bigdog

Digging this old thread up again...

It's no secret that Musa seeds still remain a mystery as to how to overcome the inhibitors to germination. Joe, I have read parts of that book. We have it at the greenhouse on campus, and I like to consult it frequently for seed germination advice. Unfortunately, there is nothing on Musa in the book.

If you do a scholarly search on Musa AND germination, or Musa AND seed, you will find quite a few relevant articles on germination. I've read articles on adjusting the medium's pH (3.7 and under greatly reduces germination), pre-sowing ultrasonic exposures and water soaks (no dramtic effect), and more. One thing I found very interesting while searching today:

I was at the library today, fooling around, and found a neat article from 1994, published in Seed Science and Technology. The title is "Studies on germination and cryopreservation Musa balbisiana seed," Bhat, 1994. In the article, several tests were done with different mediums. Three of the mediums were sterile, and one used non-sterile soil. No alternating temps were used. Interestingly, the three sterile mediums produced ZERO percent germination, while the non-sterile soil produced over 20% germination. Now, 20% is still an awfully small germination percentage. However, maybe the conventional thinking of using sterile media is flawed when it comes to Musa. It was found that microbes aid in breaking down the hard seed coat of Musa seeds. The article also stated that chipping the seed coat has been proven to be helpful! This is definitely contradictory to some of the advice I've seen just on this forum (which isn't anybody's fault, I'm just making note of that). So, how about trying this with musa seeds:

I think you guys were on the right track when you were talking about placing the seeds in a rotten banana and leaving outside.

Before soaking your seeds, get a metal file, some sandpaper, or something abrasive that will take some of the outer seed coat off. You don't want to get carried away, because if you file too far it will be fatal. You could roll the seeds in a tumbler with sand also.
Go out to your garden and get some good garden soil, preferably some fluffy stuff that looks like it would have lots of microbes in it! You could mix it with some perlite/vermiculite. Fill your containers with the wetted medium, and then soak for banana seeds for about 12 hours. Sow them about the depth of the thickness of the seed, and place them on bottom heat in a cool garage or basement. Alternate the temps to 90-100F for six-8 hours, and 50-70 (whatever the temp is in your garage/basement) for the rest of the day. The reason I was thinking of the garage, is it would allow the temps to cool into the 50-60 degree range (since your house probably isn't quite that cold!), at least during the winter and early Spring months. Provide some light, but not direct sunlight, and make sure that there is a definite photoperiod of at leat 14 hours, more like 16 hours (bananas are mostly tropical species, and day length is pretty long!).

What do you think? I know I'm going to try it! The only problems I can think of with this are dormant weed seed in the non-sterile mix (big deal...pull the weeds), and whether or not the desirable microbes existed in the soil. I'm actually considering calling up the zoo and trying to obtain some fresh monkey poop! Hey...think about it. When it comes to Musa germination, you definitely have to think outside the box. Someday, somebody will find a method that will obtain better, more consistent results than is the norm today. How about YOU?!!