Fertilizing banana flowers for seeded acuminata HELP!
 

Musa acuminata ssp. Siamea variegated. My dilemma; everytime this has flowered the fruit has not been viable and filled out to produce seed. I thought I would hand pollinate the flowers. I can't find any stamens?? Is this unusual? Any helpful information would be appreciated.
I have a dwarf Cavendish flowering now and the stamens on its flowers are obvious.

Re: Fertilizing banana flowers for seeded acuminata HELP!
 

Those are all female flowers, you must wait until it produces male flowers and use that, you should be able to have a small window of overlap for the last hand or two. If they had hermaphrodite basal flowers they would be self pollinating.

Re: Fertilizing banana flowers for seeded acuminata HELP!
 

Hey Gabe,

Thanks for your reply to Varig8's question.

I have a question on this subject.

Do the female flowers have a more receptive time of the day.

I have pollinated many bromeliad species and a lot have an early morning receptivity to pollen.

Thanks

Re: Fertilizing banana flowers for seeded acuminata HELP!
 

Early morning is best for bananas too.