Christian

Hello

I believe most of you have heared of me by now. I am Christian from Bananaswap. In the past I managed to get Musa ingens seeds from Papua New Guinea, and I am one of the few lucky ones with Musa ingens in cultivation.

Seeing this thread about paying people abroad (and particularly by creadit cards), I could not but share my own experiences with you.

I got two batches of seeds from somebody I contacted in PNG. Things where very complicated to work out, and the second time there were things not quite right neither - like there were different banana seeds in the pack, but that person would still claim they are Musa ingens. I am not complaining too much about this part of the transaction yet. What really killed it all was what happened after that. I got together with a friend of mine to buy some common palm seeds from PNG. Those seeds were rarely available here, so we thought it is a good idea. This time, because my friend was commercially involved, the order total was far higher. My friend transfered the money per international bank transfer, and then we nevere saw any seeds! So you see that even people who might seem to co-operate with you a couple of times without problems still might take advantage of you at a later stage. That is certainly a lesson learned for me. My friend lost in the magnitude of $1000 without any way of recovering them. I got away lightly, as I only wanted a few seeds for myself. I still feel guilty about my friend's losses, as I still think it was 'my' contact, and it was me who got him involved in the 'deal'.

I would also like to say a few words about obtaining Musa ingens. I have noticed many people being very very interested in this plant, and this makes me happy as I do love this plant a lot myself. Unfortunatley the germiantion rate from the seeds which many of you have been trying has been devastatingly low - this is very true for myself as well. I can tell you that it is not due to lack of freshness, as I know when the seeds have been harvested and shipped. It is also not due to lack of viability, as cut-tests on the seeds revealed life embryo and existing endosperm. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that M. ingens seeds are either germinating only after long periods of dormancy, or nobody so far has managed to find the correct conditions to make them sprout.

Obviously, because there is such a great interest in this plant, people are trying to obtain seeds and plants from various 'sources', like me in the past. I know the difficulties, time and financial risks involved in this. So I would like to let you know that a specific commercial organisation intends to make Musa ingens plants available in the future. The only thing needed from your side is some patience, as it will be a few more months. The only reason why I am mentioning this here is to hopefully prevent some anxiety and possible financial loss for people who are trying to obtain this plant through ‘uncertain’ channels.

I hope this helps.
Christian