PaulM

If only one pseudostem in a clump of musa flowers, will any seed be set (accepting those varieties that can't set seed, of course)? Does there need to another flowering stem that overlaps?

This is in relation to a new musa being offered by rarepalmseeds - Musa sp. Helen. They suggest it could be a cold hardy edible variety, albeit full of seed. But need this be necessarily so? Could it not fruit without setting any seed? My basjoos do. Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

Gabe15

The majority of wild bananas will set seed only if pollinated, for a full bunch of seeded fruit another source of pollen needs to be present as well as pollinators, or you can do it by hand, but you can also usually manage to pollinate the last hand or two of female flowers with the first hand of pollen from the male flowers, its best to do this in the morning right as the flowers open up, the ones you pollinate will then set seed. There are a few self pollinating banana species such as Musa velutina, monticola, mannii, ingens, boman, sanguinea and Musella lasiocarpa as well as Musella splendida.

On the topic of this new 'Helen' banana, it is hard to tell at this point weather it is parthenocarpic or not, if it is, then if it does not get pollinated then it may set seedless fruit but there still is the possibility that even if it is parthenocarpic, seed can still be set if pollen is present. However, it sounds like that if its a hybrid between an edible and a wild species that perhaps the seed will not be consistant, but I guess if they have enough to supply a market then it would tend to be very seedy when pollinated.

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

PaulM

Thanks for that, Gabe. I'm wondering if this new variety could be candidate as an edible, cold hardy plant - providing it's not pollinated and the fruit becomes full of seed.

I'm in the UK and wondering about its potential as an eating musa.