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Gabe15 · 02-12-2008, 12:17 AM

I should have written more down, but I was in a bit of a hurry at the time. The pictures I posted above are of embryos germinating on a tissue culture medium. Each banana seed contains an embryo which is the actual plant that grows from the seed, the rest of the seed is there to feed and protect the embryo as it germinates and grows. The technique is called embryo rescue germination, the embryos are removed from the seed and (if all goes well) forced to germinate. This is a common method for germinating seeds from hybrid plants which may not germinate normally (usually due to lack of a fully developed and/or functional seed), it is also good for plants that are normally difficult to germinate as well.

The 3 species I cultured were just for practice, they are not rare or necessarily difficult to germinate normally. The Ensete glaucum was originally a single germinated embryo which I induced shoot proliferation on (made many meristems, instead of just one), and then subcultured (divide and re-culture) once to produce 5 new plants, and each of those was then subcultured later to produce many new plants each, I had so many (about 50) that I had to throw half of them away, I kept 25 of them which are now growing. They are genetically identical and suitable for subculture an additional 3 more times if I wanted to create more. They are very young right now, which is why they just look like a mass of green tissue instead of full plants.

I have also put into culture various other Musa and Ensete seeds, but have had limited success with some of them. I will be trying out new and different culture mediums and methods in my trials to come.

I am lucky to have training in tissue culture and full access to a tissue culture lab and all of the equipment and materials necessary. However, I think it could be done with those kitchen culture kits for home tissue culture, or if you do your research on basic tissue culture you can probably rig something cheap and easy. The materials are not very expensive themselves, but the equipment like an autoclave and hood is where you would need a real labs help, but like I said earlier, with enough experimentation it can probably be done at home.

02-12-2008, 12:17 AM	#7 (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 : 13,339,813 Feedback: 5 / 100% Said "Thanks" 1 Times Was Thanked 8,237 Times in 2,200 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 8 Times	Re: Germination the easy way I should have written more down, but I was in a bit of a hurry at the time. The pictures I posted above are of embryos germinating on a tissue culture medium. Each banana seed contains an embryo which is the actual plant that grows from the seed, the rest of the seed is there to feed and protect the embryo as it germinates and grows. The technique is called embryo rescue germination, the embryos are removed from the seed and (if all goes well) forced to germinate. This is a common method for germinating seeds from hybrid plants which may not germinate normally (usually due to lack of a fully developed and/or functional seed), it is also good for plants that are normally difficult to germinate as well. The 3 species I cultured were just for practice, they are not rare or necessarily difficult to germinate normally. The Ensete glaucum was originally a single germinated embryo which I induced shoot proliferation on (made many meristems, instead of just one), and then subcultured (divide and re-culture) once to produce 5 new plants, and each of those was then subcultured later to produce many new plants each, I had so many (about 50) that I had to throw half of them away, I kept 25 of them which are now growing. They are genetically identical and suitable for subculture an additional 3 more times if I wanted to create more. They are very young right now, which is why they just look like a mass of green tissue instead of full plants. I have also put into culture various other Musa and Ensete seeds, but have had limited success with some of them. I will be trying out new and different culture mediums and methods in my trials to come. I am lucky to have training in tissue culture and full access to a tissue culture lab and all of the equipment and materials necessary. However, I think it could be done with those kitchen culture kits for home tissue culture, or if you do your research on basic tissue culture you can probably rig something cheap and easy. The materials are not very expensive themselves, but the equipment like an autoclave and hood is where you would need a real labs help, but like I said earlier, with enough experimentation it can probably be done at home. __________________ Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties. Last edited by Gabe15 : 03-08-2008 at 06:04 AM.