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Originally Posted by Gabe15
Never heard of it. Sounds kinda like snake oil to me but if you want to experiment, go for it. One thing to keep in mind would be that bananas develop the flowers way before you see them, so you would need to apply it 3-6months before you are anticipating a bunch. Bananas are not like some plants whose flower sex functionality can be changed quickly, which I think this product is targeted at. Some plants that produce hermaphrodite flowers which are either only functionally male or female can be sprayed with various concoctions to turn on the functionality of the other sex (such as an increase in male flowers which in turn yields an increase in available pollen and thus more pollinated female flowers), but this type of function is not needed in bananas since pollen flow is not an issue. My suggestion for increasing the number of female flowers would be to have the plant in the ground and begin a heavy fertilizing regiment as soon as it starts growing after planting and manage the suckers and keep them to a minimum, if you really want to push them you can remove all the suckers as soon as you see them, this has the potential to create huge bunches but you sacrifice the bunch frequency since you have to wait much longer between bunches each time, but I have heard of it being done.
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Gabe, you make some very good points about the reality of banana genetics. I also have to agree with you on the snake oil comment as far as bunch production, but than again, the product may have some benefit for reducing heavily seeded banana fruit.
The plants probably could be genetically altered in order to produce more female flowers--even with a foliar treament--however. I know it would be more substantiated if the commercial crop industry experimented with the stuff in the field, but a couple two-or-three more hands of fruit may not justify spending more time and money applying the chemicals. In other words, it would just be interesting to see what would happen, and if for nothing else, at the least it might limit seed production?
Chris in FL.