Mauro Gibo

harveyc, I think I have a proof of graft hybridization in my farm. I have a grafted orange tree which grew a branch in the scion, of course, with complete different characteristic of the other branches. I am sure it it not a shoot from the root stock. I bought this orange tree from a nursery, so I don't know what root stock was used. The scion is the Okinawan Shikuwasa, a little orange very famous in Okinawa. The tree produced a lot of fruits last year but this individual branch did not and it has many thorns which the original Shikuwasa does not have. The graft, joint, in the stem is few inches above ground while this branch I am talking about is in the top of the tree. I grew this plant since it was quite small so there is now way someone grafting a new scion on the stem. Thank you for all the good information.
Best Wishes,
Mauro

Mauro Gibo

Hi Gabe, sorry to bother you. I know you are 100% right. Your explanation is very clear and easy to understand. As the banana is not a tree it is impossible to graft them. The pseudostem is just leaves and no one can graft leaves. In Hawaii or Okinawa I think most people don't pay any attention to banana plants. They grow kinda wild everywhere you go, it is part of the scenery. I, myself, never cared for the plant, just bought the fruit in the store without any curiosity at all. This 2 cents project of mine did not come out of thin air. Several years ago I planted 2 varieties of garlic in my garden. I planted the European garlic which we grow in Brazil called "alho roxo". It is kinda purple and has a nice flavor. And right beside it I planted the Chinese garlic, which is white and has a strong flavor. When I harvested the garlics I noticed that the European garlic was not purple anymore, it was kinda pink. The second crop I planted, I harvested only white Chinese garlics. My European garlics disappeared without trace. Since that time this clone variation thing has been bugging me all the time. What really happened? Then I heard this gossip or tale of grafting bananas in South America, Brazil and Bolivia, from some farmers who can swear it is done but cannot give me a full discription of the technique. As I could not fly to South America and check it myself I started experimenting with the banana plants myself with the little information I had. I have failed many times and the more I fail the more eager I get. I know it is a nonsense to grow a M. Basjoo in Hawaii or Okinawa, why would you need to grow a cold hardy banana in a tropical hot country? It's completely meanless, isn't it? But here in Mie, where I am living now for the present time, the M. Basjoo is the only true tropical plant which can survive the cold winter. If by any means or accident I get a crossbred variety of the M. Basjoo producing edible fruits I will surely call it musa japonica. I just hope my ignorance will help me get somewhere where experts were scared to try afraid of criticism. I just wonder what the future botanists will say about my experiments 100 years from now. Sorry to take your time and I appreciate your comments, they are priceless to me, they make me think harder.
God bless you,
Best Wishes,
Mauro

harveyc

Mauro, you're the only adventurous soul I've heard of who has tried to graft a banana or any monocot, for that matter. Some people have said that chestnuts are difficult to graft and some have said they are very difficult, but I've found them to be fairly easy. So I wondered if anyone had reported success of grafts of monocots and did some searching. I found several instances where grafting of monocots to be "seldom successfuly", etc. I could not find any reliable reports of such a successful example, although I found this book excerpt which leads to me to believe there have been some authentic cases of success: Plant propagation - Google Books
Maybe you should try using Superglue in your next attempt.

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sunfish

Gabe15

I am not saying it is impossible or that you should not keep trying, I think you should keep trying.

But at the same time, it must be recognized that in order to say that the banana has been grafted, there must be a graft, but no such support has been presented. The only evidence which has been presented is easily explainable by other, rather common occurrences, and does not inherently mean a graft took place. In order to say a graft has taken place, we need to see a graft. Perhaps keep trying with some test plants (true experimentation), and then dig up the plants later and see what the corms look like. Did they really "graft"? Then show us what you find out.

Sometimes when I did tissue culture, the explants would "graft" together, but the unions were never strong, it seemed to be artificial. I even tried to make fresh cuts and push them close together, but it never worked. It does not mean it would not work in some other circumstance or by chance if you keep trying, but so far, there has been no evidence that it works.

It is one thing to say that an event could happen theoretically, but quite another to say that it actually did happen.

As someone who loves bananas very much, and a moderator of this forum, I feel I must make a note about what you are claiming you have done. You have claimed to produce a new banana plant which if it lived up to your claim, would very desirable to many people here, but you have presented no evidence that what you claim has actually happened. It is not that I am trying to discourage you, but rather that claims with such significant interest must be evaluated and discussed.

It is my opinion that all of the evidence you have presented on your experiments shows absolutely no support that grafting has taken place.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

banana13

Hello. I know this is an old thread, but i just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. i don't know if this is accurate, but i have heard that the Ae Ae banana is a case where the meristem containes two different kinds of cells, and that as the plant ggrows, each type of cell produces it's color. If that is the case, then couldn't you theoretically vrate a "blend" banana plant? not realyy a hybrid or a graft, but like the ae ae where the two different genotypes are mixed. perhaps you could do this on a microscopic scale with tissue culture, take meristem from different species and fuse it together before growing it out into a plant.

Yug

It doesn't make any sense to me, either, that there would be any exchange of genetic material resulting in a new type with different characteristics. That being said, I'd advise to continue just to see what the results are. We don't know everything (we aren't God), and who knows what knowledge may be gained in the continued pursuit. Plus, what harm does it do? (unless we get a 'nanner-Frankenstein)

Romul

1)Google about periclinal, mericlinal and sectorial chimeras.
2)What you say is the result of fusion of two cells. And the subsequent growth of the organism from the resulting cells. There are organisms from the cell fusion of carrots and onions, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. But this is a very complex and expensive process. And rarely can be obtained from such a merger growing organism.

banana13

I wasn't really talking about the fusion of cells as i was the mixing. the fusion would be the creation of one, new cell from the originals. I was talking about mixing, where the resulting organism would have two different genotypes, two different types of cells. If my understanding is correct, then this is how the AeAe works, it has two different genotypes of cells in its meristem, one normal and one albino. This makes it a mix of two different cells that grow, which is what makes it impossible to TC.