View Full Version : How long are banana seeds typically viable for?
Brian
06-26-2012, 01:18 AM
I'm wondering how long are banana seeds viable for?
Thinking about ordering some online. I typically have had good luck with some groups of plants (like stuff in the guava family or Annonas) and bad luck with short viability plants when ordering online.
Abnshrek
06-26-2012, 05:29 AM
I heard they they are good for years. I think some take a while just to germinate. I know it took me 6 months to get an Ensete sprout, and alot of heat. I trimmed the casings for that to happen. :^)
Brian
06-26-2012, 02:54 PM
Thanks. I know not to expect 100% germination, it's just with some things if you know it's been sitting around for a year there's no point.
RobG7aChattTN
06-27-2012, 04:36 PM
I think most lose viability fairly quickly. That being said, I did have two Musella lasiocarpa germinate after over a year, but that's two out of several hundred seeds. So, a percentage might remain viable for more than a year but the germination percentage will be low.
sunfish
06-27-2012, 04:44 PM
Depends how they're stored
Basjoofriend
11-10-2012, 04:55 PM
Hi,
i wonder if the seeds of Musa hirta, bauensis, schizocarpa, textilis, peekelii and other species from PNG and Borneo do stay viable how long. How long the bananas seeds will stay viable?? I got seeds from these species from Rarepalmseeds, Sunshine Seeds and Sementes, none germinated and one was labeled as Musa schizocarpa and the seedlings are probably Musa velutina, they have already flowered and set fruits. I want new fresh and very recently harvested seeds from these species, but how to get them, but I want not get scammed.
Best wishes
Joachim
jmoore
11-11-2012, 02:43 AM
Providing seeds are dried as soon as they are harvested and then stored at a low temperature they should last a long time, but unfortunately they aren't dried and they aren't stored at a low temperture so they don't last very long at all.
If you want bone fida seeds of these species, you need to collect them yourself or get someone who knows what they are talking about to collect them for you.
I read that it could be max 2 years ( "properly dried").
Source :
Germination and storage of banana seed (http://www.musalit.org/pdf/IN970066_en.pdf)
sandy0225
11-11-2012, 02:18 PM
I don't know about how long the seeds stay viable, but I purchased some ensete seed in 2011 in the fall, put them on heat in the basement and only a couple came up over winter. So I took them off heat and put them out in the greenhouse all summer. They didn't come out there and I was cleaning it out in the end of spring and didn't know what to do with them, so I just piled up the flats under the bench in the big greenhouse all summer. Well about a month ago I noticed that one of the lids had came off the flats, and I was cleaning up so I was going to throw them out when I noticed some of them had sprouted and tried to grow over the summer sometime, but then they had died because they didn't have any light. I got kind of disgusted with myself for not checking them, and set them on the bench. One of the ghostly white dead looking ones came back to life, and several more are sprouting now. So don't give up on them too soon. This is about a year after I originally planted them.
pjkfarm
11-12-2019, 08:22 PM
Storage - dry and cold - BUT HOW COLD? We store many seeds in the freezer, including some tropicals, but mainly annuals and temperate perennials.
So anyone help on this? (I will be having a LOT of Ensete seed coming online in April and want to save for following winter.
cincinnana
11-19-2019, 05:50 PM
Ensete are not viable after 3 years....:ha:
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