# Is the Banana Doomed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 31, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-banana-doomed/498258 "2009-05-31T13:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-banana-doomed/498258/41 "2009-06-03T00:25:50Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > So you think they are cross pollinating domestic bananas? Sterile, domestic bananas? What good is pollinating a sterile banana? Rad the freakin’ article. “Cultivated bananas never reproduce sexually **on their own**. … **Forcing** the pollen from one male flower to make its way to the female of another plant, however, is how traditional banana breeders like Aguilar’s team develop new varieties” Sheesh. That’s the seventh bloody time I’ve had to say that. And someone asked why I was getting stroppy. This is my last post on this topic. Wilful ignorance can not be fought. If you want to believe that this work is being done with wild bananas when the article clearly states that Aguilar is working with cultivated bananas then good luck to you. You’re beyond my help. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-banana-doomed/498258/42 "2009-06-04T02:56:43Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > [But without bananas, how will we prove that creationism is true?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Fsfou190s) :eek: And yet, God put bananas only in tropical parts of the world, far from where Christians lived, so this “evidence” wasn’t seen by the Christian world until 1000AD or so. How many souls could have been saved if they’d only known of the banana’s perfect existence?? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…God’s a manipulative psychopath. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-banana-doomed/498258/43 "2009-06-04T05:02:46Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > This is my last post on this topic. So are cultivated bananas sterile or not? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-banana-doomed/498258/44 "2009-06-04T22:15:43Z")
They are sterile. Normally. Which is why breeding seedless banana varieties is such a pain in the ass. > [@](#): > > Cultivated bananas never reproduce sexually on their own. Rather, new stems grow from the existing root, sometimes for many years. Forcing the pollen from one male flower to make its way to the female of another plant, however, is how traditional banana breeders like Aguilar’s team develop new varieties. Most mornings, usually just as dawn is breaking, a team of hand pollinators pedal through FHIA’s dirt-tracked fields on battered three-speed bicycles. They move from plant to plant, gathering the powdery pollen from the males and transferring it to receptive female flowers, keeping meticulous records of their activities (Aguilar calls the field “a giant spreadsheet”). The goal of all this is to get seeds, and to use them to grow Aguilar’s experimental varieties, one of which, he hopes, will ultimately yield a tasty, market-friendly Cavendish replacement. What are the odds of an individual seed ultimately yielding a thriving hybrid? “About 1 in 10,000,” Aguilar says. He’s not crossbreeding wild bananas hoping to find a decent seedless bananas. He’s trying to force almost completely seedless cultivated bananas to develop a seed or two which he can then plant which might grow into a decent seedless banana. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-banana-doomed/498258/45 "2009-06-04T22:20:10Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > They are sterile. Normally. Which is why breeding seedless banana varieties is such a pain in the ass. > He’s not crossbreeding wild bananas hoping to find a decent seedless bananas. He’s trying to force almost completely seedless cultivated bananas to develop a seed or two which he can then plant which might grow into a decent seedless banana. Hmm. Wouldn’t that make them “functionally, but not quite _entirely_ sterile” rather than just “sterile”? I mean, if you can sqeeze a seed out of it, even if it’s a fair bit of work, it can’t be _completely_ sterile. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-banana-doomed/498258.md?page=2)