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View Full Version : Ensete gilletii seeds are sprouting already!


bigdog
08-22-2008, 01:20 PM
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?

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=12611&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=12611&ppuser=49)

mskitty38583
08-22-2008, 03:00 PM
that is so cool! congrats on your new nanas!!!!!:woohoonaner::woohoonaner::woohoonaner:

Chironex
08-22-2008, 03:07 PM
Splendid job, Dog! Now if we could get Perrieri and Ingens to do the same.....

Dean W.
08-22-2008, 03:10 PM
Way to go getting those to germinate.:woohoonaner: If only other banana seeds were as easy.

bdollarbill
08-24-2008, 08:43 AM
Good for you! I am looking to get intro growing from seed myself, I'll have to keep i touch with the "Seed Master" for info, Do you have any seeds for trade or sell? I have been looking for some Dean W hooked me up with a few but I want more, I did not want to go route of buying old junk seeds from Ebay etc..



Bill

bigdog
08-24-2008, 08:53 AM
No, I don't have any extras. Try some of the seed sources listed in one of the sticky threads, like rarepalmseeds.com or europalms.be. Banana-tree.com also has fresh seeds occasionally.