## Documentary: How 8 Fruits Were Bred To Be Perfect
Information taken from [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK6-mv-mksw)

##### Apples
- Cost 500 million
- Started in the 90s (farmers had lost >700 mil), old apple was being criticised
- 100,000 acres of red delicious trees
- Apples need to last 12 months being tasty to survive being stored
- Cosmic crisp parents are honey crisp and enterprise for crispness and storage
- Took thousands of trials and errors, planted 10,000 trees (only used 1)
- Used iodine to test when it was best to harvest
- 12000 acres of trees for cosmic crisp
- 10.5 million have gone into marketing the apple, it has its own commercial

##### Ruby Roman Grapes
- Largest red grape
- Japanese culture, fruits are considered a luxury and gift item, wont be sold if they have any blemishes or wrong size
- Induvial test each grapes colour, size and sugar percentage (<18%)
- "Premium" is 1 in 1000 sold, none qualified in 2019 and 2020
- Very sweet and juicy
- Harvesting starts in July
- Grown in greenhouses, each grape is monitored
- Grape thinning devices are used
- Controls the amount of light so the colour is perfect via adding/removing leaves using a propriety phone app
- Temperature over 30 degrees make it white not red
- 25000 bunches up for sale in 2020, started being sold in 2008
- Started being developed in1995 for a new large red grape

##### Miyazaki Mangoes
- "Egg of the sun"
- Farmed in Japan and auctioned off
- From the Irwin mango variety, turn red when ripe
- Very common, grown in other parts of the world
- Expensive due to the amount of care it receives
- Bees are rented during the flowering season for pollination - bigger mangoes
- Fruits that aren't pollenated are removed
- Only ones that are in good shape, visibly contain pits and in good position are sold
- Temperature is kept at a constant, the room is ventilated, dehumidified
- Mangoes protected from gravity
- Sun makes them red, poor colour = lower sugar content
- If a mango falls into shade it is hung up
- Light reflectors (made out of milk cartons) are attached to the mango so it receives more light, also means more balanced
- First inspection is done by human eye to make sure they are the correct shade of red
- Sorted by sugar content (above 15%) and size (more than 350 grams and 2L in size standard)
- Only 10% of mangoes become taiyo no tomago
- Most expensive sell for 500,000 yen or 2300 GBP

##### Pitayas
- Good for 24 hours after harvesting before loosing flavour and texture
- Type of dragon fruit
- Grows on organ pipe cacti - can only be grown in Mexico and parts of the US
- Very colourful and flavourful
- Harvests in night, early morning using a long stick
- Only available around 60 days a year
- Each cacti only gives 60 fruit a year and takes 8 years to grow
- Made of 85% water
- Spines are removed by hand before selling, very delicate process
- Praised for their sweetness
- Come in 4 different colours: White red purple and yellow
- Up to triple the price depending on the distance transported
- Bumpy drives can cause the pitayas to rot

##### Durian
- Grown in Thailand (300 varieties)
- Known for the unpleasant smell but also a sign of respect
- Refined and sweet pulp with a mild fragrance and creamy texture
- Lesser grade have a stronger smell and watery texture
- Grow Indian coral trees and legumes to nurture the soil
- Fresh water is bought (2200 a year) to water the trees, watered daily
- Take 6 years for a tree to bear fruit
- Harvesting season lasts for 90 to 150 days
- Each durian is protected in a plastic bag
- Harvested individually
- Hard to care for the trees with the pollution and climate crisis
- The older the tree, the tastier the fruit

##### (Golden) Kiwis
- Developed through cross breeding different yellow kiwis
- Smaller and sweeter
- "Designer" fruit
- Cant be grown without copyright permission from zespri - 14 million fine
- Hairless - Easily damaged
- Gloves are worn to avoid fingernails damaged
- Before harvesting a sample from the orchard must meet a criteria
- Takes 5 years for a tree to be ready
- Pruned and grown on a canopy
- Golden kiwi orchards produce less per tree than green
- Every kiwi is inspected to ensure the quality
- Lasts around 7 days ripe

##### Bananas
- Ripen in transport
- No seeds so can't be planted
- All genetic copies so very susceptible to diseases
- Biosecurity is now in place around the farms to stop fungus (cost millions)
- Cleaned with chlorine to stop insects
- Thrown into water to wash off the latex on the peel and preserves them
- Packaging has holes to allow for ripening
- Fungus goes into the soil, all area needs to be removed
- Trying to find a new banana to resist the fungus
- One exists but it is genetically modified (rejected)
- There are lots of breeds of bananas but there is mainly only one eaten

##### Buddhas Hand
- Sold in Vietnam
- Very little juice, pulp or taste
- The rind is what is tasty
- Fragrance is cool and pleasant
- Used in Vietnamese culture
- Harvesting all the fruits at once kills the trees as it has water that it doesn't know what to do with
- Gets rotten easily in the rain
- Requires lots of attention and care
- Take 10 years for the tree to bear fruit
- The more it looks like a hand the more it can be sold for
- Stays fresh for a long time
- Insects are very interested to the fruit and can destroy it easily, around 5-7% is destroyed
- Fingers can get broken off very easily