jmc96

Banana peel no longer disposable with edible skins you can now really sink your teeth into - ABC Rural - ABC News

"A Japanese company has created a banana that you do not need to peel before eating.

The Mongee banana (pronounced 'mon-gay' and meaning 'amazing') has an edible skin which is said to taste like a vegetable and have a lettuce-like texture.

It has been a labour of love for 68-year-old Setsuzo Tanaka from Okayama Prefecture who has spent the past 40 years perfecting the technique for growing them."

Developed from the Gros michele, the one variety that has eluded me for years.

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Richard

From what I've read this is an ornamental banana grown from seed. It's true that the peel is edible but the fruit is full of rock-hard seeds.

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Akula

Doesn't look like any seeds if the accompanying photo in the article is accurate.

I forwarded the article and the website address of DT Farming (all info in Japanese) to a friend of mine in Japan to check out. Maybe he will will get back with something interesting.

Botanical_Bryce

The skin is a sanitary wrapper. Eating it is only a novelty since most people don't want to eat the part handled and dirty. Pull the dirty wrapper off to eat the clean inside.

WonderKeeper

Most banana skin are edible. We just don't get use to eat it ,because somewhat it does not have good taste . Beside, most bought bananas have heavy chemicals on its skin,so it is not good for eating. Back in Viet Nam, my Grandfather used to sun dried bananas with its skins on. I ate sun dried banana with skin on as a kid and I like it.

As for The Mongee Banana in Japan. They freezed the young banana plant and then replanted it. This technique cause the plant to produce a thin banana skin. The look of banana skin and the description somewhat remind me of an over ripe banana with brown spots. This article have more information about Mongee Banana https://japan.mb4uli.com/tag/edible-fruit-skin/

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PR-Giants

The plant looks consistent with a dwarf gros michel and gros michel do not have seeds. In many countries the word for banana plant/sucker/pup/offshoot translates into English as 'seed'.

I think the article I read said it took over 40 years and 4 million dollars to successfully find a banana that would grow in a greenhouse.

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Richard

Then why are they selling seeds?

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obdiah

my bs meter is pegging in the red

Tytaylor77

Same here on the BS meter! I “flash froze” all my plants this year and they didn’t do as well as in Japan! I must be doing something wrong?

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beam2050

oh so your to blame for mine getting flash frozen.

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bushwack

I'm glad I have my boots on

PR-Giants

Parts of this story are funny but you should be able to realize that a lot of the information was probably distorted through the translation and because this story has been around for many years it probably also gets a little more distorted every time that another webpage reprints it.

Top photo is of the guy with his dwarf Gros Michel.

Below that is a photo of a dwarf Gros Michel seed I shipped out yesterday to a collector friend, and in many countries this is called a seed.

When the USDA requested variegated Mainini seeds I understood exactly what they meant and shipped them the underground stem of the plant in the bottom photo, the photo is of the above ground stem with the leaves.

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geissene

I wonder if freeze-thaw awakening methods work for both 'pup' seeds and actual seeds.

Maybe I can get research money to see which will grow better in warm house.

c933103

From what I read this variety of banana have thinner skin with less fiber (and no astringency) as well as use no pesticide in cultivation and thus more viable to eat with skin

As for the flash freezing part, it is said that they cut part of the seedling, put it into a special liquid and cool it to negative 60 degree Celsius. They claims the main purpose of doing so is to "awaken" the "ancient memory" from dormant genes of banana when they went through the ice age in order to allow bananas to be grown on Japan mainland which is usually too cold for banana to be growth.
So it does not actually involve "seed".


Edit: It seems like one of the main factor why the farm is able to grow Gros Michel and not adopting pesticide is that there were no banana being growth in Japan and thus there are no pests nor pathogen against banana. Not sure if they can keep the advantage for long. They claims the fungus that cause the new panama disease cannot grow in Japan due to the climate.