Published: Thursday, 20th November, 2008 11:55
Pensioner claims to be first person to grow bananas in Britain
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GROWING ANNOYED: Banana pace-setter John Beaton.
Pic by: Dunfermline Press
A WEST FIFE pensioner who has gone bananas is facing pretenders to his crown as the first person to grow the tropical fruit in Britain.
In June 2006, the Press broke the story of yellow-fingered John Beaton (84), of North Queensferry, who had grown 60 bananas in the conservatory of his home in Post Office Lane.
Mr Beaton, a retired teacher, had been given the plant as a present from his son-in-law in 2004 and had such a bumper crop of bananas that he had farmed them out to family and friends.
However, just last week there were two reports of two men, one in Cardiff and another in Gloucester, who had also succeeded in growing bananas – with one’s crop being trumpeted as “a historic first for Britain”, and the Royal Horticultural Society praising the other as “blazing a trail”, despite the bananas not being palatable.
But those accolades should rightly belong to Mr Beaton, who said he was “quite annoyed” to read the stories.
He said, “We have written to the newspaper about the man in Gloucester to say that we grew bananas two years ago – and ate them.
“I was quite annoyed to read it and I told them so.
"I told them I had grown bananas two years ago!
"It got a bit of publicity when it was featured two years ago and it wasn’t refuted. I have not read about the other man, though.”
Mr Beaton had to wait two years before the plant bore flowers and never expected to get bananas from it.
Although that plant has since died, Mr Beaton has another banana plant – an offset of the first – growing and is keeping his fingers crossed.
He said, “It’s about eight feet high at the moment but there are no flowers.
"I hope it will mature and bear fruit – you never know.”
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