Musella Lasiocarpa
 

Hi guy's

I bought a few seeds of musella Lasiocarpa, but I heard they are difficult to sprout? I've read you have to store the seeds in a low temperature for 6 weeks and after you plant them at a temperature of 25°C
Does anyone has experience with this?????

Greetz Robi (belguim)

Re: Musella Lasiocarpa
 

Hello Robi,

How are you? - nice to hear someone else from Belgium :).
I also recently started to grow the magnificent Musella lasiocarpa. It is said that the cold period (at least 1 month) provides an acceleration to the germination process, which for the Musella takes a very long time. They seem to like very much to stay in a dormant state.

I don't have experience yet in this species but I will let you know when my 'hopefully' first seed pops out the ground :D.

Experience from others who already succeeded would be very helpful!!!!!

Greetings,
Yohan

Re: Musella Lasiocarpa
 

I have had 1 of 100 sprout. The seeds are very thick shelled, and very stubborn to germinate. The one sprouted after a few weeks in my unheated garage on a heat mat set on "on" for 24 hours a day(after being in the fridge for 2 months). I'll bet there was some temp flutuation in the garage because of the natural day/night temp fluctuations. I didn't have much experience at that point, and would chaulk that success up to luck.
These seeds are probally considered the toughest banana seed to sprout.
Most of the plants here in the US(maybe in Europe too?) are from a single tissue cultured plant, so not much genetic diversity here. It'd be cool to get some new forms from growing some from seed. Good luck with your endevour!

Re: Musella Lasiocarpa
 

this one is old two months.. i had three seeds only this one came out... and when second leaf was formed someone accidently broke her, it was hanging over the pot edge, and i just lift it and firm with bamboo stick.. and it just continue to grow =)

Re: Musella Lasiocarpa
 

i have only been able to germinate 3 seeds out 100 or so that i collected while in Asia last year. they went through about 8 weeks of cold storage and germinated at around 27C one at a time over several weeks. sowing was in a standard potting mix with extra perlite.