Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.1
Banana (
Musa
spp.).
reviews dealing with the protocols of packaging, transport
and ripening, see Thompson and Burden (1995) and
Robinson (1996).
hybrids. Simmonds (1959) suggested cultivars be referred
to formally with the generic structure:
Genus
(Genomic
Group, Subgroup) 'Name'. So, the triploid 'Grand Nain'
cultivar would be
Musa
(AAA Group, Cavendish
Subgroup) 'Grand Nain' and the diploid 'Sucrier' would
be described formally as
Musa
(AA Group) 'Sucrier'. At
least one formal reference to the cultivar(s) used should be
included in research papers. Jones (2000) gives a more
recent summary of cultivar names as well as their numer-
ous synonyms.
Nomenclature
An aspect of post-harvest physiology that will become
more significant in the future is the diversity of post-
harvest behaviour among different cultivars of banana and
plantain. In addition, this will rise in importance in banana
breeding schemes (Dadzie 1998). Therefore, reports on the
post-harvest behaviour of bananas and plantains need to
include the name of the cultivar(s) studied. In the past,
some articles do not mention the cultivar name at all and
others use names that are not appropriate, such as the
Linnaean binomial classification
Musa paradisiaca
and
Musa sapientum
. For the edible bananas, these names are
incorrect because the vast majority of edible bananas are
hybrids (Simmonds & Shepherd 1955). Simmonds (1959)
argued the case, for the edible cultivars, for following the
conventions of the International Code of Nomenclature for
Cultivated Plants. He explained that Linnaeus gave the
species names
paradisiaca
and
sapientum
to two edible
POST-HARVEST PHYSIOLOGY
AND MANAGEMENT OF BANANAS
Bananas are a climacteric fruit and it is convenient to
consider the pre- and post-climacteric phases. If harvested
after completing only 45 days of growth in the tropics,
banana fruit can ripen after exposure to ethylene, even
though the fruit are quite thin. This capacity to ripen over a
wide range of growth and development is of benefit for
marketing. Normally, the fruit grows to a suitable size for
market and is harvested when green. In the hard, green state
(pre-climacteric phase), the fruit is transported to markets
