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Gabe15 · 02-12-2007, 03:39 PM

Hello Gunther and welcome to our group.

I personally have experience with Musa hybridization and am currently involved in a breeding program. M. sikkimensis is a rather large species, I dont think it would normally flower at 2m (also, all banana heights are always measured by the pseudostem of the plant, so a plant is said to be 2m, may well be over 4m with leaves in the air). M. sikkimensis should get to 3-4m before flowering (pseudostem height). Your plants will not become hardier by generation just by growing it at your house for 7-8 generations, in the wild natural selection would evolve the plant to adapt the new climate but for home growers this would not happen unless you had many-many plants all flowering at once and they could grow wild. Now as for cross pollination, I suppose with enough crosses you might be able to produce hardier bananas, but you would only achieve this by crossing it with other hardy species. Banana pollen does not store very well, the method with the best results would be to remove the male flowers of the male parent and immediately transfer the pollen to the female flowers of the female parent (after pollination, it would take 3-4months to be able to harvest seed in the best growing conditions). The longest you might be able to store it is 3 days (I think) in a refridgerator before it is not viable anymore.

02-12-2007, 03:39 PM	#2 (permalink)
Gabe15 Moderator Gabe15's Photo Gallery Location: Oahu, Hawaii Find me on the map! Zone: 12 Name: Gabe Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 3,892 BananaBucks : 13,458,486 Feedback: 5 / 100% Said "Thanks" 1 Times Was Thanked 8,244 Times in 2,201 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 8 Times	Re: musa, pollinate, hybride Hello Gunther and welcome to our group. I personally have experience with Musa hybridization and am currently involved in a breeding program. M. sikkimensis is a rather large species, I dont think it would normally flower at 2m (also, all banana heights are always measured by the pseudostem of the plant, so a plant is said to be 2m, may well be over 4m with leaves in the air). M. sikkimensis should get to 3-4m before flowering (pseudostem height). Your plants will not become hardier by generation just by growing it at your house for 7-8 generations, in the wild natural selection would evolve the plant to adapt the new climate but for home growers this would not happen unless you had many-many plants all flowering at once and they could grow wild. Now as for cross pollination, I suppose with enough crosses you might be able to produce hardier bananas, but you would only achieve this by crossing it with other hardy species. Banana pollen does not store very well, the method with the best results would be to remove the male flowers of the male parent and immediately transfer the pollen to the female flowers of the female parent (after pollination, it would take 3-4months to be able to harvest seed in the best growing conditions). The longest you might be able to store it is 3 days (I think) in a refridgerator before it is not viable anymore. __________________ Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.