Bananas.org - Heat mats

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- Banana Seed Germination Forum (http://www.bananas.org/f30/)

- - Heat mats (http://www.bananas.org/f30/heat-mats-2183.html)

Hi all,

Based here in London, UK.

Just want to start out germinating my Sikkimensis 'Red Tiger' seeds.

I have one large plant already out in my garden (bought as a young plant),
seems to be growing one large leaf a week. Using chicken manure pellets as feed and blanket weed from my garden pond as mulch. Seems to being doing well!

Anyway, now fancy growing from seed.

I have seen several posts regarding using a 'heat mat'. I have purchased a reptile heat mat of 8 watts output. Is this sufficient?

Do I need to perhaps place this in an old aquarium or shoebox?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi

I used a heated coil in an old aquarium, (see my photos) worked a treat. the 'trick' if there is one, is big swings between day/night temperatures, see Mr Bungalows excellent post on the subject.

http://www.bananas.org/showpost.php?p=7010&postcount=8

good luck...

Thanks for the info. I have seen that post and have sent a message to him as to what wattage his mat is etc...

He seems to have good results.

Thanks again for your reply.

Hi , are you a UKOasis member ? if not then consider joining as there are some well informed Musa nuts based in the UK and other parts of Europe. There are UKOasis members here too , it seems that we only join the best forums :-) . Mark Hall in the UK sometimes has Musa for trade or sale.
http://ukoasis.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=2
I cannot help with Musa seed germination as I'm not good at it , but I will buy seedlings at a premium price from anyone with the germination skill ,lol .
Later
Steve

I too bought myself a heat mat a few months back after seeing Erlands set up and I can't get sod all to grow with it. Its on the 10/14 cycle and so far.....Nada.

I am not giving up with it just yet. Erland do you find the soil dries out quite quickly ? Maybe thats where I am going wrong.

Carpy where abouts in london are you ?

Hi Mark,

Based in Northish London.

My seeds are sown in a sealed old plastic tub (had taramasalata in it!) with
vermiculite. Doesn't seem to dry out as totally sealed, have watered beforehand with a solution of Chestnut Compound to prevent 'damping off''.

Used Erland's method 10/14 as well. Mine are kept in a shed so the temp should fluctuate from low to high (with the mat on a timer), see what happens. Just over a week ago.

I didn't realise that variegated Banana plants are very expensive! Another thread on here I saw. Are they freakish? or an actual species. Can you get seeds, might be a good busines!!!

Carpy

Unfortunately you cant get seeds that grow just variegated bananas. But I have got a Sikkimensis grown from a seed that is variegated also a yellow forest banana that came up variegated.

Most of the variegated plants come from tissue cultured plants as opposed to being grown.

I too use Coleslaw pots to grow my seeds in. But they still seem to dry out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Hall (Post 15842)

Hi Mark,
I'm wondering if you have any pics of your varigated seedlings? It would be a wonderful looking sikkimensis variegate if it had alot of red on the leaf mixed with the white, making pink colors as well.

Carpy- I'm not sure what the percentage of white varigates coming from seeds, but if I remember correctly 1 out of 1,000 Phyllostachy edulis(Giant timber bamboo, Moso), was varigated when sprouted at Gib Coopers nursery in Gold Beach, Oregon. He also mentioned that another species he grew from seed, had even better varigated percentages. Maybe Musa/Ensete species would have similar percentages, but it might vary depending on species, and then you'd have to buy a heck of alot of seeds that are easy species to sprout;M.cheesmanii,M.balbisiana,E.ventricosum, ect or just get lucky like Mark.

Hi Tropicallvr there are some pictures in my gallery of the yellow forest banana as a seedling. Unfortunatly since it has got bigger it has lost all the variegation and just has plain green leaves (maybe I should grow it in acid compost ).

Tha sikki aslo seems to losing some of the variegation too

Wow that's really beautiful! I think the yellow is even nicer than the plain white. Thanks for sharing.