Banana experiment

May 15, 2008 | By Patrick | Filed in: Geek.

Have you heard this? In order to hasten the ripening of bananas, simply put an apple in a bag with some green bananas. There’s supposedly something about the gases given off by the apple that’s good for the bananas.

The last time I bought some green bananas this thought crossed my mind so I decided to try it and see for myself.

Preparation:
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One paper bag
One bunch of bananas
One apple

 

After 1 day:
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I took them out of the bag to take this picture. They’re a little riper, I guess.

 

After 2 days:
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Again, out of the bag. Ripening quickly, but discoloration shows too much browning.

 

Since I’m hungry and these are the only bananas in the house, the experiment was halted.

Summary: The fact that I didn’t leave a few of the bananas out as a control group doomed the experiment from the start. How do I know what they would have looked like had I done nothing? A larger sample would have been helpful, too. They tasted OK, but they weren’t the prettiest things to look at.

(This would have been an easy thing for someone to do for Clare’s sixth grade Science Fair a few weeks ago.)


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