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Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

I was recently on a collecting expedition to Bougainville Island, PNG. There will be many more photos, stories and official reports to come later on, but for now here are some teaser photos to enjoy.

https://goo.gl/photos/cUrfMg8PzZ68UxD38

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Very amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing Gabe.

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Double WOW ... Which ones did you bring back?

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

What diversity, Gabe! Are you in the epicenter of banana genetics???

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

You must have had a blast! All those bananas!

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

I'd like to have those red plantains

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Just AMAZING! Thank's!

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by edwmax (Post 300142)

Double WOW ... Which ones did you bring back?

I didn't bring anything back, we were collecting for the PNG national collection and for the international collection in Belgium.

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicolas Naranja (Post 300147)

I'd like to have those red plantains

Me too !!! I've started 2 mats of ARH cause some of the neighbors got wind of my plantings and none of them want sweet breakfast naners. Would you believe that Home Despot put out some ARH this year? The other one I got from Humacao, PR.

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Actually none of the photos are of Plantains, most them are unusual unclassified AA types.

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe15 (Post 300163)

Actually none of the photos are of Plantains, most them are unusual unclassified AA types.

Well, my mind is blown.:woohoonaner:

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

It's surprising how important bananas are to humanity, yet we have done relatively little to preserve many of these cultivars. Hundreds of organizations in the US (and probably thousands worldwide) are focused on saving rare and endangered animals with great success, but plants have generally been placed on the back burner... We've literally only had one single major successful organization, FHIA, work on improving bananas.
Thank you Gabe for taking action and doing the heavy lifting for us! Preserving the landrace variants is the first step to long term preservation of bananas. Hopefully one day we'll see these otherwise unknown varieties become easily available to farmers and especially home growers throughout the world :) Genetic diversity is key to long term survival....

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Incredible collection of interesting pictures of Banana's:waving:

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Thank you Gabe for sharing all the amazing pictures, information!....

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe15 (Post 300163)

Actually none of the photos are of Plantains, most them are unusual unclassified AA types.

Many PNG AA types taste very similar to plantains, were you able to taste some of the unclassified AA types.

Amazing pics, thanks for sharing.

:08:

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by meizzwang (Post 300167)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PR-Giants (Post 300287)

Many PNG AA types taste very similar to plantains, were you able to taste some of the unclassified AA types.

Amazing pics, thanks for sharing.

:08:

I tasted many of them and more not pictured, some cooked, some raw, some both. The tastes and eating quality attributes are all over the board and as variable as the plants themselves. Some are indeed very Plantain-like, but they are so variable you can't really say anything collective about them all.

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

The images are very nice. Thanks fo sharing.

Re: Bananas of Bougainville- Teaser photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe15 (Post 300427)

I agree with you that preserving genetic diversity is important and breeding bananas is relatively difficult (compared to something like maize or tomatoes), but FHIA is far from the only organization that has been breeding bananas, and in recent years, they are one of the most secretive with what they are doing. Here is a nice article summarizing the history and main contributors to banana breeding.
Who's breeding bananas? : Under the peel | News, knowledge and information on bananas

I tasted many of them and more not pictured, some cooked, some raw, some both. The tastes and eating quality attributes are all over the board and as variable as the plants themselves. Some are indeed very Plantain-like, but they are so variable you can't really say anything collective about them all.

With all those different organizations working on bananas, why is FHIA the only one we are getting cultivars from? I shudder to think of how many different varieties that would add, but wonder the above...