[9] Cavendish bananas entered mass commercial production in 1903 but did not gain prominence until later when Panama disease attacked the dominant Gros Michel ("Big Mike") variety in the 1950s.

Because they were successfully grown in the same soils as previously affected Gros Michel plants, many assumed the Cavendish cultivars were more resistant to Panama disease.

Contrary to this notion, in mid-2008, reports from Sumatra and Malaysia suggested that Panama disease had started attacking Cavendish cultivars.

[10] After years of attempting to keep it out of the Americas, in mid-2019, Panama disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4), was discovered on banana farms in the coastal Caribbean region.

The most important clones for fruit production include: 'Dwarf Cavendish', 'Grande Naine', 'Lacatan' (bungulan), 'Poyo', 'Valéry', and 'Williams' under one system of cultivar classification.

The outer skin is partially green when bananas are sold in food markets, and turns yellow when the fruit ripens.

Once picked, they can turn yellow on their own provided that they are fully mature by the time they are being harvested, or can be exposed to ethylene gas[15] to induce ripening.

Development of disease resistance depends on mutations occurring in the propagation units, and hence evolves more slowly than in seed-propagated crops.

[19][20] In 2017, James Dale, a biotechnologist at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, produced just such a transgenic banana resistant to Tropical Race 4.

[21] In 2023, the Philippine Space Agency and Bureau of Plant Industry utilized pest control against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.