Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael James
Hi guys,
I got a "dwarf Gran Nain", as a present, this spring. Have investigated my brains out but no luck. It was labelled "dwarf Gran Nain" but one source says it's "Grand" (with a D), another says Grand Nains have no dwarf, and one even says it's just a take-off on a Gros Michel.  . Put a pic in my LateJune2009 album (in a pot). Could somebody tell me what I'm growing? |
It's a Cavendish Sports that in several areas of the planet replaced the Gros Michel as a plantain crop, when the Panama Disease came and elliminated good part of the harvests based on Gros Michel.
It's yield was comparable to that of Gros Michel, yet it's resistance to PD was much better. (some peple say that it was a sport of Gros Michel, that was resilient to Panama Disease).
It's widely cultivated in the areas, where occasional frosts and snow come in consideration, such as areas in Mediterranean region, because it's quite hardy. It is however substituted by other sports in the regions of tropics by homegorwn cultivars.
There's no variant of this cultivar, that would be called Dwarf Grand Nain, becasue the dwarfing process itself is unnecessary. Grand Nains grow to 8 foot tall and thus they are many times labelled as 'Giant Dwarf', but this prefix is not needed.
As to the cultivar name, the taxonomy of banana is not strictly defined, so the names of this cultivar can be:
'Gran Nain' (Chiquita (banana), Grand Naine, Grande Naine, Umalog, Nana, Grand Nain...)
Hope this helps you pal. (Btw. I only read this, so others, who are from banana growing regions, might correct me)