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Originally Posted by Jeff zone 8 N.C.
Because that worked for me before and most of the info on line said so and no one else offered any better advice. Also many places where bananas grow wild seem to get plentiful rain. Would appreciate it if you could share a better way. I'm always willing to learn.
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I look to Nature for information before looking online. Fossil records have shown that bananas were growing in the Americas over 165 millions years ago and it's doubtful someone was soaking the seeds for 3 days prior to planting back then. And most people that grow seeded bananas that produce fruit know that seeds that fall to the ground will grow like weeds without soaking.
Moisture is very important, but 3 days of pre-wetting before wetting seems unlikely to be helpful. If there is a study that shows 3 days of pre-wetting before wetting improves germination rates then I wouldn't be surprise to find a study that shows 4 days of pre-wetting before the 3 days of pre-wetting before wetting improves germination rates even more.
I focus on maintaining a high soil moisture with high soil aeration and do not recommend the first technique I used that accidentally produced my first variegated banana seedling. I buried the banana fruit deep into an active compost pile hoping the heat would kill the seeds. One day I was turning the pile and noticed these long sprouts well underground and decided to plant one to figure out what kind of plant they were. It turned out to be a banana plant, which was surprising but even more surprising was the plant was variegated. The original plant I grew that produced the fruit I composted was not visually variegated.