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After learning all of the essential steps and aseptic practices involved in the sterile culture of 'Grand Nain' bananas, I began searching for other available banana cultivars in culture. There are many varieties available through the internet and you can view some of these resources on my LINKS page. I contacted Oglesby Nursery and spoke with Wayne Poole who generously sent one hundred stage two 'Super Dwarf™' banana plantlets for this project (see above). 'Super Dwarf™' bananas are a miniature cultivar that grows to about 3' and produce small bunches of fruit. It is a great landscaping banana and grows well in pots. Prior to receiving the plantlets I made a batch of media supplemented with antibiotics. |
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The 'Super Dwarf™' bananas didn't survive the reinitiation process. Bacterial and fungal contamination were apparent within 24 hours. I tried different dipping and soaking methods of fungicide and/or antibiotic solutions to kill the contaminants. |
| After this failed, I decided to use Plant Preservative Mixture (PPM) to salvage the remainder of the the living 'Super Dwarf™' bananas. PPM is a very expensive broad-spectrum biocide/fungicide for plant tissue culture. This experiment is still in progress. |  |
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