How Do You Make Bananas Last Longer?

Banana Cover Bag

If you're growing ornamental banana palms, you might want to be able to harvest some fruit. Flowering and fruiting time depends on variety. No matter how long it takes to bear fruit, what most trees have in common is a long wait for delicious banana fruit. Even the plant's own leaves can blemish or damage the skin, reducing the fruit's resistance to decay.

Commercial producers use expensive plastic banana bunches, which are often impregnated with pesticides to protect the bunches. Bagging bananas is a great way to protect them from hungry scavengers, diseases and pests.

1. Check the development of ornamental banana palm

Check the fruit development of the banana plant daily after the bracts have begun to lift from the banana hand on the first bunch or stem. Once the fruit starts to appear, these plants usually expose an extra bunch each day.

2. Wait before covering

Wait three weeks after the last bunch of bananas are exposed to cover the fruit. This gives the soft young bananas time to harden until they can withstand handling. The skin will become tough enough to withstand the friction of the covering on them. Bananas bunch covers can slightly speed up the ripening of some varieties.

Banana Bunch Cover

3. Bagging bananas for protection

Use scissors to cut the bottom seam of a large banana protection bag. If bananas are protected from the sun by the plant's leaves, choose a clear banana protection bag. If fruit is exposed to strong direct sunlight, use an opaque white trash bag. According to Purdue University, bagging bananas also protects against pests like banana rust thrips, which means there are multiple good reasons to consider implementing this practice on your banana plantation.

4. Slide the bag over the plant

Slide banana protection bags onto all banana bunches. Collect the end of the bag around the stem above the top fruit. Attach it to the stem with a piece of string. Leave the bottom of the bag open to allow air to circulate. This also prevents the fruit from overheating in the plastic mulch.

5. Cut stems

Use a clean sharp knife to cut the stem just above the bell at the stem tip to increase the size of the banana fruit.

6. Leave the lid in place

Leave the cover in place until the last bunch of bananas are harvested. After harvest, you should store bananas in a storeroom with a relative humidity of 90% to 95% and a temperature of about 58° to 75°F. This will make them fully mature.

Banana Kraft Paper Bag

This simple trick will keep your bananas fresh longer

How much can you eat before the rest becomes too brown, too soft, and completely unpalatable?

Many banana eaters may not know there's a way to slow down the ripening clock: plastic wrap.

The next time you buy a bunch of bananas, separate them and wrap a small piece of cling film around each banana's stem.

The plastic wrap helps contain ethylene gas, which bananas produce naturally as they ripen. Without cling film, the ethylene gas spreads to other parts of the fruit, helping it ripen faster.

So basically, you're trapping the gas to prevent it from accelerating the maturation process.

Separate the bananas for the same reason. When bananas are connected by stems, certain bananas that are further along in the ripening process can spread their ethylene gas to other bananas that are connected to them. A bad apple -- or banana -- spoils the group.

This method won't stop your bananas from ripening completely, but it will slow down the process, and may prevent a bunch of bananas from ending up in the trash.

For more information about the banana protection bags, welcome to contact us today or request a quote.

The source is from here.