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Grand Nain
In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, the Cavendish cultivar Grand Nain, imported from Central America, was thoroughly compared, alongside Chinese Cavendish and Valery, with the standard cultivars, Williams and Dwarf Cavendish. In two separate long term trials at Burgershall, Grand Nain performed better than Williams. Although the two cultivars are similar in most aspects of pseudostem and leaf morphology, the cycle time of Grand Nain is slightly shorter, bunches are slightly heavier and fingers slightly longer than Williams. These advantages all add up to a higher yield per annum of extra large fruit with Grand Nain. In trials under optimal conditions in South Africa, Grand Nain outyielded Williams by 9.6 % over four crop cycles in one trial and by 7.2 % over three crop cycles in another trial. These benefits of Grand Nain are not repeatable under sub-optimal soil, climate or management conditions.
NOTE:
Grand Nain is generally regarded as the most widely-grown Cavendish dessert banana in both tropical and subtropical localities. Du Roi Laboratory has bred superior horticultural selections of this cultivar with high-yielding characteristics.