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

lol

"Put out the cat and bring in the BANANA TREE."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ha, poor kitty.

Fun fact, a banana is technically an herb and not a tree.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

And bananas are berries!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Could always get a UV light and a humidifier and grow one in your bathroom.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I feel like the solution is probably more local banana

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

We all dream of thicc local bananas.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s a tropical fruit. It doesn’t grow well in temperate areas.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Couldn't we have like greenhouses at some level of scale? Maybe even like, integrate it more easily into normal housing or just larger public spaces? Banana trees get tall, but they don't get so tall that you couldn't probably fit them into a lot of places. Beyond that I think maybe the only problem would be, like, humidity, which there's probably some sort of workaround for, I dunno.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Banana trees take up a lot of space. And heating greenhouses would be very expensive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Considering the size of the Canadian tomato industry (all greenhouse), it does seem like bananas should also solve. Just bananas can't pack as densely as tomatoes, but maybe throw one banana tree in every dozen rows of tomatoes or something. A girl can dream.