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Old 08-22-2008, 01:20 PM   #1 (permalink)
bigdog
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Default Ensete gilletii seeds are sprouting already!

I was mildly shocked to see that 3 of my Ensete gilletii seeds had already sprouted today! By "already," I mean less than 2 weeks! 13 days, to be more precise. That is the quickest germination I have had out of any banana species.

I have them in a plastic box, with a 75/25 mix of coco coir/perlite in it. The seeds were soaked for about 36 hours, and then laid on top of the mix and gently pressed into it, so about half of the seeds still showed above the media. Then I put the box on a heat mat with my Musa seeds, only I didn't realize that the heat mat was only coming on for 2 hours per day! I just looked at the timer today, because the mat wasn't warm, so I had to check out the problem. It's an old timer, and somehow got moved around a bit. Apparently, this species doesn't need much heat to germinate. It got ambient room temps for most of the past 13 days.

Could these be the first ever sprouts of Ensete gilletii in the USA?

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