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  • From: "Charles de Matas" <cdematas@hotmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Banana diseases
  • Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 14:01:58 +0000


<<Indeed, it was exactly this process that did in the Cavendish's
predecessor. In the 1950s, Britons ate a different banana from the one now
munched. In those days, the banana of choice was the Gros Michel, until it
was assailed by Panama disease and was wiped out. Now the Gros Michel is an
ex-banana.>>

Commercially the Gros Michel may be an ex-banana, but it is much superior in taste to the cavendish type. The Gros Michel is the highest priced banana grown here in Trinidad. My brother grows them on a small scale without pesticides or artificial fertilizers. They produce massive bunches. I usually buy smaller varieties like the silkfig which is my favourite. When I was studying in the U.S. I longed to taste a good banana, the commercial varieties like the cavendish just cannot compare.
I agree that organic methods are the way to go. The banana companies plant huge monocultures and when inevitably disease breaks out they look for a technological fix, like heavy spraying of biocides, or genetic modification. Bananas can be grown among other trees like cocoa, coffee, inga, erythrina, etc. Some varieties do better in partial shade. Others do better in full sunlight, but even these can be interplanted with pigeon peas or a leguminous ground cover.

Charles.

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