The banana you know and love, well probably most of you but have you ever wondered how
they’re produced? On this episode we take you through the process of how they are grown.
Grown in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador the banana requires
specific conditions to thrive. This 2000 acres Bannito farm in costa rica has perfect conditions
to grow bananas year round. Bananas like at this dole facility are started from tissue
from healthy plants, when they are 7 weeks old the seedlings are than planted in a field
that has been readied beforehand. Excellent drainage, full sun and a constant water supply
is needed to make them excel. Costa Rica’s rainforest climate has high levels of humidity
causing these bananas to grow quickly which requires them to be maintained regularly.
These here are full grown banana plants, while looks like a type of tree they are actually
a giant herb which just happens to produce bananas. The inside of a banana plant stalk
has concentric rings like that of an onion or a tree. The leaves are created from the
innermost part called the growing point. Here we see this immature fruit stem is starting
to develop these little bananas with small flowers.
Creating new fields of bananas isn’t required to do all that often as they will continually
regenerate. 3 shoots will be created by each plants, the first mother plant will produce
fruit just one time. A daughter will grow and become the next main plant and only fruit
one time as well. The 3rd is a follower which will gain nutrition from the mother plant
and will eventually produce bananas of its own. New fields of bananas will be created
after many years when the soil needs to be replenished with nutrients.
It takes 12 - 13 weeks from a banana to grow. This measuring tool is used to verified correct
thickness of the banana before harvesting. 6 days a week, 3 works will harvest bananas
in one part of the farm at a time. Harvested green bananas are one of the only fruits out
there that can properly ripen off the plant or tree. Foam pads are added to protect the
bananas then one worker will cut off the bunch while the other catched it on their shoulder
with a giant pad in place. The leaves of the mother plant are then chopped up so break
down and provide nutrition to the daughter plant that will produce next.
Weighing 65 lbs or 29 kgs the bunch of bananas is carried to the cableway system which can
hold up to 75 bunches. These 75 bunches are pulled back to the facility by a mule. These
cableway systems are so diversion among the farms that on the one shown here they have
over 80 miles or 128 kms of them on the farm. Once the bananas make their way back to the
facility, the protective pads are removed and they are sprayed down with chlorinated
water.
Cut off into what are called banana hands, these small bunches are tossed into a big
bin of water to removed excess latex from the plant and to protect them. Now floating
down a river of bananas they end up at a 2nd quality control station where they are cut
into bunches of 5 to 7 fingers. Continuing their floating journey they are than weighed
to fill shipping cartons at specific weights. A conveyor belt takes them to their next stop
where they get their branding sticker. The ends are glazed with some sort of preserving
agent and packed into boxes.
40 lbs or 18kgs of bananas per box are stacked in with the stem part facing down in a perforated
material that will allowed them to ripen in the shipping process. From harvesting to ready
to ship in the box is only a 2 - 3 hour process. Multiple boxes are stacked and strapped together
which is ready for the road which they’ll head over to the nearest port and loaded into
a shipping container.
When it comes to organic bananas, dole produces most of theirs in Ecuador but other growers
exist in Colombia and Peru. To have a banana listed as organic is has to be grown on land
that has been free from chemical use for at least 3 years. Weeds around the base of banana
plants are removed by workers manually and compost and fertilizers are added to enrich
the soil.
Organic bananas are grown more often in dry, hot climates so they don’t succumb to pests
and diseases like sigatoka which is what you see here on these bananas leaves. Sigatoka
will reduce bananas yields which is a big nono when money is trying to be made growing
bananas. Quality and compliance officers run through
a checklist on each farm to make sure they are staying within the organic certification.
Bananas are made up of 90% water and are full of vitamin B6, fiber, potassium and come in
numerous different varieties, over 1000 to be exact. The most common one consumed today
is called the cavendish banana but there are others that can be found at grocery stores
and farmers markets. My personal favorite of the many varieties I’ve tried is the
thai banana, it’s short stumpy, highly starchy and sweet with a very unique taste to it.
If you want to learn more head over and watch this episode of my top fruits series. I’ve
also covered the green banana found in tropical places like Bali which doesn’t change color
when it ripens. For all my loyal fans of the Top 10 Fruits series I’ll give you a quick
glimpse into a a really unique one that I haven’t covered yet, the pink banana. The
musa velutina pink banana with their bright color and highly seedy is more desired as
an ornamental fruit instead of being consumed. They are perfectly edible but annoying to
eat with all the seeds. Hopefully you learned a bit about the process of growing bananas,
be sure to share the love with a thumbs up on the video and why not subscribe and until
the next one have a good one.