Aren’t bananas great!  Slightly off topic I know, but a fact worth noting all the same!  Who would have thought that one, such humble fruit would poses so many practical uses in the modern day world, and particularly to us orchid growers!  For today’s post I have assembled the top three uses for bananas at the orchid project, shown below in decreasing importance.

1. Food

It is a well known fact that orchid growers need food!  Take our bunch (no pun intended) at the orchid project.  Together, they eat a very large amount of food – and some of this might be a banana…

2. Growing Media

Bananas have a unique combination of vitamins and minerals that orchids love – especially the young seedlings in the lab.  That’s why four large bananas go into each batch of our agar jelly that we prepare for replating in the lab.  The media also contains sugar, plant food and rooting hormone.  All of this seems to give our seeds the best start possible.

3. Friction reducing devices

We’ve all seen it on a cartoon where one of the characters slips on a banana peel.  We’ve all laughed, but have any of us actually tried it?  We have!  Through extensive testing we have concluded that banana skins are exceptionally good at making any object, regardless of mass, slide across the class room floor with ease!

Tests have shown that four pieces of banana peel, one under each leg of a stool, can easily carry a Year 7 (or 8,9,10 or 11) across the classroom floor!  This technique is as effective with a table, in which case multiple students can be carried at once!