varig8

Anyone ever heard of any of these bananas?
Some of them look awesome............I wonder if the seed are fresh and viable...........

BANANA - Musa Sakaiana 10 seeds - eBay (item 380256276359 end time Jan-29-11 20:39:35 PST)
BANANA - Musa Schizocarpa (Self Splitting) 5 seeds - eBay (item 360298534929 end time Feb-05-11 02:14:26 PST)
BANANA - Musa voonii 5 seeds - eBay (item 360313527065 end time Jan-23-11 0548 PST)
BANANA - Musa Muluensis 5 seeds - eBay (item 380257700358 end time Feb-04-11 07:32:50 PST)
BANANA - Musa Bauensis 5 seeds - eBay (item 380305013260 end time Jan-11-11 14:52:15 PST)
BANANA - Musa campestris var miriensis 5 seeds - eBay (item 360293020786 end time Jan-20-11 06:16:14 PST)
BANANA - Musa campestris v. limbangensis (dark) 5 seeds - eBay (item 380257200491 end time Feb-02-11 08:45:21 PST)
BANANA - Musa Hirta 5 seeds - eBay (item 380257212516 end time Feb-02-11 09:26:00 PST)
BANANA - Musa campestris v. limbangensis (light) 5 seed - eBay (item 360287750116 end time Feb-01-11 1608 PST)

mango_kush

I troll ebay for naners too and come across these. the one I really want is the Thai rock banana, Ensete Superbum, but I can never germinate musa seeds.

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Gabe15

They are all valid published species, generally new to the hobby market, some of them newer to science, but some have been known for awhile and just not available before.

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

varig8

Hey Mango Kush;
Try scoring the seed next time and then soak in Superthrive for a few hours. Every viable banana seed Ive sprouted has germinated within 2 weeks time using this method.

griphuz

If I'm not mistaking these are all species that Rarepalmseeds has put on the market last year. Just some guy who puts them on eBay now,....

Kind regards,
Remko.

Gabe15

Did you soak them in pure superthrive, or a diluted solution?

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

varig8

Diluted as per the instructions on the bottle for 'seed treatment'.

varig8

Here's another cool looking one I found-anyone have a lead to seed or corm? Musa Lawitiensis

Attached Images

Musa lawitiensis01a.jpg (112.7 KB, 23 views)

varig8

Well, Im sure it has been over 6 months now, and all of the musa seed I purchased from rarepalmseeds was planted. I purchased almost all of the species mentioned at the beginning of this thread. Half of the seed I scored and soaked, half I just soaked. To date, not one seed has germinated. Will just leave the tray of them where they are and hopefully one day some will germinate. I also bought seed of the variegated Caryota Mitis and none of those have germinated either. I dont believe this is a good source for FRESH seed.

nannerfunboi

i too have tried this guys seed.. none have..as yet..germinated..
sigh..but im hopeless..i'll keep trying.. anything for something really
new..exciting..different..
i read earlier posts on M.ingens.. and M.boman..
? anyone ever run into a source of "fresh" seed on these ???
i havent tried the superthrive method..
maybe that'll be one of the many growing winter projects
get some more seed..
yea..

sunfish

nannerfunboi

good info sunfish!!
thanks..

jmoore

Hi I'd like to give my two cents on this issue. i would like to say that I haven't had any success with these new species of banana either, however I have only tried small quantities (mainly because they are so expensive, anyway that aside).

I have read in a previous post that Musa Lawitiensis seems to be problemtic and not even freshly harvested seed by Marku Hakkinen have germinted so I think there are other issues at work there. I believe that Campestris germinates readily when fresh

We have to remember that these seeds come from Borneo, an island where species have evolved their own strategies for reproducing in isolation from other species of banana, all the other seeds we're used to come from India, China, Thailand etc which aren't isolated and there seems to be an accepted way of germinating them (although this seems to vary wildly) and they do germinate. It maybe that we haven't found a way of cracking their dormancy, maybe they need other treatments to break the dormancy. They are new seeds.

Musa Ingens has been spoken about at great lengths in other posts and I believe that Gabe has done some research into this and this seed seems to have a symbiotic relationship with a certain type of fungi, but this isn't definate. All seed sellers have taken this off the market now.

I do have issues with RPS I think the minimum order charge is excessive and selling seeds in packs of 10 at massive cost is silly, but I've had no problems with them.

Gabe15

Musa ingens has an endophytic fungi within the seed, and it cannot even easily be put into embryo rescue because of this. In the 1980's, it was collected and attempted to be put into the international genebank, but it was too difficult to keep the tissue cultures alive as there were many contamination issues and they also just didn't grow very well. It is still alive and well in the wild, but it is unlikely it will ever be commercially available. It is just in too remote of an area and too difficult to cultivate.

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

flounder

sorry but my two cents worth is in sterling!
used rps number of times, mainly palm seed but numerous banana types as well.
Not had any real issues, as long as you remember you won't get 100% germination with nanas...................if you aim for 30% and get 20%, be happy.
They are a good source for different types though

varig8

Some info on Ingens; about 25 yrs ago there was one planted in Disney World along one of the 'rivers' which ran to the right and down over the hill of a restaurant on the premises which was made entirely of glass like the old Victorian greenhouses. I cant remember the name of it, but think it is still there. Crystal something-or-other I think. Anyway this banana tree grew almost to the top of the bridge where you can look down on the river. Thats a good 40-50 feet. If it wasnt Ingens, I havent a clue as to what it was. I did have a look there about 10 years ago and it was no longer there.
As for the banana seed from Rarepalm, Ive ordered from them twice, a mix of the rare type bananas, and some palms. To date nothing has sprouted, Ive been an avid horticulturist for decades, and I know how to germinate most seed, including Musa, and have had them germinate in the past. I know that some varieties take months or even years for some species. I guess my point is this; the company says they do test trials with the viability of the seed they sell from the lots they collect and then sell. Come on really? Id really be very interested in knowing the percentage of seed they have gotten to germinate from any of the Musa types listed above. I just dont think they are viable by the time they reach the customer from the actual time they were collected. Several other growers/friends have ordered these types as well with a zero % rate of germination. I read the posts on Garden Web and find it interesting that the company has only 8 employees. Common sense would tell you , hire more people! At least one, especially for Customer service issues. Maybe date the seed by collection date and then run tests on viability every 6 months or so and then discard old seed instead of sitting on them and selling out-of-date seed which is no longer viable. Truth be told, I just want these bananas! Seed or plants, makes no difference to me, just make them available!
Oh, Gabe, I didnt quite understand the point about the Ingens not being viable for growing anywhere but there, or germinating because it comes from some place remote...........If the Borneans were looking for the bananas in my back yard, they would be just as remote for them! I understand that Ingens is a cool mountain Banana, so are many others? I would think that they could be grown elsewhere also. I did find a source online for the seed, direct from a Travel agent in Borneo. I think that the minimum order was prohibitive though, at least for me.

Tropic-Al

Does anyone know where I can find information on the Dwarf Musa cultivar- 'Truly Tiny'? It is being advertised online as "The world's smallest banana tree", with edible bananas. It is also described as a miniature 'Dwarf Cavendish' banana.

Reminosys

'Truly Tiny' is a cultivar in the Cavendish subgroup (AAA genome). It's one of many names given to the 'Super Dwarf Cavendish' archetype as a marketing gimmick, alongside 'Tropicana', 'Little Prince', 'Novak', etc. Each of those names might refer to different instances of mutation from a parent variety, but there's already a lot of renaming banana cultivars in general. Definitely among the smallest that are able to produce edible fruit, supposedly maxes out at 3-4 feet. Any fruit from it should be similar to the generic grocery store type.

As a side note, it's usually better to start new threads than resurrecting ones that have been dead for years. Just keeps things simpler.

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Aspiring botanist | Trash horticulturist