In the following picture, how could you quickly distinguish the age of each of these banana plants?
If your answer is: “I have no idea” let´s read our next post. I will explain below how you can easily do it :-):
Through the bagging calendar
As a banana, I must be harvested after I have reached the proper size but still green.
Climate plays a key role in my formation (as described in our second post Globetrotter Bananita).Then if all goes well, I will achieve my ideal size usually when I become 11 weeks old after my inflorescence emerges. Therefore, in such a large areas farmers need an easy method to calculate each of my weekly birthdays or birthweeks :-).
It is neccessary to know exactly how old bananas are; otherwise the ripening process will be negatively affected.
You must think that according to my size farmers can easily estimate approximately how old I am. But the bunches from all of us, the bananas, 
are covered with plastic bags. And besides that, it is necessary to know exactly how old we are; otherwise our ripening process will be negatively affected.
We want to keep fresher for longer at your supermarket and home.
As said above, since my inflorescence appears, it is covered with a plastic bag (this technique is called bagging) to protect it against damages caused by insects or other animals or even by rasping of the leaves.
Every week; a different colored ribbon is hung from this bag and each color is associated to a week number. So according to a color coding established in our calendar, we can know exactly which birthweek that a bunch of bananas is celebrating. Our bagging calendar:
For instance, if today is the 5th of July farmers will hang a yellow ribbon from my bag as my inflorescence emerged this week. Furthermore when farmers have a look to the bagging calendar, they will know that all bags with a red ribbon will be collected, as according to it they are 11 weeks old.
So, today July 5th can you guess how old am I according to my ribbon´s colour?. As shown on sketch below, this is brown.
Yes! I am 10 weeks old. Next week I will be harvested :-).
A method easy as pie but relevant as water and air. Identifying correctly our age as a fruit is crucial to ensure a truly appropriate ripening process that increases our share of life at supermarkets.
