Re: germination guide
 

Thanks for posting the video Erlend,I'm expecting some itinerans'india form' and a few others any day now so will follow your instructions to the letter.
In the past I've only ever soaked seed for a couple of days,I never would've thought to soak them for as long as a fortnight.Hopefully I'll have better success now.

Re: germination guide
 

Tried clicking on the link and nothing would come up. I searched for it (several different ways). So if anyone else gets that problem just search for "Germinating banana seeds," the title of the video.

Re: germination guide
 

Thanks for the awsome video Erlend! Definately learned a lot!

Re: germination guide
 

Here it is in the page, I used "YT" tags to embed it.
Thank you very much for creating this, I sent you a message on YouTube as well.

[yt]8bU6wley2HM[/yt]


Also, Erland, perhaps you can reupload this video as it was removed:
http://www.bananas.org/f9/little-tri...here-1575.html

Thanks again! You did a wonderful job producing the video and thank you for the plug of Bananas.org in it. I've subscribed to your YT videos, btw.

:discocrazed:

Re: germination guide
 

Thanks for the praise Jarred!

Youtube can be risky business!

Concerning the other video; I did get some complaints, so not wanting any trouble I removed it. Tribute or not, people who don't want to appear on youtube have the right not to! :-)
So to me, about that video beeing removed is no big deal, as long everyone is happy!

I do enjoy making videos though, so pretty soon there will be more! But I will be prepared to ask people beforehand about any pictures etc.

Cheers
Erlend

Re: germination guide
 

I've been sterilizing my seeds this year with a 1t/1gal physan 20/water ratio. So far everythings been coming up really good and I've only lost ONE seedling to damping off. And I know I've got thousands up right now.
I've never had such a good success rate.
I also sterilize my flats/containers/domes with a quick dip of 1T Physan 20/1gallon of water.

Re: germination guide
 

I was reading about the physan20 and I can't use it because of the toxicity. My questions is.... was there something that you tried in the past that definitly did not work? Hoping to avoid pitfalls!

Deb

Re: germination guide
 

Erland would you mind if I posted your video on HTUK please ?

There are always questions being asked on how to germinate banana seeds
and your vid is the best I have seen at explaining it so that newcommers can understand it.


Mark

Re: germination guide
 

Erland thanks for the video...kewl..
I get a little quicker germination when I take my rotary dremel and grind the seed just to the edge of the inside and I use this on all my hard shelled seed then i use a peroxide solution to soak all my seed...1 oz of peroxide to 1 pint of water... I have had great success and good germination doing this..
Thanks again for the video...great job...
Peggy

Re: germination guide
 

I'd feel nothing but honored! :-)

Erlend

Re: germination guide
 

I used to think that scarifying was a good method, and it may work for some thick shelled Ensete species, but it also has lead to rot in many of my attempts.
If you take a look at some of the close up pictures Gabe has posted of Musa seeds cross cut, it shows how the embroyos are positioned right at the opening of the seed already. The opening is just a thin membrane that from the outside looks like a belly button on the seed.

Re: germination guide
 

Ok maybe this is a dumb question so forgive me before hand. This is my first time trying to germinate banana seeds and in general I have followed most of the great suggestions in this forum. But I don't understand why you would want to transplant the seedlings so soon after germinnation? Wouldn't it work to use some sort of biodegradeable container to put your sterile starter in? Then a person could just put the container in a larger pot, when the time comes? It would seem to me that a person would not damage the seedlings roots so much. Any thoughts?

Re: germination guide
 

Hi Donny,

The issue with that is the peat pots arn't sterile... and when you enclose them inside an apparatus in the dark with heat, they're going to grow fungus like CRAZY and that could take over your seeds... plus you wouldn't want more than one seed in one of those pots to germinate in if you're planning to just take that and directly plant it with those pots. I use small 9 oz. plastic cups and plant between 5-20 seeds in each, and the replant them into the peat pots and into a ziplock once they germinate and from there put outside in the shade (I live in zone 10 so it's in the 80's here now). Hope this helps.

Josh

Re: germination guide
 

it doesn't seem to hurt them any to transplant them right away. They act like they don't know they've been moved if you do it carefully.

Re: germination guide
 

Thank you mrbungalow for your thread,

Some of us could not view your film, but the comments and informationals it stirred up were extremely helpful. I hail from a diease pressure area and found your information of great help.

Thank you for your thread and everyone for their additions.

zone 10 Fla (FL):jalapenonaner:

Re: germination guide
 

Does anyone ascribe to the smoke treatment advertised on ebay for increasing musa germination rates and decreasing time?

Re: germination guide
 

What exactly are they saying to do?

Re: germination guide
 

Here is the link to the page on eBay. It sounds interesting, so I am thinking of trying it.

Propagation Smoke Treatment Essential 4 Some Oz Natives - eBay (item 360030459662 end time May-05-08 03:09:09 PDT)

Would like to know what you think of this. Anyone ever try it?

:2756:

Re: germination guide
 

I would say that'd be a very bad idea. This is just a general propagation method for seeds that REQUIRE to be fired to germinate... for example pine tree; the pine cone must be burnt to release the seeds. Notice that this method is only advertised for Australian native plant seeds that require this method. Bananas do not require this (unless there's a special seed that does, but that'd probably only one type of species or variety).

Re: germination guide
 

It might work for some of the savanah African Ensete species. Just a thought, some of them have some weird germinateing requirements, like the one that only sprouts out of ant hills after being carried to the colony.