Horticulture Greenhouse
The Production Horticulture Facility is comprised of four greenhouses (providing a controlled growth environment for plants) connected by a "head house" featuring a work area, soil and transplant area, and storage for tools and supplies. The combined facility is used as a production horticulture lab modeled directly after those within the horticulture industry. U of M Crookston horticulture students gain direct experience with the culture, care, and growth of commercial horticulture crops here.
This facility is also home to the famous Banana Tree which has been on campus since Fall 1925 after Professor T.M. McCall secured the plants from the Iowa State College greenhouse. The first U of M Crookston class to eat bananas from the tree was in 1928 after its first cluster of fruit was harvested July 8 weighing in at 54 pounds. The second cluster weighed 62 pounds and third about 60 pounds. At one point on campus, football player Olaf Stenborg had been appointed guardian of the two fruiting banana plants at the Northwest Station greenhouses and stated he was there to keep visitors from tasting the "forbidden fruit." The longest the tree has ever been dormant was 25 years. (source: Northwest Monthly)