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Gabe15 · 12-08-2007, 10:21 PM

I don't think there is any conflict between growing from seed and tissue culture (really micropropagation is more percise, tissue culture is a broad term that can still apply to growing from seed, but for our reasons TC is fine and understood). The main use of micropropagation/TC of banana is to provide cheap, disease-free, uniform planting material to farmers. It is of course a popular technology now in horticulture because you can produce many plants at a very cheap cost.

Since this topic is geared toward seed vs. TC, it applies to those bananas which can be grown from seed, wild species only (edible bananas for our reasons I don't feel apply). TC in this case actually (in my view) preserves biodiversity, there have been many instances (not only in banana, but in many other plants as well) where TC is the only reason the wild plant is still in existence today, you can turn one of very few remaining plants into thousands of a given species.

The way TC is used differs between the researching community and the business community, and they really do not need to follow the same trends. Researchers are actively collecting and growing plants from seed and preserving the diversity found with TC. Although a business is just multiplying the one specific variety they prefer, this has no impact on the conservation of bananas (or any plants). It is not like if Agri-Starts is not selling a species of banana, the international genebank (at INIBAP) will not have it, the genebanks do not care what is being sold where to consumers, they collect everything and have more diversity then will ever be offered commercially.

Now for the homegrower, it really doesn't matter, you don't have to feel bad about buying TC'd plants instead of growing from seed, its all about personal preference. I myself enjoy growing bananas from seed, its fun and I agree that is feels good to grow things from seed. Yes seed can produce variability and introduce new types of plants, but rest assured that tissue culturing plants is not affecting biodiversity negatively.

12-08-2007, 10:21 PM	#2 (permalink)
Gabe15 Moderator Gabe15's Photo Gallery Location: Oahu, Hawaii Find me on the map! Zone: 12 Name: Gabe Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 3,892 BananaBucks : 13,348,072 Feedback: 5 / 100% Said "Thanks" 1 Times Was Thanked 8,241 Times in 2,200 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 8 Times	Re: growing from seed or from TC? I don't think there is any conflict between growing from seed and tissue culture (really micropropagation is more percise, tissue culture is a broad term that can still apply to growing from seed, but for our reasons TC is fine and understood). The main use of micropropagation/TC of banana is to provide cheap, disease-free, uniform planting material to farmers. It is of course a popular technology now in horticulture because you can produce many plants at a very cheap cost. Since this topic is geared toward seed vs. TC, it applies to those bananas which can be grown from seed, wild species only (edible bananas for our reasons I don't feel apply). TC in this case actually (in my view) preserves biodiversity, there have been many instances (not only in banana, but in many other plants as well) where TC is the only reason the wild plant is still in existence today, you can turn one of very few remaining plants into thousands of a given species. The way TC is used differs between the researching community and the business community, and they really do not need to follow the same trends. Researchers are actively collecting and growing plants from seed and preserving the diversity found with TC. Although a business is just multiplying the one specific variety they prefer, this has no impact on the conservation of bananas (or any plants). It is not like if Agri-Starts is not selling a species of banana, the international genebank (at INIBAP) will not have it, the genebanks do not care what is being sold where to consumers, they collect everything and have more diversity then will ever be offered commercially. Now for the homegrower, it really doesn't matter, you don't have to feel bad about buying TC'd plants instead of growing from seed, its all about personal preference. I myself enjoy growing bananas from seed, its fun and I agree that is feels good to grow things from seed. Yes seed can produce variability and introduce new types of plants, but rest assured that tissue culturing plants is not affecting biodiversity negatively. __________________ Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.