Something that can drive you bananas
Bananas are going extinct.
A fungus is killing crops overseas.
How long until it reaches the Americas, no one knows.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/disease-cou…
A fungus is killing crops overseas.
How long until it reaches the Americas, no one knows.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/disease-cou…
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That sucks. Some of these tree disease and insect problems are transfered from one place to another by transporting wood or fruit from one continent to another. Sometimes insects can carry disease pathogens and can be inside fruit or wood and spread diseases where they end up. Some trees may be resistant in one area of the world, if transported to another part of the world can infect trees with little or no resistance and wipe out major populations of trees.
We have no bananas today
sorry
If you cant handle me at my worst, you dont deserve me at my best
Hopefully someone finds a cure in time. I would hate to think that reincarnation is real and future generations know nothing about bananas except what's in the history books.
Apparently the Fusarium Rot fungus that causes this condition wiped out the major crop banana of the 1950's, and the current favorite type (the Cavendish) was resistant to the disease until a new strain came along which is threatening the crops in Malaysia, Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
The commercial breeds of banana do not produce sexually as they have no seeds and the male plants do not produce pollen. Plants are produced by replanting suckers from the roots of existing banana plants manually when they are cut down after production. Because there is no genetic variability due to asexual production, they are more subject to disease.
I'm no horticulturalist but (no pun intended) if that is the root of the problem my best guess would be the fix for this problem would have to be genetically engineered plants. I know some people have a problem with this but we are talking a major food staple that forms a large part of the diet in some areas of the globe.
It would be quite sad to let bananas go extinct.
There are antibiotics that can be injected into trees to treat Fusarium rot. Unfortunately they are not to be used in crop producing trees in the United States.
This type of disease blocks trees ability to move nutrients and water throughout themselves. Like having clogged arteries. Trees eventually can starve to death without treatment.
Proper nutrition and fertility is essential to resisting in the first place.
More info posted in the link below.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/31…