# How does potassium get inside a bananna? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881 "2009-11-25T05:55:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/1 "2009-11-25T05:55:13Z")
I know this is kind of a dumb question but I’ve always wondered this (not just about banannas but all fruit/veggie goodness, but banannas are a good example) So, potassium is a basic element right? So if you plant a bananna seed in some dirt that doesn’t have any potassium traces in it where does the potassium in the bananna come from? Does it generate it somehow? I would guess that it comes from the bananna breaking down some specific molecule that has a potassium component since you can’t just “make” an element out of nothing. So, if you plant a bananna in some potassium free dirt will it grow? If so where does the potassium come from? ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/2 "2009-11-25T06:34:19Z")
Bananas get the potassium from the soil as minerals weather. [No potassium, no bananas.](http://www.ipipotash.org/udocs/Potassium%20Management%20of%20Banana.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/3 "2009-11-25T13:50:21Z")
Potassium is important to plants. Potassium is the last number in fertilizer. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/4 "2009-11-25T15:56:02Z")
Soil generally has small amounts of, well, most elements that plants need to grow. Not always, though, especially if the same crop is grown repeatedly without fertiliser being added. As for where the potassium comes from naturally, it’s generally the weathering of rocks that slowly releases it into an available form. [See here.](http://159.226.205.16/curriculum/3w/02/soil/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/5 "2009-11-25T17:14:41Z")
Nothing will grow in dirt that doesn’t have any potassium traces. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/6 "2009-11-25T18:23:25Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Potassium is important to plants. Potassium is the last number in fertilizer. That’s correct. Fertilizers are rated with an N-P-K number which shows the percent of each nutrient. N is nitogen, P is phosphorus, and K is potassium. The K is from Kalium, the latin word for potassium. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/7 "2009-11-26T21:30:58Z")
Bananas are not produced from their seeds. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/8 "2009-11-26T22:36:31Z")
> [@barbitu8](#): > > Bananas are not produced from their seeds. At least not the ones you buy in the supermarket, which are sterile triploid hybrids with only tiny undeveloped seeds. Wild bananas usually have great big seeds in them (see picture in link). Banana cultivation: > **[Banana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana#Cultivation)** > > A banana is an elongated, edible fruit—botanically a berry—produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a peel, which may have a variety of colors when ripe. It grows upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost ... ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-potassium-get-inside-a-bananna/518881/9 "2009-11-26T22:39:38Z")
some banana plants do have seeds. the cultivar we eat don’t.