The long-lost Gros Michel bananas and their uniqueness and availability in today’s world may make you ask, are Gros Michel bananas still available?Well, the age-old tastiest banana fruit which we all thought to be forgotten is still believed to be grown in various regions of Uganda. The banana is known as Bogoya there.The extinct species of Gros Michel banana plants in the 60s was one of its kind. Often called ‘Big Mike’, the banana has great physical characteristics, making it a great fruit along with thick peels, which helps the banana from getting any bruises during the process of transportation. We can highly taste the organic taste of banana in these well-grown organic Gros Michel banana fruits. The fiber and potassium-rich banana fruit is a great breakfast dessert or even a lunch dessert that you can have after the main course. These healthy fruits can boost your digestion and also support weight loss, as they are low in calories. They’re also great for energy and fill you up to stop you from feeling hungry.The Early Popularity And Decline Of Gros Michel BananasThe Gros Michel bananas (also known as the ‘Big Mike’ variety) dominated the banana markets of the past century. People loved the taste of Gros Michel bananas more than the now rising ubiquitous type of cavendish bananas.The whole banana industry has seen the Gros Michel plants suffer from the worst enemy of the banana industry and fruit trees the Fusarium wilt commonly known as Panama disease.The 50s outbreak of the disease led to the extinction of Gros Michel bananas and its species of the banana plant. To uncover the history of the cultivation of these banana plants, it’s important to understand how popular Gros Michel banana plants were and how quickly they declined. The man who began the cultivation of these beautiful banana plants was Nicolas Baudin.In 1835, the tropical fruit was transported from Boudin’s garden to the Caribbean island of Jamaica by another French botanist named Jean Francois Puyat. Later, these plants and species were grown in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Central America on massive plantations and lands. These varieties of banana plants were a great export fruit grown in Central America, which were exported to North America and regions of Europe. But everything came to a halt when the fungus wilt disease took over the banana trees and plants.By the 60s, people started growing more resistant cultivars of banana plants that belonged to the Cavendish subgroup of the banana plants. And slowly, the popularity of the Gros Michel banana plant declined, and the newly cultivated cavendish banana plant species became the banana of choice throughout the world.The Origin Of The Name Of Gros MichelGros Michel banana is a native fruit from southeast Asia which has been cultivated in Martinique, Jamaica, and Central America. We believe that the Gros Michel banana plant is a triploid cultivar of wild banana; the muse acuminate.Musa acuminata belongs to the triple-A (AAA) group of banana species plants. The official name of the banana plant Gros Michel is Musa acuminata. Other names in which Gros Michel is known are banano, guineo gigante, and a Spanish name of platano roatan. In Malaysia, the Gros Michel banana plant is known as Pisang embun and in Indonesia and the Philippines, they know it as Pisang Ambon.In Burma, they call it Thihmwe, and in Cambodia, they know it as Chek Ambuong. The Vietnamese name for the banana plant is Chuoi Tieu Cao, and the name famous in Thailand is Kluai Hom Thong.Caring For A Gros Michel Banana TreeThese nearly extinct banana tree plant species could be brought back to survival by giving proper care while growing them. These banana leaves and the Gros Michel banana fruit are susceptible to getting Panama disease and other fungal diseases.The fertilizer used to fertilize the soil, the soil in which you plant the tree, the light and temperature requirements that you make for the growth, everything matters while making a successful bunch of bananas from the Gros Michel banana plant. You should always go for high nitrogenated and organic fertilizer for these heavy feeders of Gros Michel bananas.It’s best to place them together and plant them in groves or patches. The main mother plant just after the fruiting should have to be cut off from the ground level. Gros Michel banana plants are said to flower buds within 10-15 months, just like any other banana plant tree.Light And Temperature Requirements Of Gros Michel Banana PlantsA banana farm needs to be filled in with appropriate light and soil requirements with nitrogen-filled fertilizers. If growing banana plants in your backyard garden, ensure your yard receives good sunlight that reaches all the plants. Plants like bananas are constant lovers of warmth.The ideal temperature to grow bananas is 67 F (19.4 C) overnights and somewhere in the 80s F (high 20s to early 30s C) throughout the day. Fresh circulating air is helpful for these plants’ growth and when planted in your backyard gardens, remember to give them a spacing of 4 ft (1.2 m) in order to produce a stand or a patch. Also, it would be good to dig small suckers for these plants severed close enough to parent rhizomes to assure their survival.The History Of Gros Michel BananasThe once-popular Gros Michel banana plant got into the records during the 1830s when Jean Pouyat, a French planter, noticed the growing plant on the Caribbean island of Martinique.Slowly, these Gros Michel banana plants became a common bulk export to the U.S. during the 20th century. The traders were more interested in the bunchy and thick peels of these special Gros Michel bananas. But the losses came behind them just as soon as the fusarium wilt and Panama disease started to get onto the plant species, slowly causing the extinction of the rare fruit production.These hindrances and the cheap Gros Michel from the Ecuador cultivated regions were replaced with the Cavendish cultivators’ plantations. Still, the unique Gros Michel banana plant has not altogether lost its presence as even today, some small farmers grow them in their backyard gardens and in their mixed farms using various cropping systems.
The long-lost Gros Michel bananas and their uniqueness and availability in today’s world may make you ask, are Gros Michel bananas still available?
