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View Full Version : Dwarf Gros Michel Wanted


Yushatak
01-26-2015, 01:31 PM
I'd like to buy a tc (a seedling from tissue culture if I understand) or pup of one of the dwarf Gros Michel varieties (Coco and Highgate, from my reading). I've never owned or grown any food, so don't mistake my knowledge of terms for knowledge about what I'm doing, heh.

I've always loved "banana-flavored" things and when I found out that this was the flavor of another variety of bananas no longer sold here in the US I figured maybe I'd get a plant of my own.

I live in a 7a USDA zone, so I figured I'd grow it in the house and maybe buy and transfer it to a greenhouse if it seems necessary/convenient later.

Anybody have these plants or a lead on them? Also, I'm assuming I want a dwarf because they reach 7-8' tall, but if a full-height one is like 8-9' then it might not need to be a dwarf (though I imagine full plants are much taller for there to be a distinction).

Advice? Leads?

Thanks.

Duckfood
01-26-2015, 05:49 PM
sddarkman was selling them... I'm not sure what he might have available at this moment... Drop him a PM...

http://www.bananas.org/f3/gros-michel-banana-plants-sale-16505.html

CountryBoy1981
01-26-2015, 07:31 PM
sddarkman was selling them... I'm not sure what he might have available at this moment... Drop him a PM...

http://www.bananas.org/f3/gros-michel-banana-plants-sale-16505.html

He is requesting the dwarf gros michel a/k/a cocos.

RobG7aChattTN
01-27-2015, 06:52 AM
I personally don't like artificial banana flavor and of course it doesn't taste like a cavendish. I don't know if Gros Michael tastes like it ether (but admittedly I don't know for sure). A long time ago in a science class we tasted the chemicals used to make artificial banana, cherry, and a few others and what that teacher explained was that they had these chemicals that tasted "fruity" and were safe to eat and simply tried to assign an actual fruit to the flavoring for marketing purposes. That's sort of why we now have new flavors like "tropical splash" and "wild cherry" because all the good fruit names are already taken.

Yushatak
01-27-2015, 02:10 PM
I personally don't like artificial banana flavor and of course it doesn't taste like a cavendish. I don't know if Gros Michael tastes like it ether (but admittedly I don't know for sure). A long time ago in a science class we tasted the chemicals used to make artificial banana, cherry, and a few others and what that teacher explained was that they had these chemicals that tasted "fruity" and were safe to eat and simply tried to assign an actual fruit to the flavoring for marketing purposes. That's sort of why we now have new flavors like "tropical splash" and "wild cherry" because all the good fruit names are already taken.

So can anyone here who has tasted a Gros Michel (or any other banana that might have that flavor) tell me if it does in fact taste like "banana flavoring"?

RobG7aChattTN
01-27-2015, 06:26 PM
nutrition - Is the flavor of artificial banana flavoring based on the "Gros Michel" banana? - Skeptics Stack Exchange (http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20079/is-the-flavor-of-artificial-banana-flavoring-based-on-the-gros-michel-banana)

RobG7aChattTN
01-27-2015, 07:16 PM
Here's a taste test...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfX8taUsoEA

RobG7aChattTN
01-27-2015, 07:26 PM
Here's a guy just eating a ton of Gros Michel bananas. I guess if Cavendish was sweeter and "more intense" in flavor it might taste more like artificial banana flavoring. I guess the basic gist of it is that banana flavoring is one flavor in actual bananas and the Gros Michel has more of that flavor...but has other flavors as well. So, the Gros Michel will taste more like banana candy than a Cavendish but banana candy only has one flavor that is part of what you taste when you eat a Cavendish or a Gros Michel.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUtQfJISrFk