AllenF

Another week.

No change.

Allen

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

AllenF

Still no Change.

I will post when there is some activity.

Allen

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

MediaHound

wiki wiki
http://www.bananas.org/wiki/Musa_Velutina

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AllenF

The electric heater that I was using to bottom heat the seed failed and has been replaced today with the suns heat which varies between 32 C(90 F and 17 C(65 F) throughout the day.

There has been no other change.

Allen

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

AllenF

The seeds have been 3 1/2 months with no results. Most others including those who received seeds from the same batch have had germination in 3 months with little or no additional effort.

This particular experiment indicates that scarification, sterile media, hot water treatment and varying temperatures has no positive affect on germination.

Allen

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

Gabe15

The germination of banana seeds is very complicated and still not well understood even by professionals in the field. One aspect of germination that is known though, is that there are chemical regulators within the seeds that (under optimal conditions) dictate when the seed will germinate, these can be "set" any where from a few weeks to a few years perhaps and will vary even within the same batch of seeds collected from the same plant. You will notice this when growing lots of seeds, they will sometimes germinate in waves, with many germinating at once each time.

So what I'm trying to say is, don't give up. I know a grower who had a whole batch of M. velutina seeds come up overnight 2 years after planting.

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

AllenF

Thanks.

I'm not giving up, just ending the experiment.

I think that I will plant the seed in several containers and put them outside in the sun, keep them moist and hope for the best.

Allen

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

MediaHound

I just had a canna seed come up from over a year ago...

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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.

D_&_T

thanks Allen, as we too are trying some of Randy's seeds

Dan & Tara

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AllenF

Throughout the summer I had no germination.

Further research seems to indicate that heat in excess of 100* F will kill or damage the seeds ability to germinate.

I may have killed all of the seed on the first day.

I am participating in a second experiment with seed from Randy. I will record results here when there is anything to record.

The 2nd time is a charm, I hope.

Allen

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Chironex

So what ever happened to this experiment?

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Scot

rohsen

i did some experimenting with musa velutina seeds myself according to attached publication. The first time I sterilized the 3 month old M velutina seeds for 2 minutes in 70% ethanol, then for 45 minutes in a 10% household bleach solution. followed by 3 rinses in sterile water. Then i cracked the seeds and took out the embryos with the tip of a scalpel under a stereomicroscope.
and placed them in petridishes containing 1/2 ms medium containing 0.1 milimole of gibberelic acid (34.6 microliter per liter)

the result: severe contamination....

so the 2nd time 4 minutes in ethanol and 20% bleach for 45min, this worked fine nice little plantlets after about 2 weeks, these i used for further micropropagation experiments with varying results. for me this was a very good method to get sterile starting material.

i have attached the article.

also it was found that musa velutina seeds lose viability after about 6 months.

cheers

Dave

Attached Images

GERMINATION OF MUSA VELUTINA SEEDS.pdf (833.6 KB, 43 views)

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Robert Anton Wilson

Randy4ut

Dave, interesting read to say the least. One thing to throw into the mix, I have had several folks that received some of my seeds in the past to experiment with had them to germinate almost one year later... Go figure. Please, continue to keep us posted on your experimentations...

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rohsen

one year eh... well whatever is in these publications is never chiseled in stone. a friend plant breeder of mine tried to grow 20.000 velutina seeds only to have about 5% (!!!) germinate after about a half year. maybe the trick is in how the seeds were stored?
plants never cease to amaze me
dave

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Robert Anton Wilson

coast crab

I'm really confused by all of this effort.

Let me first say that I'm on the Gulf Coast, zone 8b, and velutina is one of the biggest weeds I've ever seen. The first year it bloomed I let it "go to seed" because I wanted to see what would happen. It was cool to watch those fat little bananas pop open and show off those seeds. I eventually cut down the old, bloomed out pstems as new ones came up. Well, for the next 2years I pulled up velutinas from all over my garden. I think the cardinals found them and scattered seeds everywhere and they ALL germinated. I have a friend a few hours away in Florida who feeds his velutinas to his parrots who consider it quite a treat.

As soon as I see the bananas begin to mature I remove that pstem and throw it in the garbage. If anyone ever wants fresh seed just let me know, its usually available from mid summer through November.

Russell

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rohsen

Russel,

I understand your confusion, let me explain, we can sell annually about 50.000 musa velutina's maybe even more... if we had them!!! we do sell about 30.000 M basjoo, and as much M sikkimensis as we can lay our hands on plantlets,
usually we buy micropropagated plantlets from different sources, but they keep letting us down. hence all the effort to do it ourselves. Our business is in the netherlands. we have a website www.floresinterra.nl its in dutch. We breed about 250 different plants and are very dependent on irregular micropropagators. this forum is very helpfull to me as it comes to bananas. People have offered to give us seeds before however at the quantities we need it becomes a bit of a problem, fresh seeds germinate no problem but we have tried 25.000 seeds last year with no result whatsoever. Its not that they cost a lot but all the effort man....phew...
We generally grow the plants until the are about 50 cm to a meter. we have a green house about 1 square km. We sell to garden centra and shops not directly to the general public.
hope to have cleared it up... any suggestions on seeds are welcome..

dave

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Robert Anton Wilson

Randy4ut

Russell,
Be thankful where you live if you love bananas. There are many folks on this forum that are not as fortunate as you are from a weather standpoint and the velutina is one of the bananas that is hardy enough for some of our more climatically challenged growers. I, for one, live in SE TN, which is a borderline 7a/b, and have grown them for about 4 years now. Love the foliage it adds to my backyard and the fruit is just a bonus.
So, with all this said, I hope you now understand what the "big deal" is with growing them... WE ARE LIMITED TO WHAT WE CAN GROW!!! LOL

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coast crab

Oh trust me, I DO understand the big deal!

And, yes, I do realize just how fortunate I am to not be climatologically challenged. The devotion shown to these plants, especially when I know just how unhappy they are in pots, amazes me. I gotta tell ya, I don't think I'd bother. Lots of other fish in the sea, if you know what I mean. Sorta like me trying to maintain a peony or hosta collection in pots and putting them in the fridge for the winter.

But my actual point was surprise that so much effort was going into velutina seeds and propagation. Again, for me, it seems like for every one seed that hit the ground about five plants came up.

Just passing along my experience - didn't intend to "dis" anyone.

Russell

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r3tic

Feel free to send any unwanted plants my way

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rohsen

i never felt "dis'ed" my friend
were all friends here...
dave

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Robert Anton Wilson