Yug

Anyone ever heard of a banana in the Philippines, that is ripe while still green? My wife thinks it is called "Tukol" in the Ilocano dialect, but I've never heard of it.

Any info would be appreciated.

sunfish

Musa Ebun Musak - Bananas Wiki

fruit ripe while green?

tasanas

WE have bananas that are ripe when they are still green and they never turn yellow in Thailand too. We call them " gluay hom keaw". Mine are ripe now, the taste is almost the same as the golden one.

venturabananas

I'm guessing that "gluay hom keaw" is just another spelling of "kluai hom khieo" that I found in a paper on banana names of SE Asia. If so, it is a Cavendish cultivar, which makes sense since Cavendish stay green when ripened in the tropics.

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ArchAngeL01

Try Saba

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Brad

Richard

Saba are often picked green for use as cooking bananas, but if left to hang will ripen nicely for a dessert banana.

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ArchAngeL01

so you can eat them as desert bananas too? omg i love my saba even more now, i just thought that they were plantains.

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Brad

chong

It is called "Bungulan" in most of the Philippines. I don't know what it's called in Ilocano. Called "Monte Cristo" in the English speaking countries. It's very sweet, like fig or raisins, has paper white flesh, and has a very short shelf life, owing to faster ripening once detached from the bunch. Fruit size and shape are very much like Gros Michele.

chong

I posted this before regarding "Buñgulan", a dessert banana that stays
green when ripe, not picked for consumption while still green.

Black sheep of the banana family?

venturabananas

Buñgulan is a Cavendish cultivar, thus is green when ripened on the plant in the tropics.

From Daniels 1995:
Cavendish subgroup: "fruits greenish at ripeness in tropical conditions"

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chong

I don't know about that. I have seen many Cavendish plants whose fruit turn yellow on the plant. The only reason that they are harvested when green is that they have to travel to the place of sale and must survive the journey. Most backyard growers usually wait until one or a few fruits start to turn yellow, then they cut down the stem. If they wait a little longer, the fruits that have turned yellow will usually pop their skin if left on the plant.

It may be that that description implies that there will be some green on the fruit when it's ripe. Not that it stays totally green when it's ripe. Here is an excerpt from Daniels, Nelson, et al, 2007 regarding Cavendish cultivars, "In equatorial lowlands where the ambient temperatures are high, fruits turn greenish-yellow when ripe, although where temperatures are a bit cooler or when artificially ripened, they turn bright yellow."

The Buñgulan stays totally green, whether on the plant or off the plant, or artificially ripened, until it's over-ripe and develops black spots and overcome by it. This is true both from our large mat in our backyard and those that are shipped to my Aunt's store in Manila by the shipload twice a week from Mindanao.

Finally, here is another excerpt, from Encanto Farms website, "Bungulan fruit is round, very sweet, seedless and easily rots; has thick peel that is green when unripe and remains green when ripe; flesh is white when ripe; gestation period is 12 months."

Yug

Thanks, but it isn't Saba - we have those already, and my wife assures me that it isn't that one. They had both in the Philippines when she was growing up, and she knows the difference.

venturabananas

Chong, very cool. I didn't realize there were any Cavendish cultivars that stayed green even if force ripened like all the bananas we get in the US. I've picked totally green completely ripe Cavendish of some sort off a plant in the Bahamas, but I'd guess if you force ripened them with ethylene they'd have turned yellow.

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chong

My Aunt was a banana wholesaler in Manila. When the shipload of bananas came in on Tuesday and Saturday, if there were not enough ripening bananas from the ship (they counted the by hand), they would expose anywhere from 1/4 to 1/3 of the shipment to ethylene gas (carbide prpdoct, very explosive!) for supply of restaurants and groceries. Only 1/8 of the shipment was Buñgulan, though. The biggest portion of the shipment was the Latundan (Apple Banana), followed by Lacatan, then Buñgulan, then Señorita, then Morado. The last one, Red Banana, is the lowest because it's not as popular as the others. Though, personally, I think that the Morado is pretty close to Señorita in taste. Maybe, it's just that they take too long to mature. I personally helped in putting some bananas in the "ripening chamber" and place the carbide nuggetts in the pan, then pour water slowly. My Aunt's suppliers were careful not to send ultra green fruits because when forced to ripen with ethylene gas, the skin may turn yellow, but the fruit will taste putrid. In any case, the Buñgulan never turned yellow. Though I must admit that they turned lighter green. The pictures that I posted showing a hand out of the plant is an actual picture of ripe fruit.