PaulOdin

It would be nice to get some artocles in the empty article section, and one of your posted mentioned a grant that paid for your lighting system. When I get grants people always expect me to write something to show how much I got out of the grant. I'd also like to hear more details about your hybridization projects, if they have had time to "bear fruit'.
Mediahound, what do you plan ti have in that section? Collecting trips? Mad scientists with gamma ray guns? Most of my articles are about fish genetics, but I'm new to plants, much less bananas.

Gabe15

I do write papers. I have written them for my grants however they are not that interesting or informative, I had to explain very basic things to people who didnt know anything about plants. However I just wrote a paper for another project I am doing, its a background on bananas with some other stuff mixed in. You can find it here....
http://spectresjungle.com/forums/ind...showtopic=5781

I'll probly be writting more in the future, Im going to be writting some articles for a new web-zine on tropical gardening, so there is deffinetly more to come.

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

PaulOdin

I was able to see your pictures, but could't access the article.

MediaHound

I plan for the article section to fill up with interesting articles about bananas. We're still in phase one of the site, so a lot of things are being installed, tested, and refined. It'll flesh out as it will, so to speak.

For those reading that may not be familiar with the article section, it's located at the following URL: http://www.bananas.org/articles Check it out.

I'm looking into some more features for the article area that may come to shape soon. Just know that the site we have here is certainly not finished taking shape. So far, we have the forum, a photo gallery, and an article system.

Anyhow, looking back, it's been a great few months. We've grown steadily by work of mouth, and a few links here and there. A lot of friendships have been forged, lots of plants have changed hands, and a TON of useful information has started to build up. We even have a first run of T-shirts, with a new design in the works!
Bananas.org T-shirts
New Bananas.org T-shirt Designs

Give yourselves a round of - bananas!

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

Gabe15

Sorry about the wait, but im finally back at home where i can repost the article here. i cant figure out the article system here, so for the time being i'll just attach it.

enjoy and if ya got any questions please dont hesitate to ask.

Attached Files

SRSIntro.doc (27.5 KB, 30 views)

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

PaulOdin

That was fun to read I hope you will let us see what you have to say when you do more technical papers. My main reason to be on this forum is to learn more about bananas, and your posts make it sound like you could do a gene pool or hybridization paper we would all appreciate.

Tropicallvr

Great article Gabe! I'd be nice if someone finally did a really good book on Musa, and Ensete species. I think you have the talent/knowledge.
You mentioned something about doing tissue culture/invitro with seeds. Do you think it is possible with a starchy type seed like Musa? I wouldn't doubt it because I have heard it is done with bamboo seed, and other types of seed.
Here's a pic of Ensete 'Kluay Pa' seed cut in half. I have had no luck with these, and there seems to be a weird red jelly substance that is seperated from the white starch, but still inside the seed. Maybe they need to intermix to germinate?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...r/Ekluaypa.jpg

Nice article about Ae Ae propigation in that section too!

Gabe15

in vitro germination of banana seeds is a common practice and is used quite often with very good results. my study however was aimed and developing a new method which may help germinate seeds that have not been successful with the normal method, the main species I had in mind was Musa ingens which has not been successfully germinated in vitro with conventional methods.

There are actually some very good books on Musa, however they are quite expensive. But "Bananas" and "The Evolution of Bananas", both by N.W. Simmonds are 2 excellent books and are still valid sources.

in addition Markku Hakkinen is currently writting a fully illustrated book on the bananas of Borneo, both wild and edible.

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

Gabe15

kyle,
the red stuff you see is the chalaza, basically leftovers from when the embryo was fromed, it does not play a role in seed germination.

the white stuff you see (the starchy stuff) is called the endosperm, it contains sugars and other nutrients which are vital to germination. the conventional in vitro germination method isolates the endosperm from the embryo when introduced into the culture medium, however my new method keeps all the endosperm available to the embryo.

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

Tropicallvr

That's exactly what I was wondering. That red stuff got me wondering. So basically you're going to use some of the shell and the inner starch to do invitro?
I have saved a couple seeds for you and I still want to trade if you're interested. I've have the M."bhutan' on a heat mat in the window and it's kicking,(but it seems just a medium grower as far as growth), and I have some M.balbisiana, but weather more than one Musa nagesium survived is questionable(really tortured my overgrown 2 inch pots). As soon as your start is ready let me know.
Are the books from Simmonds over 100 bucks? Seems like I saw some used that were like 150 bucks, but that might have been a different author.