variation in cavendish?
 

Hey all,

So I know that commercially bananas are Cavendish here in the USA but I have a question. On the picture you can see the longer banana is the Chiquita (Grand Nain?) and the other one is Del Monte. I know they are both Cavendish but why such a size difference? Thanks!

Z

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

I would guess there are many factors.

Bunch pruning?
Hand location on the bunch?
Farmer practices?
Fertilizer/water?
Genetics?
Growing location?
Soil?

There is many more I'm sure. Size varies even on a single bunch. Bottom hands have smaller fingers.

If you prune half the bunch the remained get quite larger than normal.

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

Ty,

Thanks for the response. What you say makes a lot of sense. I just would assume since the bananas are produced commercially, they would tend to almost be uniform in size.

Z

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

Cavendish in general can be very long. They traditionally used a rule of size. Bananas over and bananas under go to fertilizer and fodder. Recently Amigo and Delmonte seem to using the odd bunches instead of tossing them while chiquita stayed the same. There has been outrage by consumers on the food waste which is what I credit the recent change even though I have not seen official record of that.

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

This looks like a standard nana being compared to one of the mini varieties.

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

The size does!! But both are for sure cavendish. Ninos aren't that curved. I have seen some insanely large bananas in the grocery store!

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

Yes most of the mini bananas are cavendish. And one picture of Del-Monte nano that i've seen has 2 or 3 curved bananas and the others on the hand were more straight and puggy.

Also, there was no scale on the above photo, so I couldn't tell if picture was a large plantation & standard cavendish; or standard cavendish & mini. My stores have large plantations and the standard cavendish. The plantations are 2 X's or more bigger than the cavendish. ... I haven't seen extra large cavendish bananas.

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

That is absurd to say most of the minis are cavendish. They are either Monzano or Sucrier and neither are cavendish. The cavendish subgroup are of the AAA genome. Delmonte by their own admission sells Lady Finger which are of the AA genome and are not cavendish. Baby bananas sold by Chiquita are mainly Monzano which are AAB. How you conclude they are cavendish escapes rational. I probably know little to nothing about banana taxonomy but as far as I can tell this is pretty basic stuff.

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

I eat roughly 5 or 6 bananas a day. I buy Dole, Delmonte, but prefer Chiquita. I see no need for context in the provided photo because it easily represents the variations of cavendish that I get on a regular basis. I even like to be a little goofy when buying Delmonte at Walmart and I will get some short and some big long ones. The variations suggest less being picky on the farm. Watching farm videos you get to see all the variations that are tossed in the garbage and only specific shapes and sizes sold. I have noticed and always point out all the different shapes nearly every time I purchase bananas and almost every time I comment that they must no longer grade the bananas the same way. Chiquita I have not seen this broad change. Home grown Monzano and Sucrier are far better and I never buy those in the store.

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

But the Del Monte pic (smaller one) I showed you all is surely Cavendish and not Lady Finger right?
In any case, if Del Monte are selling more weird sizes to waste less, I'm all for it!

Z

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

No doubt to me they are. Cavendish

Re: variation in cavendish?
 

Yes! 100% certain both are cavendish! The fruit color would also be different on the Musa Ninos (ladyfinger) it would be a deep yellow off color. You would notice. Also way sweeter! They are called the "sugar" banana for a reason.

just goto the del monte or Chiquita sites. Both have a "mini/kid" banana. They have pages talking about them and even state they are different than normal cavendish.