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Banana Seeds in todays store bought bananas

11 years ago

I hear everywhere that bananas that you can buy today NEVER contain seeds EVER. But I got a banana for part of my lunch today, and I found these black hard dots that are about the size of a pencil tip(1mm). They sink to the bottom of my water bottle when I put them in. The fruit around the dots is separating + falling off, and the dots are holding together pretty strong. I'm pretty sure those are seeds. But g** forbid, if they're not, can you tell me what they are? Thanks in advanced. PS, I heard that bananas are not palms, so is this the right forum to post this question? Thanks for that answer too.

Featured Answer

tropicalzone7

11 years ago

None of the edible varieties have a chance to survive your climate. With the right protection, they may survive the winter (almost anything can with the right protection!) but they need a nice, long growing season to make fruit. If you bring them inside every winter and plant them in the ground every spring, you will eventually get a banana plant to bloom and if it blooms early enough in the year, you can get some edible fruit too (most banana plants take about 6 months for their fruit to ripen, but it definitely varies on variety and weather).
I'm growing ice cream, and saba as far as edible bananas go. Next year I'm going to try a few more to increase my chances of getting fruit one day. My Velutina banana is the only one that has ever fruited for me, but the fruits were more like seedpods because the bananas were so small (Velutina is an edible banana with viable seeds inside of it, but the seeds make it hard to actually enjoy what you're eating).
-Alex

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Comments (9)

ericthehurdler
11 years ago
The store bought bananas will not have viable seeds. They do have seeds as you have discovered but they will not sprout. This is a result of humans breading bananas to have smaller and smaller seeds until the seeds could no longer germinate.
There are many other tropical fruits you could easily grow from the super market. Taro root, papaya, pineapple, ginger etc.

And bananas are not palms, but since the banana forum is basically dead its all good.
miketropic
11 years ago
banana seeds can range from the size of a BB to a grape depending on the type but the gran nain type from the store will never germinate and for where your located would be a poor choice if you were ever trying to get fruit.
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If the seed has already matured and dropped to the ground, they should just need cleaned of the skin and and scrub the mucilage of the seed coat. AN easy way I found to do palm seeds is to use clear plastic quart sealable baggies and then use a mix of peat and perlite at 50/50 ratio and moisten the media and mix the seed into the baggie. I store in a warm 75-85 degree area and check weekly for moisture and mold/mildew. If you see mildew open baggie and air it for a few days. It will take a month to even 3 months for the seed to germinate. This is why this technique works so well. I did several varieties of palm seed in Hawaii this way and had hundreds to sell after growing them out over a several year period. Let me know if you have any questions and I will see if I can help. Good Luck and Happy Growing David P.S. Basjoo banana is a very cold hardy type to look for ( not dwarf but hardy. I would love to come across some dwarf windmill myself. If I see any I will try and remember and post it on this forum.
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mcgyvr2009i
Original Author
11 years ago
What species of bananas are edible? I'm going to buy one from ebay, but I want it to be edible. Thanks.
mcgyvr2009i
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh, and if I were to grow one from seed, can I use styrofoam cups as peat pots to plant them in? Or is that dangerous?
miketropic
11 years ago
no edible banana will overwinter where you are and fruit I don't imagein. there are some types that will do alright and possible fruit if you grow them in maybe a 30 gallon pot and bring them in during the winter. I would say something like a raja puri or goldfinger would be alright but your best bet will be with a dwarf type and probably a dwarf orinoco. if you have grow lights in a basement or a greenhouse you can expand the edible types you could grow in your zone. there are a few hundred edible types but most arnt going to fruit well in our climate
us_marine
11 years ago
You can probably find one already grown at a local store. Wether or not it is an edible variety idk. But it will probably be labled either way.

And I think they might still fruit, but I know they will never fully mature. They take more than a year to ripen. Unless brought inside. Even over here they don't fully mature but people just pick them before the first frost and have them ripen inside.

- US_Marine
turtile
11 years ago
The bananas sold at the store are triploid so they can not produce viable seed. What you found in the banana is an aborted embryo.
tropicbreezent
11 years ago
As the others have said, bananas need a long growing season and also full sun. If you can artificially substitute those then you're in with a chance.

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