Kev555
Member
Here is a thread I saved from OG. I don't know if it works but my seeds are currently in a banana-filled bag. You can't loose much to try. I'll post my female male ratio once I sex my plants.
O.K Ive read alot of posts with regards to male plants from people obviously not intent on breeding & worried about having them.
The best way to avoid males in the first place is obviously to feminise your seeds before you start which you can do by using a commercial feminiser like sensa soak which contains 'Ethylene' or birth control pills that contain oestrogen etc.
But here is a cheap, very effective method I use which ime sure some will be familiar with but alot of you wont.
O.K Before you germinate your seeds, place your seeds in a sealed plastic bag containing banana peels for 14 days. Wrap the banana skins in tissue to absorb any moisture they give off. Keep the bag in a warm place & air the seeds regularly, replacing the skins as they ripen. Ethylene, a naturally occuring gas given off by the ripening bananas causes feminisation.
I have been using this method for two years now & has produced a 100% success rate on apx:30 unfeminised seeds from three different strains.
Anyway, the seasons well under way now but I hope this might be of some use to anyone that wasnt aware next year.
All the Best R.D
***
So, you wrap just the bannana peel in something that absorbs any excessive moisture so that the seeds don't actually absorb any of that, but adsorb the ethylene gas as that will permeate a tissue, right? You don't actually want the seeds opening and sprouting root tips during this process, this is only done to ge Ethylene gasses to them? Then you just take out the seeds and germinate them by glass of water/presoak method and/or wet paper towel method or place directly in soil or whatever you do, correct?
Why do you exchange the air? Is it for the seeds to get air or just so that things don't get moldy inside the bag? I'm gessing some humidity is O.K. though.
***
Thats right. What I do is this..
Peel 2 bananas and seperate the strips. i.e you should have about 4 seperated skins from each banana.
Wrap each skin in 'one' layer of tissue & lay them inside a carrier bag, then lay one piece of tissue over all the skins & place the seeds on top & seal the bag & leave it in a warm place (room temp is fine).
You then need to open the bag once daily for about 20 minutes to release excess moisture, much the same as when your curing your buds.
You then need to change the skins for fresh ones every three days as they will turn brown & rotten after that.
You leave the seeds for about two weeks so youll need to change the skins 5 or 6 times.
I myself have never bothered with germinating my seeds in tissue or leaving them in water etc. I just plant them straight in to pots of moist compost.
***
No theve never split open, its not damp enough for that.
As for the science behind why chemicals like ethylene & oestrogen alter the sex of the plant I really wouldnt know, but this methods worked well for me so I cant dismiss it. If people want to argue otherwise thats also fine because I dont have solid facts on the issue & ide like to be enlightened.
The only other way I know of making feminised seeds is to treat a female plant with a chemical called Gibberellic acid which will make it produce male flowers, so you can polinate another female producing seeds with only female chromosomes but apparently this method has been known to produce hermaphrodites.
I think the whole issue of feminising is still very shady, but this banana method has worked for me & it doesnt do any harm to try it for whatever reason & I just feel 30 out of 30 unfeminised seeds turning out female has got to be more than a coincidence.
Anyway any input for or against feminising is most welcome, I dont pretend to be an expert.
***
Ethylene is a natural plant hormone that has been used for decades to promote uniform fruit ripening.
Getting fruit from tropical growing areas to distant markets in Europe and North America is only possible because the timing of ripening is managed with ethylene. In order to best utilize ethylene,, it is important to understand both the basic principles of how ethylene affects fresh produce and the most effective treatment methods.
Ethylene is a simple molecule composed of two carbon atoms and four hydrogen atoms. While produced in varying amounts by all plant tissues, its production rate increases during ripening in those fruits that have a distinct ripening phase such as banana, tomato, cantaloupe, and avocado. Amounts applied as low as 1 part per million (ppm) stimulate further ethylene production by the fruit, speeding up and synchronizing the ripening process so that the fruit are of more uniform ripeness.
Timing is everything, for if the fruit is picked before it is mature, it will not ripen normally even when treated with ethylene. The majority of roundand roma-type tomatoes that are fieldgrown in the U.S. are harvested at the green stage and gassed with ethylene. With proper harvest maturity and handling, they ripen with excellent quality.
Ethylene also causes plant tissues to senesce (or age) faster by increasing fruit/flower/leaf drop in the field. During handling and shipping ethylene exposure accelerates yellowing (loss of chlorophyll) in leafy crops, softening, and necrosis, leading to increased water loss and decay, care must also be taken to avoid accumulation of carbon dioxide from fruit respiration. CO2 concentrations above 1 % inhibit ripening.
A postharvest gas application is used for degreening citrus and curing tobacco leaves too.
O.K Ive read alot of posts with regards to male plants from people obviously not intent on breeding & worried about having them.
The best way to avoid males in the first place is obviously to feminise your seeds before you start which you can do by using a commercial feminiser like sensa soak which contains 'Ethylene' or birth control pills that contain oestrogen etc.
But here is a cheap, very effective method I use which ime sure some will be familiar with but alot of you wont.
O.K Before you germinate your seeds, place your seeds in a sealed plastic bag containing banana peels for 14 days. Wrap the banana skins in tissue to absorb any moisture they give off. Keep the bag in a warm place & air the seeds regularly, replacing the skins as they ripen. Ethylene, a naturally occuring gas given off by the ripening bananas causes feminisation.
I have been using this method for two years now & has produced a 100% success rate on apx:30 unfeminised seeds from three different strains.
Anyway, the seasons well under way now but I hope this might be of some use to anyone that wasnt aware next year.
All the Best R.D
***
So, you wrap just the bannana peel in something that absorbs any excessive moisture so that the seeds don't actually absorb any of that, but adsorb the ethylene gas as that will permeate a tissue, right? You don't actually want the seeds opening and sprouting root tips during this process, this is only done to ge Ethylene gasses to them? Then you just take out the seeds and germinate them by glass of water/presoak method and/or wet paper towel method or place directly in soil or whatever you do, correct?
Why do you exchange the air? Is it for the seeds to get air or just so that things don't get moldy inside the bag? I'm gessing some humidity is O.K. though.
***
Thats right. What I do is this..
Peel 2 bananas and seperate the strips. i.e you should have about 4 seperated skins from each banana.
Wrap each skin in 'one' layer of tissue & lay them inside a carrier bag, then lay one piece of tissue over all the skins & place the seeds on top & seal the bag & leave it in a warm place (room temp is fine).
You then need to open the bag once daily for about 20 minutes to release excess moisture, much the same as when your curing your buds.
You then need to change the skins for fresh ones every three days as they will turn brown & rotten after that.
You leave the seeds for about two weeks so youll need to change the skins 5 or 6 times.
I myself have never bothered with germinating my seeds in tissue or leaving them in water etc. I just plant them straight in to pots of moist compost.
***
No theve never split open, its not damp enough for that.
As for the science behind why chemicals like ethylene & oestrogen alter the sex of the plant I really wouldnt know, but this methods worked well for me so I cant dismiss it. If people want to argue otherwise thats also fine because I dont have solid facts on the issue & ide like to be enlightened.
The only other way I know of making feminised seeds is to treat a female plant with a chemical called Gibberellic acid which will make it produce male flowers, so you can polinate another female producing seeds with only female chromosomes but apparently this method has been known to produce hermaphrodites.
I think the whole issue of feminising is still very shady, but this banana method has worked for me & it doesnt do any harm to try it for whatever reason & I just feel 30 out of 30 unfeminised seeds turning out female has got to be more than a coincidence.
Anyway any input for or against feminising is most welcome, I dont pretend to be an expert.
***
Ethylene is a natural plant hormone that has been used for decades to promote uniform fruit ripening.
Getting fruit from tropical growing areas to distant markets in Europe and North America is only possible because the timing of ripening is managed with ethylene. In order to best utilize ethylene,, it is important to understand both the basic principles of how ethylene affects fresh produce and the most effective treatment methods.
Ethylene is a simple molecule composed of two carbon atoms and four hydrogen atoms. While produced in varying amounts by all plant tissues, its production rate increases during ripening in those fruits that have a distinct ripening phase such as banana, tomato, cantaloupe, and avocado. Amounts applied as low as 1 part per million (ppm) stimulate further ethylene production by the fruit, speeding up and synchronizing the ripening process so that the fruit are of more uniform ripeness.
Timing is everything, for if the fruit is picked before it is mature, it will not ripen normally even when treated with ethylene. The majority of roundand roma-type tomatoes that are fieldgrown in the U.S. are harvested at the green stage and gassed with ethylene. With proper harvest maturity and handling, they ripen with excellent quality.
Ethylene also causes plant tissues to senesce (or age) faster by increasing fruit/flower/leaf drop in the field. During handling and shipping ethylene exposure accelerates yellowing (loss of chlorophyll) in leafy crops, softening, and necrosis, leading to increased water loss and decay, care must also be taken to avoid accumulation of carbon dioxide from fruit respiration. CO2 concentrations above 1 % inhibit ripening.
A postharvest gas application is used for degreening citrus and curing tobacco leaves too.
