 Have you ever wondered whether you can grow your own bananas? You certainly can grow other fruits ... strawberries, raspberries, apples, cherries can all be grown from the seeds they contain. What about bananas?  Unfortunately you can't. At least, not from their seeds. Bananas do contain seeds, which are those tiny back dots that are just barely visible inside the fruit. This Cavendish variety of banana is sterile. Selective breeding over many generations of this common store-bought yellow banana has resulted in seeds which are tiny and not viable; they won't grow. These bananas have been cultivated specifically to be seedless and easy to eat. 
Interestingly, there are wild bananas native to southeast Asia that contain large, black, fertile seeds, which can be planted to propagate new wild bananas. These are often grown in greenhouses as exotic plants. 
So how are common yellow bananas grown? The method is one used by gardeners worldwide. The method is also how we get seedless oranges. A cutting of new growth from a banana tree is dipped in growth hormone and planted. It will grow into a new banana tree. This means that virtually all store-bought bananas are genetic clones of each other. Propagated through cuttings rather than seeds, every Cavendish plant is genetically identical to the original plant, and unfortunately susceptible to the same diseases. |