austinl01

I recently discovered that my musella lasiocarpa produced seeds so I wanted to offer them to you all on the board. When the multiple flowers appeared, I hand pollinated them. Being an amateur, I didn't know if I actually pollinated them correctly. Later in the fall, I pulled off a couple little brown bananas under the flower petals. They didn't have any seeds. I decided to check one more time last week, and I found the small, almost dried bananas did indeed have seeds! They are very shiny black and plump. A few of the bananas actually opened up exposing the seeds.

I have the m. lasiocarpa outside mulched well with leaves. Our low has been 17 degrees this year, but the seeds and plant were warmer with the mulch. I'd estimate in the mid 20's. These seeds have been cold stratified naturally outside and should be ready to germinate. I just started some seeds on a heat mat last week. No sprouts yet, of course.

If you'd like to give some rare musella lasiocarpa seeds a try, please send me a message. I have a limited number of seeds so first come, first serve. I plan to send about 10 seeds to people who want them. They are from the plant below. It's pretty rare to have a total of 7 flowers on one musella plant so maybe there's something special about this one. (The 7th bloom is on the other side of the plant which is not in the picture.) I've looked all over the internet and couldn't find a musella with more than two flowers.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

jellyfish_sky

Wow! I'd love to have some! If you still have some... How old are your lasiocarpa? It's quite amazing to see so many flowers!

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Celine

Bananaddiction~!

D_&_T

Austin we would be interest in a them, would be a nice addition to our small collection

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austinl01

JellyfishSky and D&T, you two are the first on the list! Just PM me your address, and I'll mail them out.

My musella was bought from Triple Oaks in New Jersey as a 5 gallon plant in 2006. I grew it for a year in a large pot and planted it in the ground Spring 2007. In November 2006, I noticed the potted plant kept getting smaller and smaller leaves and that the top of the pseudostem was swelling. I let it go dormant in the garage for that winter. Then in Spring 2007, I planted it in the ground, and she rewarded me with all these blooms. Maybe it was stressed in the pot that forced it to produce so many flowers. I just hope it is a genetic trait of this individual plant. I guess time will tell! I'll keep you all posted.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Taylor

Hey Austin,
If they are easy to grow, I'd like 5 or 10 with my palms in March. Will pay appropriately.

Taylor

Taylor

*Grow from seed*

CookieCows

Austin they are beautiful!! I'm afraid of my inexperience with tropicals so figure I'll wait for your next batch and by then I'll be a confident grower! I looked at your website though and will be contacting you to buy some of your windmill palms though!

Deb

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magicgreen

Austin, if you have any seeds left, i like to try too!

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

Randy4ut

Austin,
Got mine potted up and in a greenhouse. I will keep you updated.... Just got back from my friends and got all my seeds potted up that I have received. Over 8-10 flats of a variety of plants along with quite a few community pots started... COME ON SPRING!!!!

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D_&_T

all need to do when get seeds is to soak them and plant?
around what temp do we need to keep them or does it need to vary?

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Randy4ut

Dan and Tara,
This is my first time at them, so I really cannot say. I did soak mine for a little over a day and potted them up and in a greenhouse that will flucuate temps from about 50 to 75-80. I am just as interested to see as you are. I will post if and when I see anything....

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austinl01

Randy: Thanks for keeping me updated. I hope we can get some to germinate quickly since these are very fresh seeds.

I've never grown this banana from seed before so I have no idea how to germinate it. I imagine it would be similar to other bananas. I think I've read somewhere that this banana may be hard to germinate and that it could take a while. The seeds are as fresh as they get so maybe it will be easy!

Here is what others say from Rarepalmseeds.com:

Seeds from this species ...

...very easy to germinate and need up to 3 months to sprout.
I bought 100 Musella Lasiocarpa seeds and put 50 in a baggie with well draining soilless mix and 20%sand added. I prepared the mixture with a little water to be just moist. I kept them at 90 to 95 deg.F. Germination started in 6 weeks. Received 24 seedlings within 2 months. The other 50 were placed in another baggie with the same mix but stored in the refrigerater for 6 weeks. When I took themout I kept them at 90 to 97 deg. F. the firstones started growing in 2 weeks I was so impressed that I finally had results after many previously failed attempts. The trick seems to be High heat and keeping the medium rather dry. It also seems to be abenefit to cold stratify, but that may not be necessary. I will be trying a second batch of 100 in the same way to see if the results are consistent.
Submitted on 06/06/2005 by Chris Wolfe wolfecbr@mail.ocis.net

...easy to germinate and need up to 1 month to sprout.
100 seeds soaked in water with 300 ppm gibberelenic acid (06.03.05). 1 day warm 2 days at 4°C. Seeded low under surface and stored 14 days at 4°C. After 14 days kept warmth an sunny (35°C). Germination partly occur after 26 days (02.04.05).
Submitted on 10/04/2005 by Michael Nippgen VetMed-M.Nippgen@t-online.de

...difficult to germinate and need up to 3 months to sprout.
I've placed 6 seeds in a container with humus rich soil. The container was in my fridge for about 6 weeks. After that i've placed the container in a propagator at 25 Celsius. After 2 weeks 2 germinted and started to grow fast, the 4 others are still there...
Submitted on 25/01/2005 by filip hermans filip_hermans@yahoo.com

...easy to germinate and need up to 3 months to sprout.
Placed four seeds covered and moist in the fridge for 5 weeks. After taking the seeds out of the fridge, one seed took two weeks to grow to about 5 centimeters size. (I was away during this period so can't tell the exact germination time).Waiting for the other three
Submitted on 19/09/2003 by bram brbrbr@zonnet.nl

...difficult to germinate and need up to 3 months to sprout.
I've had a very hard time trying to get this seed to germinate i'm wondring if its possible
Submitted on 21/02/2003 by Elaine Terry elaineterry@ns.sympatico.ca

...difficult to germinate and need up to 6 months to sprout.
Very tricky to germinate. Make sure to first give them at least a month of cool temps before trying to germinate them. I put mine in plastic bags full of moist vermiculite, and placed them in the fridge for a little over a month. Then I took the seeds out and placed them on a heating pad. They've now been on the pad for over 2 1/2 months, making the total time to date around 3 to 4 months. They are currently being kept at about 30 degrees clesius, constantly. They are not the easiest seeds to germinate but are well worth the effort. Beautiful flowers if you can get them to grow, well worth the effort.
Submitted on 03/03/2003 by Paul Chafe p_chafe@hotmail.com

...very difficult to germinate and need up to 3 months to sprout.
I didn't have any luck with these seeds. They just rotted away, so I must have overwatered them or had bad seeds to begin with. I am trying a second batch to see if I have better luck.
Submitted on 11/12/2002 by Leslie Price skinnychick2@yahoo.com

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Taylor

Austin,
Results seem kind of mixed across the board, eh?

austinl01

Taylor: I don't know what to think about germinating the seeds. Some say easy, others say hard. I guess you don't know until you try for yourself!

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Randy4ut

Austin,
They should have already gone through some cold stratification, don't you think since they were outside at your place before you found them? Like you said, though, we won't know until we try. Let me know how you are going to try yours out....

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austinl01

Randy,

They have been through cold statification all winter until a few weeks ago. It has been 17 degrees on a couple nights this winter for the absolute low. The bananas were mulched so I estimate the seeds to have experienced temps in the low to mid-20's. The old flower petals added additional insulation.

I soaked mine for three days, changing the water daily. Then, I put them in a moist paper towel inside a sandwich bag. They are sitting on a heat mat right now.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

jellyfish_sky

Hm... I have some GA... I'm going to try that with maybe half of your seeds Austin. Can't wait to try!

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Celine

Bananaddiction~!

austinl01

Friends,

I mailed your banana seeds today. They should arrive in a few days, hopefully by this
weekend for you guys that live close.

Cheers,
Austin

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

D_&_T

Thanks for the info, we will let you know when we get them!!

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AllenF

Austin; Thanks. I'll let you know when they get here. It could be a while as Canada Post has been taking a month to clear mail coming across the border.

Jellyfish; Where did you get the GA? Everywhere that I ask, they look at me with a blank look.

Allen

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You don't have to be crazy to grow Bananas in Alberta, but it helps