Lodewijkp

hi

im searching for a easy banana to germinate becuase i live in holland and im a starting banana fan. il bet banana's are very different then palm seeds so i wanna try out some easy species first.

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Gabe15

Musa velutina has been the easiest for me. There is also lots of success with Ensete ventricosum, Musa balbisiana and Musa sikkimensis.

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

mrbungalow

In my opinion most of them are relatively easy if you have temperature-fluctuations.

But Velutina and Balbisiana seem to be easiest, followed by sikkimensis.

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Lodewijkp

Sikkimensis looks a winner to me, cold hardy like the musa basjoo.
what is the best way to germinate the sikkimensis ?
what kind of temperature fluctations ( how many Celcius)
what kind of soil how much moisture?

i soaked the seeds for 3 days on 35 degrees C' at day and 20 -25C' at night just like palm seeds, refreshing the water every 12 hours.
i planted them in a mixture of white sand and special soil for seeds and putted them away at 20 C' at the window out of the sun.

how much light does the seeds need ?

thanks for the replies

regards lod

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Gabe15

The problems I run into is mostly with rarer species, I have had hardly any of my rare banana seed (mainly Callimusa species) germinate for me, species such as M. monticola, M. beccarii var. hottana, M. beccarii var. beccarii, M. campestris and M. lawitiensis among others.

However, I now have access to a full banana tissue culture lab, and will be playing with embryo rescue germination to get plants from my rare seeds.

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

Tropicallvr

Musa sikkimensis hybrids seem easier than the regular type, but if you don't have access to temp fluctuations inside this winter I'd reccomend Ensete ventricosum or E.glaucum.
I don't have a heat mat right now so I'm experimenting with moving my seed baggie from next to cold window to near fire place every 12 hours.

Lodewijkp

sikkimensis seeds 24 Hours
14 hours i keep it 20 C / 21 C
3 hours i keep it 35 C
3 hours i keep it 30 C
4 hours i keep it 25 C

is this a good temperature regime ?

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51st state

I work to 14 hrs at 33 C / 10 hrs at 15 C. its the wide fluctuation that seems to do it.

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