Gabe15

I mis-remembered the article but just re-read it, it said the seeds germinated at sea level but did not establish, and suckers brought down from the highlands to sea level lived only if brought into air conditioning for at least the nights.

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

Gabe15

1000-2100m with flowering seeming to be restricted to the 1000-1600m range. So I suppose seeds could germinate above 1600m, but plant vigor declined so much they could not flower.

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

Gabe15

It doesn't matter where in the world you are, when you go up in elevation it can get cold!

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

Ahava

Point well taken. Good luck to all who give it a good try.

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Banana Student For Life Live the dream ~

Raules

It will be interesting to observe growth of this plant. Very huge sizes for a grass, a unique plant.

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Tropical agriculturist

Basjoofriend

Hi,

I don't have success with seed of Musa ingens here. But I stored some seeds of Musa inges for years in my refrigerator at approx. 4°C and sent them last April to my housekeeper to Lucianópolis to Brazil. He sown them out, actually not germinated yet. But I will check them next month in Brazil. Also I ordered seeds of Musa itinerans ssp. giganteum syn. xishuangbannaensis and sent them last Monday to Helton of Frutas Raras. I sent him acuminata ssp. microcarpa Monkey Fingers, sikkimensis, sikkimensis "Red Flash", cheesmani, xishuangbannaensis, Daj Giant, Helen's Hybrid, Ensete superbum, one Ensete species from Thailand, Musa thomsonii and one another to Brazil on Monday and yesterday. He will germinate my seeds and give me the seedlings in January or February back to outplant in my yard in Lucianópolis. Are too many plants every species, then he can keep some. This solves the problem of exportation of new banana species to Brazil, Helton helps me. He also tries to get some pups of Musa basjoo. I will try to make Musa basjoo x xishuangbannaensis, one giant hardy banana and export the seed from Brazil.

If Helton do have success of germinate xishuangbannaensis, then it will be the Brazilian sensation with xishuangbannaensis in the height of 12 or more metres and very thick pseudotrunks of about 50 cm, more than "Saba" or so like.

I feel, that "Saba" is the biggest fruit banana all over the world! Although it is also one must for my yard in Brazil, but I may not import pups of "Saba" to Brazil unfortunately, there is a Brazilian law of import prohibition from 17th May 2005.

I think, Musa xishuangbannaensis and "Saba" are easier than ingens.

Best wishes
Joachim

Tropicallvr

You should have good luck with the Musa initerans sprouting as I have had great luck with them in tropical weather.
The only thing is that if I'm not mistaken, the seeds being sold as Musa initerans gigantea are actually Musa yunnaninsis which is alot smaller plant, but quite cold hardy, but would also make a great basjoo cross if possible.

Chironex

depending upon how many Ingens seeds I get, I plan to try several different methods to attempt to germinate them. Here are some of the methods I am considering:
All will begin with efforts to sterilize the seed first with bleach solution or hydrogen peroxide.

1) 2 week soak, then place them on a heat mat with fluctuating temps.
2) Soak in saliva overnight maintained at 37 degrees C., then fluctuating temps as above in #1
3) Soak in orange juice, guava, pineapple or similar acidic fruit juice, then as above (already tried Gibberellic acid soak in the past with no discernable difference in germination of other Musa seeds)
4) Was thinking of growing them directly in composted horse manure. Fresh might be more effective, but just nasty to think about. Has anyone ever thought of banana compost?
5) Pauly was suggesting alternating moist/dry/moist/dry cycles to simulate their indigenous environment.
6) Cold stratification followed by warm stratification.

Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts, hypotheses, etc. I may also look for a microclimate on a mountainside near here that maintains the right altitude and temperature range. Will mark it with a GPS.

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Scot

Chironex

Just got some Ingens seeds - about 15 are all that were available, so half are going into soil, the other half into sterile soil. Looking for them to germinate within 2 years - by then they will be in TC for $5.95 I imagine.

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Scot

pharazon

Let me know where to sign to get on the waiting list.

chong

Scot,
Have you considered soaking some of the seeds in Cape Seed Germination Primer? I have had great success with difficult seeds with it. Although, I know that there are a few in this forum that have different opinions on it.

Chong

Tropicallvr

I wish you luck! Since you have a hand in the tissue culture scene, have you considered the embryo rescue route for getting those buggers to germinate?

lt_eggbeater

Has anyone gotten any of these to grow out of it's native habitat. I don't suppose pups are available at any price?

Chironex

No one I have heard of has one growing except one of our members who has been able to grow one or two from seed. Since he/she has not announced this on the forum, it would be inappropriate for me to disclose. I have heard rumors of possible TC on them, but not confirmed.
We will just have to wait and see what develops.

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Scot

Chironex

Working on that, but as Gabe said before, most of the seeds out there have been in sopil at least once and are heavily contaminated.

I am still working on getting some fresh seed from PNG.

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Scot

Chironex

I considered doing it, but have not ordered any. I made a post about it shortly after joining here and everyone thought it wouldn't add anything significant to the germination process for banana seeds.

I might give it a go if someone has an extra sheet of it they could send. I can't see buying a whole packet of the stuff for just a few seeds one time.

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Scot

chong

PM me your mailing address. I'll send you a couple. For a few seeds, you'll only need a third of a sheet, anyway.

Chong