Temperate Fruit & Orchards > Temperate Fruit Discussion

Redomestication of Cold-Resistant Bananas

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Lauta_hibrid:
I don't know which is more resistant, M. basjoo, M. velutina, or M. sikimensis... Have you ever compared them? My project is based on what I have here in my country. If anyone wants to send me seeds, they're welcome. I'll see if I can get my hands on some M. basjoo; I think a collector here has some. But you also have to keep in mind that flowering must be rapid, and velutina already gives me that characteristic.

a_Vivaldi:

--- Quote from: Lauta_hibrid on September 21, 2025, 04:56:07 PM ---I don't know which is more resistant, M. basjoo, M. velutina, or M. sikimensis... Have you ever compared them? My project is based on what I have here in my country. If anyone wants to send me seeds, they're welcome. I'll see if I can get my hands on some M. basjoo; I think a collector here has some. But you also have to keep in mind that flowering must be rapid, and velutina already gives me that characteristic.

--- End quote ---

Musa basjoo is, by far, the most cold hardy if that's what you are asking. But it does not usually flower and fruit in colder zones.

M. velutina is much less hardy, but it can flower and fruit in colder, shorter seasons than basjoo normally can, and is much more reliable at fruiting and ripening. I think M. sikimensis is variable and depends a lot on the cultivar, but regardless it's not as reliable as either of the other two.

M. veluntina is probably the only one that realistically could be bred for producing cold hardy edible banana. But even then it's going to be a lot of work. Odd ploidy could be used for seedlessness, sure, but M. velutina also has the issue that the fruit will split open when ripe which is not a desirable trait.

David Kipps:
Does M. velutina possess the trait of being able to develop fruit in the absence of pollination?  If you made a triploid version of it, would it grow seedless fruit, or not grow fruit at all?

a_Vivaldi:

--- Quote from: David Kipps on October 01, 2025, 09:40:53 PM ---Does M. velutina possess the trait of being able to develop fruit in the absence of pollination?  If you made a triploid version of it, would it grow seedless fruit, or not grow fruit at all?

--- End quote ---

That I don't know.

It might be the case that you'd actually have to do some really complex breeding to bring over multiple traits from commercial type bananas into hybrids with M. velutina and then somehow try to segregate out the useful traits of both, if that's even possible. Or maybe M. velutina has most of the traits already and just needs a little tweak here and there and a triploid version for seedlessness, dunno. I used to lurk over at bananas.org and I roughly recall the species being discussed over there, but I don't remember any of the details.

I briefly considered trying to research and start a M. velutina breeding project, but I shelved the idea to focus on citrus and rubus, and because my wife thinks banana plants are gaudy looking and ugly haha

vnomonee:
I discussed this a bit with Lauta_hybrid, but my idea was just to improve Velutina. Mass planting seeds and selecting the root hardy survivors as well as those that will flower and ripen the fruit before frost. It is borderline hardy in zone 7a, though I've seen a youtube video where one was grown in a zone 6b (maybe a good microclimate).

I bought seeds but nothing sprouted. My first attempt so I will try again. I think the seeds were too old as when I nicked one with a nail clipper to break the seed coat the inside released a white dust lol. So def too old.

I could reserve a space and mass plant some seeds next season, will just need a source.

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