North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[list@ginda.us]

On Oct 29, 2003, at 2:11 PM, breen@fedcoseeds.com wrote:

> "400 varieties in test tubes! that is the anti-christ of what i 
> thought i was doing in this group! to save them for us but not for 
> them? i hope all those test tubes break."


I agree with much of what you said, but not the above.  Those 400 
varieties in test tubes can be used in many ways, including helping the 
people who live where bananas grow.  I was astonished when I learned 
that all "ordinary" bananas were the same cultivar - talk about 
dangerous monoculture!!  It's also sad that so little research, 
breeding, and gene preservation is being done on such an important 
fruit.  I guess the multi-nationals have been slow to catch on to the 
importance of genetic diversity.  So much for the greater efficiency 
and wisdom of private industry as compared to government programs.  But 
those 400 varieties are a start.  With luck, some of them will prove to 
be commercially viable cultivars that require less fungicides.  With 
good planning, someone else is busy breeding bananas (and I'm sure 
there are some bananas that aren't sterile) to fill more test-tubes 
with baby tissue-culture plants that can be tested for flavor, 
shipping, and disease resistance.  There's been lots of breeding done 
on seedless grapes - surely it's possible to breed seedless bananas.

Ginda