Basjoofriend

Hi,

I will try to cross bananas in Brazil and to start the breeding program "Cold Hardy Fruit Banana". Formerly I bred rhododendrons and crossed different species and cultivars together successfully. I got also pollen from different rare rhododendron crosses and species to cross with my rhododendrons in Germany Hamburg and stored them deep frozen in my refrigerator, the pollen stayed viable, even still after years. Can I also store banana pollen deep frozen for months and years so that they will stay viable and the crossing trials will be successful? I will use Musa basjoo, Musa yunnanensis, Musa thomsonii, Musa ornata and Musa ornata x velutina Anestor as mother plants and dessert banana cultivars as pollinators. I will start my banana breeding programm with trial crosses with Musa ornata and Musa Anestor at my pond. There is also one question, how to store pollen for months and years, because many banana species and cultivars are not flowering at the same time.

Is there anyone who has stored banana pollen for months and years deep frozen and then used them successfully and got ripen fruits full of viable seeds?

I read about one successful cross between Musa Mysore and Musa basjoo, Mysore was the mother plant and Musa basjoo the pollinator, only 10 seeds in 10 bunches and 5 germinated, this cross was made about 80 years ago. I will renew this cross on the opposite way, Musa basjoo as mother plant and Mysore as pollinator, like the cross Musa acuminata ssp. sumatrana syn. zebrina x Grand Nain. Grand Nain was the pollinator, and the fruits of the cross are parthenocarpic like the dad and the leaves like the mother, but the fruits are not as tasty as Grand Nain, but also seedless. The cross Musa basjoo x Mysore will also be the same, but as hardy as the mom basjoo. I hope that the fruits of my Musa basjoo in Brazil will have much more seeds after pollinating by Mysore pollen than the fruits of Mysore after pollinating by basjoo pollen about 80 years ago.

I read there in the past about failed cross trials Saba x Musa basjoo and Orinoco x Musa basjoo, this is not one good way, Saba and Orinoco are parthenocarpic and do seldom form seeds after cross trials. Why not try one opposite way, so Musa basjoo x Orinoco and Musa basjoo x Saba, this might be more successful?

Best wishes
Joachim