Re: Musa ingens
There is no in depth research on it yet, but I think I have found out the basic problem of why these seeds will not germinate, unfortunately I still dont know how to solve the problem. My suggestion would be to try them out in soil inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi. There seems to be an association in the wild populations with mycorrhizal fungi and a symbiotic endophytic fungi within the seeds themselves. Again, I cannot provide any details because I do not know any details, and these statements have not been confirmed by any in depth research about the reproductive biology. But I know for sure there is a lot more going on within the seeds of this species than is known. Just planting them in soil is clearly not enough.
There is also the issue of that if these plants are ever produced, they require a very specific growing environment that cannot be met by most growers (they come from the highlands of PNG in a cloud forest). There have also been attempts to tissue culture the plants and they were unsuccessful. Im not saying it will never be available, but Im certain it will not be as simple to propagate and grow as other bananas if we could just get a few plants to start even.
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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.
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