How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

:woohoonaner:

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

Who is the grower, and have you purchased from them before?
Glad to see they're hanging in there and thriving!
Thanks,
Paul

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

Supplier is USDA ars - grin I believe. The PO made them what the are later on arrival. I can't get them - I'm not a commercial grower.

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

Germplasm are much weaker than anything most people will order from WellSprings or the like.. Best thing is to keep them in semi-shade for 2 weeks and don't get them full sun till they are 18" or so for most of the south as it warms up or they will get fried especially come summer. :^)

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

In the Tropics germplasm are actually very strong, all of the plantlets survived and a few produced sister shoots. Being prepared and having confidence in your ability sure helps. The people who have problems are generally adding too much crap too early, like fish emulsion, azomite, mycorrhizae, and fertilizer. If spending more money will help the plant grow then simply buy a jewel encrusted Tiffany spray bottle.

I chose to set the sleeves so that the germplasm received full morning sun from the very first day and waited about 10 to 12 days before removing the sleeves completely. By hardening the plants more quickly they can grow faster by using the full sun.

This photo was posted on Feb-15, it is of a fully hardened Tigua :ha: height 0.18".

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

That is a benefit of being in Banana Heaven.. :^)

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

It generally takes 4 to 5 weeks for plantlets that are removed from culture vessels to reach this size, after the initial hardening process (acclimatization) they will be transferred to a greenhouse.


They will need a secondary hardening process for two months in a greenhouse before they can be planted in the field.
__________________

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

That's about the size I've gotten from Well Springs garden, maybe slightly bigger but not much.. :^)

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

Do they give you instructions on how to take care of them? :waving:

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

I meant instructions from wellspring gardens do they send you instructions with the plants.

:2738: I've read technical papers on the subject saying it would take three weeks or more.
Your technique of two weeks for hardening is impressive.:08:

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

They don't say which cultivar

Preparing Tissue-Cultured Banana Plantlets for Field Planting - pdf

http://www.cialca.org/files/files/extension_materials/tissue-culture_english.pdf

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

That's right.. Mine should be big enough to flourish this year.. :^)

@ Keith We know how you ( a professional banana grower grows), but you have to factor in people that have no experience growing banana's, and will just buy dirt thinking its all the same, which isn't so.. water crystals or water retainers in soil is one way to kill any banana quick up here, and certainly anywhere North of where I am.

Re: How to care for tissue cultures or young plants.
 

I put the plants from GRIN underneath a bench that gets misted for about 2 weeks and then I place them on top of the bench.

For agristarts bananas, I put them in partial shade in a wind-protected location for 2 weeks and then move them out.