shannondicorse

Hi All,



This is a YouTube video from a group of young artists who are seeking to re-domesticate bananas from wild bananas!

They have excellent reasons.. it seems!!

They are located on the island of Trinidad, 7 miles from the coast of Northern South America.

Please tell me what you think.

Thanks,

shannon (shannon.di.corse@gmail.com)

robert0514

Very interesting and inspirational, makes me want to go out and do the same thing, there is one problem though. Bananas don't grow in the wild in the UK so I guess I'll have to stick to the confines of my own garden and poly tunnel.

shannondicorse

Robert,

try using dwarf cultivar pollen (from cavendish ultra dwarfs, dwarf namwah etc...) on Musa velutina -itself a dwarf species. Unlike some acuminata and all balbisiana; veltina is self-fertile - a single inflorescence can pollinate itself. You will have to emasculate the flowers on emergence. Let some flowers pollinate themselves though.. this will guarantee fruitset. Thus, the cross-pollinated ovaries will not likely abort because of poor seed set.

Dwarf namwah has some cold resistance because of its BB-containing genome (it's an ABB).

I think the best way to go with breeding cold-tolerant bananas is to go with annuals. DO look for Pup-to-Fruit in under 1 year. Velutina (female) X Namwa dwarf (male)... and PLEASE don't look for "antifreeze" genes - i think that breeding for seedlesness in cold countries should involve an annual cycle.

It a question of resetting goals and redesigning the concept.

I'll try to help in whatever way I can...


shannon