Ethylene Gas and False Alarms

Great question. Yes. Ethylene is an integral part part of fruit ripening. Bananas are one of the strongest producers of it. (I will stand corrected if someone knows better.) It acts like a hormone.

That is the reason putting green tomatoes in a paper bag will hasten them turning red. the produced and accumulated ethylene promotes ripening.

IF you want to get a homegrown pineapple plant to produce a fruit, put an apple in the crown and cover it with a plastic bag and the accumulated ethylene makes it bear a pineapple.

And best of all it is why one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, if you believe that is true.

The bad news is I would be surprised if the concentrations are enough to activate your sensor.

See text below:

Ethylene is manufactured and released by rapidly growing tissues (i.e., meristems) in roots, senescing flowers, and ripening fruit. For example, the darkened spots on a ripe banana release great amounts of ethylene. In addition, ethylene promotes fruit ripening. Like many hormones, it does so at very low concentrations. Apple growers take advantage of this by picking fruit when it is not ripe, holding it in enclosed conditions without ethylene, and exposing it to ethylene right before taking it to market.