FACTCHECK: Does Banana tree grow from grafting banana fruits with poultry eggs?

 By Daniel Adaji

Several videos on You Tube claimed that banana tree (Musa spp) can be grafted with poultry eggs. One of the videos uploaded by Soriya on 3 Feb 2023 had 21,988 views and 271 likes.

The video which was tagged ‘Great Way for Grafting Banana Tree Growing Faster with Eggs | How to Grow Banana Trees Easily’ showed that smearing broken eggs on the base of banana fruits and planted in the soil, could produce banana trees. Although it was not stated in the video how long it would take for this process to produce a banana tree, our findings proved otherwise.

Claim

The video show that it is possible to grow banana tree from banana fruits and eggs in the soil.

Findings

Findings by NatureFact show that the claim is NOT PROVEN

Checks conducted on Microsoft Bing revealed that banana fruit cannot produce a banana tree when planted in the soil and mixed with eggs. Banana trees are propagated by planting suckers, which are shoots that grow from the base of the plant. The sucker will then grow into a new plant and develop roots.

However, wild bananas possess seeds and are capable of being propagated to produce new ones but the modern species of banana displayed in the video and the method illustrated is not capable of producing banana trees.

Further checks conducted using Google revealed a publication by Michigan State University Extension. The document showed that seedless plants are not common but they do exist naturally and can be manipulated by plant breeders using genetic engineering means.

An agronomist with SYNGENTA Foundation, Jeremiah Biokun explained that eggs support the root system of plants because it can act as a PH buffer to make the soil less acidic but not a requirement for the propagation of plants. “Basically, anywhere you get moisture, most plants can survive and kitchen wastes are sources of nutrients for most plants to thrive well,” he said.

Verdict

Although eggs support the root systems of plants, the claim that banana fruits smeared with broken poultry eggs would produce a banana tree is NOT PROVEN. It was made out of context.