Basjoofriend

Hi,

in another thread I already wrote about the germination problem of Musa peekelii, hirta, schizocarpa, voonii, bauensis, campestris, textilis and others from Borneo and PNG, and one member has found the paper http://www.musalit.org/pdf/IN970066_en.pdf

I wrote also to Tobias Spanner from Rarepalmseeds about this problem and gave him this PDF document. He already knows this document and informed also some people about this.

We should try to solve this germination problems to get finally many seedlings from these rare banana species!

I also informed my friend Helton about this, I hope that he will not throw the pots away.

I surmise there are special conditions for these rare banana species to get them germinating. Many plant species have also special germination conditions. Many species do only germinate after one cold snap ore freeze snaps when their mother plants died by frost, other germinate only after one forest fire when their mother plants died by fire, and other do only germinate after one extreme drought season when their mother plants dried to death. Some seeds need special soils or special pH amounts. And again other seeds need to be eaten in fruits or pods by animals, the seeds leave the intestine of the animals and do germinate then. Other seeds do only germinate after soaking in water for some days or weeks.

We should find out, which conditions are in Borneo and PNG on original places of wild Musa schizocarpa, peekelii, campestris, textilis, voonii, bauensis, hirta and others, and how the seeds do germinate there in the wild. This might be the key!!!

Best wishes
Joachim

Gabe15

Often times they germinate readily with embryo rescue tissue culture, and a home lab can be set fairly inexpensively.

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

Basjoofriend

Hi Gabe15,

this might be, but not all have this possiblity. Are also there alternatives which are also successfully? Helton, my Brazilian friend, does not have this possiblity and I am actually only 4 to 5 months per year in Brazil.

But also one question to you. Did you germinate seeds from Musa peekelii, schizocarpa, voonii, bauensis, hirta and others from Borneo and PNG successfully?

Best wishes
Joachim

jmoore

I'm up for a challenge!

Has Toby germinated any of these seeds himself? I wouldn't be too impressed if he's selling seeds he hasn't germinated himself.

Marku Harkinnen is the man who discovered these species, he would be the best person to speak to about the conditions in which they grow.

Basjoofriend

No, Tobias did not germinate the seeds, but he knows this paper. You are right , Markku Häkkinen is the best person to ask him how to break the dormancy of the seeds, he should answer here in this thread! I will request him by PN. We are interesting how to break the dormancy to get finally the seedlings and plants of these rare and very new banana species to self grow in our yards and greenhouses.

I also wrote him one email recently about this, some hours ago, but he should see this thread and post here for us all. I know that here are many members who already sown these species without success. He might help us.

Best wishes
Joachim

2woodensticks

do any of you try scaring or nicking????i have seen where people place hard to germ. exotic seeds..in a pile of dung..i did use this method to get some stubborn coffee seeds to germ. with some varying degrees of success..i used rabbit, packed in a plastic cup.got 4 out of 12...just putting it out there

__________________
got to love em..{neotropical rattlesnake..cascabell}

Basjoofriend

Hi,

did you also try to germinate the very stubborn banana seeds from Borneo and PNG by this method with success?

But it might be one try. At first I wait for one reply from Markku Häkkinen, it is so important to know the situation at the native places of these new and rare bananas which Häkkinen has discovered.

Best wishes
Joachim

sunfish

I believe seed from Papua New Guinea germinate the same way as seed from Burbank, California .All this special treatment of seed has been discussed for years.Search the internet and you can find 1001 different ways people believe they have found to get seed to germinate.

Basjoofriend

Hi,

now has Markku Häkkinen answered my question quickly!

The seeds are in dormant.

Normally in Borneo seeds are going in to dormant when they are dispersed. Open exposure (sun) is breaking dormancy. Also a sifting culture (slash and burnt) is doing the same. Markku has seen recently logged primary forest which are full of Musa seedlings due to open exposure. This means that seeds has been in dormant ground for decades. The same happens after burning.

He proposes that we should put the seeds under open exposure to ground and just cover them slightly.

I think, it might also be valid for Papua New Guinea, the conditions are the same.

Markku has therefore the key!!!

Best wishes
Joachim

jmoore

That's great that he's answered.

This open exposure could take years and it would only work in equatorial/tropical countries where the sun is the strongest. Which is a bit of a downside.

Didn't you say that Helston had tried these seeds without success, where does he germinate his seeds?

Maybe some kind of UV lamp treatment.

Basjoofriend

Hi,

I was also in the nursery of Helton on 22nd Oct., too much shadow. Only normal bananas from the Himalayans, India and Thailand germinated. E. g. Musa laterita, beccarii, microcarpa, sikkimensis, thomsonii, formosana, balbisiana, thomsonii, yunnanensis, mannii and itinerans did germinate and the most of them are now already fruiting and formed large plants.

Now I translated the email from Markku Häkkinen to Portuguese for Helton and forwarded it to Helton and informed him, that he may not throw the seeds away, but he should change the conditions for the seeds after reading the email from Häkkinen.

I hope the email from Häkkinen will help Helton and also many of the members who did not have success in the past.

Best wishes
Joachim

bengtang

This paper recommends chipping and 9 alternating cycles of warm and cool temperatures (12-18C for12 hrs, 35C for 12 hrs)
http://www.ogtr.gov.au/internet/ogtr/publishing.nsf/content/banana-3/$FILE/biologybanana08.pdf

Very interesting article on how to germinate seeds and dormancy
http://www.musalit.org/pdf/IN970066_en.pdf