Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Hello!

I work at a non-profit nursery in South Florida. We mainly grow annuals but I'd love to test out expanding to two or three banana cultivars.

I'd like to start with Dwarf Cavendish (a taste and texture with which people are familiar but in a more manageable size for your average Joe) and the Dwarf Nam Wah (still a manageable size but better tasting).

My concern is that I can't figure out if these cultivars are patented or trademarked and I don't want to violate any laws if we propagate these varieties and sell them to nurseries or customers. I haven't been able to find any useful information to guide me on this.

Does anyone know how I might be able to find solid information on whether these (or any) varieties can be propagated and sold freely or with restrictions?

Thank you!

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

your lucky. :ha: you quite a few members within a few miles of you and many different varieties. outside of overseas trade I doubt any restrictions. if there are just don't say anything to anyone :ha:

lowes sells dwarf cavendish for 10.00, here in florida its one of the most common sold. very slow growing. there are other varieties that grow one heckk of a lot faster.

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Thank you, beam!

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

No. Getting the real cultivar -- that's the problem.

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Really? There are at least a couple of nurseries around that sell them. I had no idea that they wouldn't be the genuine article. Thank you for that information before I waste $25.

Any tips on how to get the real thing? I'm new to this forum but do people tend to horse trade or sell pups around here?

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Nurseries in your area likely get banana cultivars from a distributor, who in turn likely obtain them as tissue culture from AgriStarts. The latter is a long-time producer of TC's to the ornamental plant industry. A few decades ago they started producing fruits. In the banana category, they weren't always correct -- for example they used "Namwa" for Misi Luki, Goldfinger, and Ice Cream. This spread throughout their distributors.

Also, there some greedy online sellers -- particularly on ebay -- who sell anything they can get their hands on as something else in high demand.

If you work at a nursery, then you should be able to order fruiting banana plants from distributors for $7 to $10 each in quantity.

If you just want a single plant or two for yourself then go to this subform and make a request:
Banana Plants Wanted - Bananas.org

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Will have some dwarf Cavendish pups, Raja Puri pups ready to pull if you would like them let me know, just have to pick them up. Where is this non-for profit nursery at and what is your goal with it?

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Richard - Thank you for the info. I'm glad I found this forum before I started wasting money.

fisherking - That's very generous of you. I work in Boca Raton. The center focuses on teaching job skills to adults with developmental disabilities. We have a manufacturing area and a nursery. To further enrich our clients, we have a vegetable garden and several fruit trees so we can teach them a little bit about nutrition.

If you're in Palm Beach County or so, I'd love to pick up the pups. It would be great to grown them at work and show our clients that there's more than just what you can buy in the store.

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Richard - The wholesale nursery I was going to pick up a dwarf Nam Wah from told me today that they use tissue cultures from AgriStarts. Has AgriStarts cleaned up their act since a few decades ago, i.e. can I trust a plant propagated from their stock? Thank you!

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Their Namwa is the real thing along with many other cultivars. But some varieties continue to be a problem.

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Hello.
Your best bet is to find local people, or people online who have fruited the verities you're looking for. Then go get suckers from them.
Going through online nurseries is near a guaranteed crap shoot. There are too many that don't care to sell true to type, because they just don't care what they sell.
And TC plants, which most people sell, are just resold through different parties and mislabeled. Or you have the issues of TC being off type because of the Nature of TC.

Re: Trademarked or Patented Cultivars?
 

Thank you for the feedback, everyone. I've contacted someone on this site to look into getting a hold of the real thing. I've learned a lot in just a couple of days from this forum and I really appreciate it.