Ontariobanana

Hi everyone,

My Ensete glaucum and Musa velutina seeds have sprouted. After 3-5 weeks quite a good percentage of them have come up. I planted 8 Ensete glaucum and have 4 up now and two rotted. 13 Musa velutina with 6 up and nothing from other 7. Ensete ventricosum all seem to have rotted or nothing going on.

The setup I used was very simple. I soaked seeds for 24 hours in warm tap
water and planted in pre-soaked Jiffy Peat Discs. Planting depth was about
6-8mm. I placed the discs in one of those portable seed starting mini-greenhouses. I placed the greenhouse in a warm sunny room with no supplemental heat. Sunny days elevated the greenhouse into the high 30's (C) with nights around 20 C. First one to come up was E. glaucum after about 3 weeks. It's now about 3 inches tall with the first leaf just emerging. I repotted peat disc with sprout in a 3" pot and placed under a cut-off plastic juice bottle to maintain humidity. I also treated the soil with a very weak solution of transplanting fertilizer to get the roots going.
I'll keep everyone posted throughout the season with pictures. The plan is to plant all of these in gound in late May. Should become giants.

Cheers,

Craig

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Lodewijkp

Ensete ventricosum seeds shouldn't rot , if they rot they are old and not viable.

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Ontariobanana

I think it was the medium I was growing the ventricosum seeds in........composted manure with peat moss. Works great for older plants but too much microflora for long seed germination. All the E. glaucum and M. velutina seeds were in peat discs, only a couple rotted out of the whole set. I might try E. ventricosum again but this time in peat discs.

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natedogg1026

Congrats!!!!!!!!

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Banana's are a safe addiction. Right?Maybe I need classes.

51st state

good going. My Ensete Glaucum have come thru' too even better results with the Ensete Superbum 7/10 after about 7 weeks. came up in 2 waves, first after about 4 weeks the second after 6 weeks. a germination strategy by the sneaky devils.

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mskitty38583

congrats to all the new sprouts!!!good growing guys.

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Lodewijkp

Msssssskitttttyyyyyyyyy !!!!!!!

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Ontariobanana

A little off topic but I planted some seeds from store bought granadilla (passiflora) about 6 weeks ago and forgot about them. A couple of days ago I spotted 2 large sprouts coming up. So these are my newest additions for the summer tropical landscape. No special treatment other than cleaning the gel from the seed and planting about 6mm deep in compost/peat moss mix and keeping moist and warm.

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mskitty38583

yes?????

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sandy0225

Someday I really want to try this. I've been lurking on the Home tissue culture newsgroup for years now. I want to tc Victoria waterlilies, but bananas would be fun for practice too.

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

Ontariobanana

So about a month later I have 3 E. glaucum and 4 M. velutina. The Ensete are about 1' high (to tip of newest leaf) with 3 leaves each. The M. velutina are only 3" high and working on second leaves. I have a bunch of double white/violet daturas and a crap load of castor beans (Zanzibariensis) starting. The castor bean seeds are sprouting after 2 days!!! These are from a 12' parent plant I grew last year with 3' leaves; dark green with maroon veins. I have dozens of seeds if anyone in the Toronto area wants to trade for seeds/seedlings, I'm looking for a couple of Xanthosoma sagittifolium tubers.

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Ontariobanana

E. glaucum are now working on leaves 6 and 7. I changed the soil to something less acidic and faster draining...already seeing better root growth. I have given up on the M. velutina. Each plant is working on leaf 3 and first leaves are dying.
I planted 10 E. ventricosum seeds about three weeks ago and have 4 sprouts just poking through the soil today. I will keep updating and will eventually include photos.

Cheers!

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Dean W.

Ontariobanana,

I look forward to the photos.

Dean

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oakshadows

Update please on the m. veluntina. Did any survive ?
Thanks

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