Bananaology: Keeping Your Bananas Fresh the Scientific Way!

Buying in bulk has been one of the best ways to save money, but keeping all those bananas fresh is very challenging. You may have

read online about ways to preserve your bananas, but which way is the best? In this instructable I compared 3 methods of preserving

bananas: refrigeration, putting plastic wrap on the stem, and a banana tree. I predicted that the plastic wrap would work the best

because it stops the ripening chemical from reaching the rest of the banana. I used two bananas for each method - in case one

was bad to begin with (to get the best results). This test was conducted over a 7 day period. NOTE (The bananas were taken before

they were ripe, which may affect results on the refrigeration method)

The plastic wrap (banana 2) was the most effective of the three. The banana tree was the next effective (banana 1) and refrigeration

(banana 3) was the worst. To properly use the plastic wrap method, wrap the stem of the banana in plastic wrap (the stem

releases ripening chemicals to the rest of the banana, this will slow this down). 

This style was very ineffective because with storing the banana in the produce drawer it was bruised by the weight of the other produce and seemed to bruise much more easily. Either way this way was the least affective of the 3 and I would NOT recommend this method.

This method is very simple and just requires a banana tree. The bananas must be in at least a pair to hang on this tree though. This method worked pretty well, but the plastic wrap method worked the best.

This method worked the best of all the three. The plastic wrap around the stem slowed the ripening chemical from spreading to the

rest of the banana slowing down the ripening time. This method is also very convenient because you can do this with a single

banana - unlike the banana tree, which requires a pair of bananas to work. I would absolutely recommend this method to anyone

who likes to keep their bananas fresh longer!