asacomm

Hi Friends,

I have so far introduced here 2 series of the pollination experiments for
Helen's hybrid.

The first experiment was:

1. 2 stigmas of the first hands were clippedn off to examine its partheno-
carpcy.
2. The flowers and the body of the rest 3 baby bananas of the first hands
were spryed with "tomatotone" solution to examine if they become
seedless.
3. 4 baby bananas of the second hands were hand pollinated with Basjoo's
pollen.

The second experiment was:

1. All fingers of the first hands were hand pollinated with the pollen of Helen's
hybrid.
2. All fingers of the second hands were hand pollinated with the pollen of
Basjoo.
3. The stigmas of the 4 fingers of the third hands were clipped off to examine
parthenocarpcy, and the rest of 4 fingers were left untouched to observe
its natural pollination.

And the preliminary result is as the following photos show:


While the 2 fingers of which stigmas were clipped off were died down, the
3 fingers which were spayed with "Tomatone" solution are alive.
And the second hands hand-pollinated with Basjoo are still alive.


While the first hands and the second hands are still alive, all fingers of
the third hands were died down.

The conclusions:

1. This banana is not parthenocarpic and not sensible for natural pollination.
2. Seedless treatment is effective to make it alive although it is still to early
to argue about "seedless" effect.
3. Basjoo pollen is good for its pollination. Looking forward to its seeds.
4. Genuine fruits of Helen's hybrid are beeing produced. Looking forward to
their ripeness.

Raules

Thanks asacomm, we will wait for updating of your pictures.

__________________
Tropical agriculturist

Gabe15

Good to see your notes, but always remember these must be repeated to verify them. For example, it looks as though the ones whose stigmas you clipped off were at the bottom of the bunch which can behave very differently from the other fruits, often they can have apparently well developed ovaries but in reality they are still transitional flowers which will not turn into fruit anyways.

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

asacomm

Hello Gabe and all who are interested in this subject,

To tell the truth, the third flowering already began and I conducted the
third experiments to verify the past 2 experiments.



1. Spaying "Tomatotone" 0.03% solutionon on all flowers and babies of the
first hand.
2. Hand pollinated with Basjoo pollen on all 8 fingers of the second hand.
3. Spraying "Tomatotone" 0.02% solution on all fingers and flowerws of the
third hand.
4. Clipping off the stigmas of 4 fingers and hand pollinated 5 fingers of the
fourth hand with Basjoo pollen.
5. Hand pollinated with Basjoo pollen on 4 fingers of the fifth hand.
The rest of the flowers were neutral ones.