How do bananas grow in nature and how are they grown for sale?

Such a popular fruit as a banana has a long and rather interesting history. Today it is actively consumed throughout the world, so it is quite important to know how this exotic fruit appeared in Europe and how it is grown on southern plantations for subsequent sale.

Bananas in the world are consumed almost daily, but few know that the subtropical regions of Asia, in particular, China and India, are considered to be the birthplace of fruits. In these latitudes, fruit had a special significance - they were considered sacred, capable of returning energy to a person and enriching the mind. In addition, in some dwellings during the construction they erected roofs that had the shape of this fruit. Over time, the popularity of the culture spread further, with the result that bananas became known throughout Asia Minor. Over time, fruit began to cultivate in African countries located in the east and west of the continent.

Later, the plant was imported to South and Central Africa, as well as to the Canary Islands. Among the latter, cultivation of crops began to be engaged in Panama and Ecuador, but these countries are the largest suppliers of fruit to Europe, therefore their fruits are everywhere present on domestic and foreign fruit and vegetable stalls.

In fact, a banana is a perennial herbaceous tropical crop, on which thick-skinned berries (bananas) are formed, having seed material in their pulp. Therefore, the statement that exotic fruits grow on a palm tree or on a tree is not quite true, because from a botanical point of view, this plant is grass. Of course, this is absolutely not the lawn grass to which we are all accustomed, since the height of an adult culture can reach from 5 to 15 meters.

The formation of foliage in bananas comes from the stem, some sheets can grow up to a three-meter mark with a width of half a meter. The green mass of the culture acts as a photosynthetic organ, which is a folded cylinder in the initial phase of growth.

The roots are recessed into the soil by about a meter and a half. In addition, the root system grows to the sides by 3-5 meters in search of vital moisture. The rhizome during its development and growth forms a certain number of nodes, from which you can get a new plant, resorting to the procedure of division, followed by transplantation. As for the pseudostem, which many people call the banana stem, but it is still not. This part is formed from the foliage of the culture, it is rather dense and filled with moisture, as the foliage grows, it begins to grow in size and disentangle itself. The pseudo-stem development stops after all the leaves bloom.

Flowering in any variety is the same in its structure flowers, which consist of several petals and sepal. The only difference between the flowers may be their color. After flowering on the crops, the formation of ovaries, which include 2-3 hundreds of small fruits. Such clusters consist of a large number of brushes with fruits, which are popularly called banana bunches.

The optimum climatic conditions for the growth and development of a tropical culture is the air temperature during daylight hours from + 25 ° C to + 36 ° C, at night the temperature should be in the range from + 23 ° C to + 28 ° C. When it decreases to + 15 ° С, the culture gradually stops its development, and if the thermometer drops to + 10 ° С, then the banana stops growing completely. Therefore, with a cold snap, plantations with bananas are artificially heated, usually for this purpose they are flooded with water or fumigated with smoke.

As a rule, the number of flowers on each inflorescence varies between 12 and 20 pieces. The best natural pollinators for tropical culture are bats, if the plant blooms at night. Small animals and birds help breeding during daylight hours. Cultivated bananas multiply vegetatively. The growth of the fruit on the plant occurs in the form of tiers, which visually resemble a hand. In the process of reaching ripeness, the fruit changes its color from green to yellow, in some cases it is possible to find burgundy or other unusual color for a European.

The pulp of a banana is white in most cases, but sometimes it is orange or cream-colored in fruit. In order to protect the ripening crop from birds and animals, bananas are still being picked green. The yield of plantations engaged in the cultivation of fruit on an industrial scale is 400 kg / ha. The fruits of the plant have the ability to ripen, being already plucked, therefore during transportation and sale they gradually become juicy from green ones, and the peel acquires a yellow color.

Since cultivated plants are perennial, the harvest from one plantation can be successfully harvested for at least 3 years, after which the plantings must be renewed by planting new young cultures. As a rule, one plant is capable of fruiting several times per season. Usually, bananas are picked in January and can be held until the end of November. The harvest of fruit intended for export is carefully sorted, as the fruits in Europe, Russia and America are subject to rather high requirements concerning the established standards regarding quality and appearance. Those fruits that have not been sorted, sold on the local market, but at a very low cost.

Today there are about 40 species of bananas, as well as about 500 of its varieties. Food crops can be divided into two categories:

• fruits, which can be eaten without additional heat treatment, having a sweet taste;
• plane trees - fruits that contain a lot of starch, in the light of which they will need pretreatment.

The first type of banana is used in fried, fresh or dried form. The fruit acts as a raw material for the preparation of alcoholic beverages (beer or wine). In addition, the culture is used as a component of landscape design, and substances from fruits are suitable for the manufacture of fibers. Bananas can have a cylindrical or triangular shape. The length of the ripe fruit, depending on the variety, varies within 3–40 centimeters.

In addition to the fruits themselves, the plant is no less valuable are flowers and large leaves. These parts of the herbaceous culture are also used to prepare a variety of dishes, and foliage - for food packaging. Like many cultures, bananas suffer from various diseases, including fungal ones. In addition, the plant may be subject to attacks by parasites, in light of which a serious threat of extinction may soon hang over the crop, so breeders are actively engaged in breeding new varieties that will have immunity to the fungus, as well as the innate ability to resist pests naturally.

Regardless of the country of origin, all products are harvested from hybrid plants that have been specially bred by scientists to produce fruit. In the natural environment, a banana produces a crop of fruits that have a large amount of seeds in their pulp, and they are completely unsuitable for human consumption. The cultivated hybrid species is a sterile plant that reproduces with the help of humans.

Crops that grow on banana plantations, stand out with rapid growth, so within a week, under favorable conditions, the sheets on it can grow several meters in length. The formation of the fruit occurs almost at the top of the plant, so the collection takes place by hand or in the course of attracting special machines.

The cultivation of cultivated plants is considered to be quite laborious, since organizing a banana plantation in the jungle requires clearing more than one hectare of thickets, taking care of fruit bearing crops, preventing them from sagging under the weight of numerous crops. Even in spite of the fact that the banana tolerates drought well, in some regions irrigated plantations are being planted.

To combat pests and diseases, crops are additionally treated with pesticides. The banana flowering phase occurs 9 months after disembarking, after the pollination process, the peduncles fall off naturally, and ovaries form in their place, but only on those with female flowers.

Another way to preserve the harvest on banana plantations is to shelter young ovaries with fruit bags made of polyethylene, which helps to protect the fruit from various pests. Usually this period takes about 10-11 weeks. At the end of the fruiting and harvesting phase, the entire aboveground part of the tropical perennial culture dies off and dries out. The following season, the plant resumes its growth and passes the full cycle of development and fruiting anew.

On industrial plantations, rejuvenation of plantations is performed every 10 years, and hybrid plants are propagated for subsequent planting in a vegetative way — by shoots or by dividing the rhizome of the mother culture.

In their homeland, a real banana does not form fruits that can be eaten by a person. The elevated stem of the culture is formed from the leaves of the culture, they grow quite quickly, while the old ones die off and fall off, and in their place a young green mass develops. If the weather conditions are suitable, then the sheets of a banana can reach two or three meters in 5–7 days. Flowering culture occurs once in ten months. At this time, one sprout grows on the plant, which usually blooms in the dark.

Banana blooms in white flowers. After the flowering phase, the process of the formation of fruits on female flowers begins. In a natural environment, a perennial plant can live for about a hundred years. The reproduction of a tropical plant in nature occurs by the seed method; animals that live in this area contribute to this process, since wild-growing banana fruits are actively consumed by them. In addition, after the death of a single crop from its rhizome, a young plant is formed, thus the natural filling of forest space with a grassy culture takes place.

Currently, the Philippines, Ecuador, China and Brazil occupy leading positions in the supply of fruit to Europe and Russia. Along with these countries, both Colombian and Panamanian companies supply their products. Not so long ago, bananas appeared on the market, which are grown in greenhouse conditions in Iceland. Due to the favorable climate, warm countries have a serious agricultural advantage, in view of which they naturally create ideal conditions for growing such fruit bearing crops. In our country, fruits can ripen only in the Krasnodar Territory, for example, in Sochi, where Chinese bananas are successfully grown.

How to grow bananas on a modern banana farm, see the following video.