And maybe they would grow better next to the Brooklyn Bridge? Might want to bid on both for good luck???
Has AeAe been crossed with Musa Basjoo?
Bad information is used often to sell Musa Basjoo.
Maybe your post will save someone money and disappointment.

I can't see how that can be remotely true. Pass on this one.

Aloha Eggo,

Well, you did notice that he said his seeds had all sprouted green seedlings? When folks try to get more ae'ae by tissue culture the same thing happens, too. They all come up green. Ae'ae keikis that sprout from the plant are varigated from the first leaf.

If he gets any type of banana seed and sells it as an ae'ae and tells the folks it may take up to a year before they become varigated, he will sell the seeds and the folks will have long forgotten his name by the time they give up hoping for varigated foilage. If they get the banana seeds to sprout at all. (Actually, if he was able to save and sprout banana seeds, more power to him, that's a higher level of dedication than I have.)

Folks have also said that some ae'ae keikis will come up green, too, but so far I haven't seen that happen. I do seem to have two different sizes of ae'ae, though. One reaches about twelve feet and fruits, the other one goes up to sixteen or eighteen feet and fruits. It might just be deeper dirt, I don't know yet. I'm going to take a keiki from each one and plant them next to each other and see what happens.

Well, on the eBay ae'ae seeds, all I can say is "Caveat emptor!" That is one of the very few latin phrases I know and "buyer beware!" is probably quite appropriate.

A hui hou,
Cathy

haha, yeah that was my favorite line also. "It can take a year or so to get the white stripes." LOL. Buyer Beware!

This makes me so sad to see people selling plants and seeds on eBay who are obviously, well, ignorant of the plants and seeds they are trying to sell. They are just trying to make a quick buck. There are a lot of really knowledgeable, non-shyster sellers on eBay, but unfortunately there are also folks like this person who doesn't have a clue.

When I first saw his auction with no name and no photo of the foliage I e-mailed him. He then changed the discription calling it an AeAe and posting a photo of the foliage. I was courious because some years back I heard that there was a variegated banana out there looking sort of like an AeAe but wasn't sterile. As soon as he posted it as an AeAe I knew it was a scam.
Take care all.
Randy

I am new to gardening. I built a greenhouse and I have been "playing" gardener. I am really starting to like the banana plants and found these seeds on ebay. Just curious....is growing from seed pointless?

Pink Velvet Banana (7 seeds)
Musa Velutina

http://cgi.ebay.com/Exotic-Pink-Velvet-Banana-Seeds-Indoor-Outdoor_W0QQitemZ7737193904

Yellowseven, those bananas are commonly propagated by seeds, and in fact the fruits are very seedy, as most ornamental bananas are. For edible bananas like Ae-ae, very rarely will they have seeds. To have 20 seeds from an ae-ae, your chances are like winning the mega-million lottery. I have eaten thousands of saba banana fruits in the Philippines and perhaps have come across less than 20 seeds in my entire life all the entire Philippines, and so to have seeds from Ae-ae and 20 of them from one spot, that's pure baloney. You may have a couple coming from a bunch of fruit, and most likely it will revert back to its pure green leaves. Bananas are not nucellar when seeds are used for propagation.

Thank you for the information. If I purchased those seeds ( Pink Velvet Banana (7 seeds) Musa Velutina ) is it a plant that will really produce edible fruit like it says it will?

Musa velutina is not an edible banana like I suspect you are thinking of, like a "chiquita banana". It is grown for ornamental purposes. The "bananas" are bright pink and about the size of an extra large egg. They stay on the tree until the seeds are ripe then they split open and the seeds fall on the ground. While they are commonly grown by some folks from seed, its a lot easier to grow them from a division. I've grown large stands of velutina for going on 14 years out in my yard and I can tell you that only a miniscule number of the seeds sprout when they drop. They are root hardy here in zone 8 and have become naturalized in my yard, but in zone 7 in Dallas you will probably either have to dig them up in winter and protect them or keep them in a container.

Ok, now I am really confused about the "edible" part. Why do people say they are edible if they are not? This seems very dangerous.

Edible is a bit confusing. A velutina can be eaten without harm, you just have to eat around those rock-hard, brown/black seeds. It tastes a bit sour and there isn't much flesh on them, but you can.
Most of the times edible means you can eat them without a mouthfull of seeds. Edible can also mean that you cannot eat them raw, but cooked.
Simon
But to come back to the original question:
Ae-Ae seeds? No way!

Yeah, EDIBLE(can be eaten, not poisonous) and PALATABLE(agreeable in flavor) are 2 completely diferent things. Plus, you'd be lucky to get one to sprout and fruit. It's not his fault YOU could not get them to sprout. YOU must have done something wrong. Get a TC or pup from someone if you really want one. One of the guys here would be a great resource, or:
http://www.going-bananas.com/catalog.htm

Actually, I just read some stuff on them, and the flesh is supposed to be tasty, but they are 3/4 seeds. Do a web search, there's lots of info.

There is a professor in Ohio (I think he's in Miami, Ohio....or some other silly warm named place for Ohio) who has grown Velutina outdoors with minimal protection for a number of years. I spoke with him via email and he said that most years the plants return with just minimal protection, but he makes sure he has back-ups in the greenhouse just in case.

If I had the room, I'd try one (but if I add a banana to the yard my wife just might make me live with it).

~Chills

The eBay "aeae banana seed" auction ended and someone paid over twenty dollars for the seeds. Oh wellos! At least it didn't go higher and I suppose twenty bucks is a cheap enough lesson although it isn't certain what the lesson learned will be!

Does anyone out there actually start bananas from seeds? Isn't it much easier to get a keiki? As has been wondered with the "aeae seeds" sold on eBay, how does one know what kind of seeds they are? How can anyone know which was the pollinator for the seeds?

Ae Ae bananas.. I bid last night..$77.77 for the banana seeds. I was out bid..but i have raised bananas from seed and have done very well..I would not mind having a green mother to get a white/green baby..I was on a thread and someone wrote in and ask about a plam like banana.. two people laughted at her. almost calling her stupid...I wish I could find the names of the two people..anyway they in all of the wisdom was wrong.. the lady was correct, there are palm like bananas. So when I read this thread.. I keep an opened mind,,

Aloha Frog Lady,

Was there another ae'ae seed auction?

An open mind (as well as open wallet) is a nice thing, but from ae'ae "seeds" (should anyone have any of them to begin with) you would get a green mother followed by green babies. Wait to get an ae'ae keiki (pup) and then you will get the green & white bananas. Or get seeds, grow them out and let us know what happens.

A hui hou,
Cathy

Hi cathy...yes on e-bay, ha ha ha look under "Variegated Banana" I would love to live in a place like Hawaii or Bora Bora...someplace warm year around.. I would not have 7- 22x96 greenhouses.. ok yes I would..lol I live in Alabama..not toooo cold... great talking to you, Jody

Looks like the seller had more than 20 seeds.

The way I understand it, one must pollinate a seedless variety with a seeded variety to produce seeds. Therefore, the resulting seeds would be hybrids. I could be wrong about that. If it is at all possible to get seeds from an ae ae banana, one would have to have two pseudostems in different stages of flowering, and a pollinator. Seems highly unlikely to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ae Ae seeds??

Its hard enough to get PUPS from an Ae Ae banana, let alone bananas and seeds. I have one in my greenhouse that is 20 ft tall (at the leaftip), about 12 at the top of the stem, and has a trunk with a 6-7 inch diameter which is just lovely but has yet to produce even one offset. I have given it Miracid, 10-50-10, 20-20-20, and manure. No such luck yet, maybe this season.

Having an open mind is great and all, but paying that much money for something that just isnt true is something to avoid. In certain edible banana cultivars, under certain circumstances, you can get seeds in the fruit. HOWEVER, nearly every single seed will not be viable, they often do not form embryos, so you basically have an empty seed shell with nothing inside of it to grow. Many people on this thread are right, the facts just do not add up. Even if you had one germinate, it would be green (variegation does not transfer thru seeds in Musa), and if it ever for some reason did turn variegated later it would be a random occurence, not because it came from an 'Ae Ae'. And as Frank mentioned, they would not even be pure 'Ae Ae' in theory (if this even happened in the fist place), because 'Ae Ae' is male sterile and has no pollen, so it would have to be pollinated by another different species or cultivar with pollen. Listen to Kathy, save your money and get a pup.

bihai, give it a 6-20-20 starter fertilizer. Phosphorous encurages a lot of pups, nitrogen encourages height and potassion encourages fruiting.

From everyone I've chatted with, the variagtion of the Ae'ae is more likely to vanish than to appear. One grower said many of the white varigations of plants are from things like a virus and won't come true from seed, just cuttings. He wasn't specifically discussing the ae'ae, though.

I've also noticed that banana pups seem more a matter of timing than of plant size. The same with fruiting. I did have an ae'ae fruit that was in a pot. It was two years old but very stunted and was only about four feet tall when it fruited. They were very few and small fruits, too, but they matched the plant. It then died with no pups. That one was from when one of my bigger ae'aes had been displaced by a utility installation project. It got dug up and sort of potted in a trash can for several months where it promptly put out a lot of keikis. The main stem eventually died before I got it replanted, however two of the keiki from that one that were planted in the ground have since fruited (with properly sized fruits) and made more keiki of their own.

Bihai, When your Ae Ae fruits and you cut it down, I bet you will get a bunch of suckers. I've seen a few growing around here and they do not pup much (if at all) sometimes until the mother plant fruits and is cut down. Then I have seen as many as 7 variegated pups pop up from the corm.

Jeff

I really smell a rotten banana concerning this seller of AeAe seed on Ebay. 1st of all, it is possible to cross pollinate bananas, but, you MIGHT get 2 or 3 seed in the entire head-not a hand-but the whole head of bananas. Running auctions for '15 FRESH seed' for over a year is statistically ridiculous even if you did manage to pollinate the flowers.Those supposed bananas must have been loaded with seed and virtually no pulp! Ive emailed and asked for photos of the germinated seedlings as he boasts in his description that he germinates over 67.5% VARIEGATED seedlings. Makes you wonder why he does'nt sell these variegated seedlings along with the seed? I offered to buy any he had. My email was ignored and there was no reply. The seed in the description is also advertised as being 'XL marble sized', I did buy some a year ago just to see what I received and if they would sprout. I was really expecting to get 15 ensete seed-(I was suspicious from the beginning but could'nt help myself!), instead I received very small musa seed, the size of most ornata or velutina seed. Nothing has germinated in almost a year. If you scarify them and soak them in water they will usually sprout within 2 weeks. I scarified half with no success. I emailed again and asked for a refund as the description guaranteed germination (Not variegated seedlings) The seller told me to send them back for a refund........Id have to sift the dirt in the 3 gal pot and hope they havent rotted away! Thank God I didnt pay more than $15 for them. Now the same seller is selling 'variegated' seed from Cycas Revoluta! Of course, they arent guaranteed to sprout variegated seedlings......Pass the word to anyone you know that have an interest in these seed-dont bother. It really irks me that there are sellers like this out there, but, what comes around, goes around! Now as for AeAe and variations on sucker coloration and amounts of variegation in them; AeAe is a somatic variegate as opposed to a genetic variegate- (a 'sport'or chimera). Genetic variegates are stable and come true from seed and can easily be tissue cultured. In AeAe the amount of variegation in each plant depends on; #1. How much mutant tissue is in the apical meristem, and #2. Where that mutant tissue is in the apical meristem when a sucker is developing in the corm. This mutant tissue moves and revolves around the apical meristem. Some AeAe have LOTS of white, some have a little with shades of different greens and greys.Some AeAe are completely green. They are ALL still AeAe. When the AeAe produces suckers, they will oftentimes produce pure white suckers, which die right away if removed, or languish while feeding off the mother until it eventually dies. It will also send up some normal green suckers, and then you'll get a few nice evenly proportioned variegated suckers. This is the reason they remain expensive. The better variegated plant you start with, the better chance you have at getting more variegated suckers, as this plant will have more mutant tissue in it's apical meristem. I have seen photos of another variegated AeAe with really pink petioles and pink trunk from a collector in Thailand. He called it Musa Aeae cv. 'Florida', apparently there is another chimera of AeAe or perhaps another variegated Musa altogether.In the photo it did look much more slender than AeAe, although I have seen pink petioles on AeAe when grown in full sun. Who knows?