Need advice on seed germinating

20 years ago

OK, I purchased a quantity of seeds from Seedman about 5 or 6 weeks ago and planted them as directed. 5 sprouted, one red tiger and four ensettes. The others are playing hard to get I guess. Any idea on how long this takes? They say erratically over several months but this is getting frustrating now! I have them on a seed warming mat so they're nice and cozy, and they get watered every day. The soil is moist but not wet, actually if 1 were desert and 10 were ocean they'd be at a 5 or so. Any ideas what I can do to get them to hurry along? I want to be able to over winter them in house and plant outside in the spring. Seeds are Lasiocarpa and Ensette mostly. I'm all ears people!

Featured Answer

Gabe15

20 years ago

6 weeks is not that long to have all your banana seeds come up, they can easily take up to 6 months or more, sometimes even a year or more for them all to come up. Musella lasiocarpa are very hard to germinate and it is not uncommon for them to take upwards of a year or two to come up. Ensete are generally faster, but again, it may take a few more months for all of them to come up, but not all seeds are always viable. But 5 seeds in 6 weeks is not that bad either, more then most people get.

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Comments (9)

mrbungalow
20 years ago
You need to alternate temperatures to sprout most banana seeds.

Try a regime of 14 hrs of 55-60 degrees F and 10 hrs of 80-95 degrees F.

Erlend
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mugsie
Original Author
20 years ago
Thanks everyone for the comments. I get impatient waiting for these guys to sprout. I have them on a heating mat now, but I'm going to try turning it off at nights for a while and see if that helps. I have visions of them sprouting during the winter, and being just the perfect size to put outside come spring, but if these guys are going to sleep for several more months they're going to drive me crazy! I have repotted the four Ensettes up twice now - they are all in 6" pots already. I mix in miracle grow pellets with the soil and they seem to really enjoy it. The red tiger was repotted as well but truthfully, he could have waited some. He doesn't grow nearly as fast as the ensettes. I heard they don't pup out - what a shame.
wanna_run_faster
20 years ago
I've been waiting on some musa velutina (sp?), some for over 6 months (I've given up on them) and a super fresh batch (picked from from the banana) for about a month. I've also just ordered some Musella lasiocarpa (chinese yellow banana) and some musa ornata. Our weather down in here in So Fla is 80's days / 60's nights so hopefully it's the perfect time of year for being successful! Do you have any pictures?????
mugsie
Original Author
20 years ago
Wanna run - I've got oodles of pics - how do I go about posting them on this site? Is there a way I can include them in the post or do I need a "special" url or site for posting pics?
South Florida huh? How bout I ship you down my seeds, you can put them out in the warm sun, get em' all to sprout then send them back up to me? Sounds like a win win proposition to me - you get to nuture some seeds and I get nice healthy plants! Hmmm? Not bad now that I think if it! Seriously - the other day it was 19 degrees out! Brrr... I told my seeds that if they didn't sprout soon I was gonna put them out back for a while - maybe that'll wake them up and scare them into germinating! Gee - I can't stand the wait!
wanna_run_faster
20 years ago
Mugsie, sounds good to me! I use www.photobucket.com, you register for free, then upload the picture, then you will have a "page" where all your pictures and "codes" are visible. I usually check the ones I want to link via a clickable thumbnail and that brings me to another page so I've got all the pictures I want to share in one code. Then I copy the link and put it in the middle of the message box.

Otherwise, you could use www.webshots.com. You can create "photo" albums (that can be private or public), upload your pictures, and then you copy the link and put it in the optional link URL.

Personally, I like the pictures right in the message the best but also like to "see" other people's albums, and I guess alot of other people do too because sometimes my albums are viewed 30 times in a week...and I don't have that many pictures stored.

Give it a shot, it's much, much easier than it seems and I would love to see your pictures!
mugsie
Original Author
20 years ago
Wanna run - thanks for the info on posting pics. I'll do that tomorrow evening. Now about that offer to grow my seeds....!
(thanks again)
wanna_run_faster
20 years ago
Mugsie, I have the perfect weather but you seem to have the perfect touch! Remember NONE of my seeds have grown yet!
garyz8bpnw
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Just saw a couple nice sized ~2' tall fat stemmed Musella lasiocarpa plants in ~2 gal pots for sale at Flower World in Snohomish, WA. Price was $70. They had a full size one there too with old flower growing seed for a higher price. For sale too. The bigger one anout 4' tall with pups growing. Nice public conservatory sized focal point.