Growing bananas

Bananas are very popular fruits usually associated with a tropical type, which can be easily purchased at the supermarket all year round.
Appreciated for their sweet taste and for the ease of consumption, these fruits are particularly rich in potassium and vitamins, in addition to carbohydrates, which is why their use is not recommended in case of low-calorie diets. But the banana is also used as an ornamental plant for its leaves very colorful and decorative.

Origin of banana

Bananas come from the banana, Musa accuminata, a genus belonging to the family Musaceae, which produces, in fact, the fruit cluster, yellow, sometimes also called plane, within popular culture.

The banana tree is a plant native to Asia, which was later introduced in America and parts of Africa, becoming one of the fruits grown in tropical areas.

The names Musa or banana, appear to have an origin nebula. Some may go back to a doctor for the period of Emperor Augustus, or to Antonio Musa, according to other sources, however, may be derived from the Arabic word Mauz, which means banana.

The banana tree is a plant that circulation was rather late in Europe. Seems to have been introduced by the Portuguese in 1500, first in America and then in our regions.

Bananas are very similar, although there are different cultivars, in all cases, the edible part of the banana is about 80% and is contained within a practice skin, easy to open, which makes this product a true and its perfect natural packaging.

The banana is one of the largest herbaceous plants that produce flowers and the various species can take considerable heights, also around 6-7 meters do not have a real trunk, as with the trees, but a kind of pseudo stem, that develops from a large central bulb.

From each drum creates a single file group of fruits, hands, generated dafiori facing up, usually called the bananas, which can lead to 20 copies and can weigh up to 40 to 50 kg. With the end of period of the fruit, however, the pseudo stem dies, often causing the side shoots.

The banana leaves are particular; are arranged spirally around the stem and have considerable size, around 2 - 3 meters in length. Actually are smooth and entire, but often, because of their size, are often cut and fringed by winds.
The seeds of bananas are almost gone and the cultivated varieties are visible as tiny dots blacks inside the fruit.

Cultivars of banana

Although in the past there were sort of like the banana Musa paradisiaca and Musa sapientum, today's modern bananas almost all stem from particular species, such as Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, and some cultivars, such as the common cultivars of Sicily, able to withstand not properly tropical climates, leading to ripening of bananas particular.

For the cultivation of banana is required wet climate, mild and warm. Better to place it in a sunny position, with a maximum light shade during the hottest hours. And 'well place the plant protected from the winds, which may be harmful on the development and fruiting.

Difficult in our climate we can grow the banana edible purposes, however, there are varieties of banana which are very ornamental, both for the fruits, seeds rich in colors and bizarre, and for the nuances that takes the foliage with the passing of the seasons. Some cultivars, given also the small size, are also suitable for growing in pots.

Banana cultivation in greenhouses urban

Although the climate is not favorable in Europe some thought to the cultivation of the banana tree on a large scale and with an eye to the design and the environment. I'm talking about Urbanana, an ultramodern urban farm concept, proposed by the architects of SOA study .

We are in the heart of Paris, where an area of a residential neighborhood was conceived with echo, thanks to a project of urban greenhouse, designed as a plantation in effect, where banana cultivation of zero km. C02 Less, less pollution less transportation and fruit ripened on the plant. A great advantage if you think that the banana, before reaching our tables or just to the supermarket, he would travel thousands of miles, mostly maturing in boxes, rather than on the branches.

Urbanana is based on the idea to insert a genuine tropical greenhouse monocultural, within a structure of glass and steel, developed over several floors and with a system of artificial lights, suitable to allow the growth of various banana plants.