Gardening Plants & Flowers Fruit

How to Grow Bananas From Seed

Learn to sow and care for seedy banana varieties in this step-by-step guide

sliced banana

The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

If you've ever sliced open a banana from a grocery store, you may see little black dots that appear to be seeds. These "banana seeds" are immature, infertile, and can't be planted and grown. Most bananas sold in stores are of the Cavendish variety, which are commercial bananas that typically produce no seeds. That's because, instead of two sets of genes, they've been modified to have three sets of genes, called a "triploid," to create a seedless variety.

Fun Fact

The Cavendish banana was named after the 7th Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish. He received a specimen from Mauritius, and then after cultivating it in England, it became an official cultivar in 1836 and eventually returned to its native tropical regions.

Commercial bananas, such as Cavendish, are grown as herbs, not trees, which involves propagating the fruit using rhizomes. Rhizomes are stems that grow underground which then shoot out of the ground to produce what are known as "banana pups." The pups are taken off the mother plant and transplanted to create new plants. Some non-commercial banana varieties are grown with seeds inside. These bananas are considered wild bananas. While wild bananas are rarely used for commercial production, it is possible to grow these types of banana plants from seed, but the bananas will not be like Cavendish fruit.

What to Know About Banana Cultivation

The Spruce / Maritsa Patrinos

Do Bananas Have Seeds?

If presented with the opportunity to venture out into the wilderness and open a naturally grown wild banana, you would probably find seeds inside. Some varieties have seeds that are so big, they make up a lot of the fruit and make the flesh difficult to chew.

Can You Grow Bananas from Seeds?

Yes, you can purchase and grow some types of wild bananas from seeds. Among the many types of banana cultivars that have seeds, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana are two of the species worth trying to germinate. They are parents of certain cultivated types. Musa acuminata, however, is closer to the Cavendish banana but it is typically grown more for its ornamental value than its fruit. Musa balbisiana is more of a wild banana. Some people even prefer the flavor of wild bananas to those in grocery stores.

Wild bananas grown from seed taste different depending on the variety. Most of them are creamy and sweet with a hint of a typical banana taste. Growing wild bananas from a seed is not an easy task because they need precise tropical conditions. You will need to wait between three weeks to six months for a seed to germinate and a year or more to fruit, depending on the variety.

Tip

Native to tropical regions, bananas grow more often and with greater ease from a bulb or rhizome. There is mixed evidence as to whether bananas can be grown from seed, but some sources say it is possible.

How to Grow Bananas From Seeds

Encourage your banana seeds to grow by soaking them in water, sowing them in sandy and loamy soil, watering consistently, and maintaining proper temperatures. Here are six steps to follow when growing bananas at home from seed:

  1. Soak

    Give the seeds a headstart by softening and warming them up.

    • Put the seeds in a bowl and cover them with warm water, changing the water when it cools down.
    • Leave the seeds to soak for 48 hours to help the embryo sprout.
  2. Prepare

    Put seeds in a seed tray indoors. Use potting soil with lots of organic compost and more than half sandy/airy loam. As the seed sprouts and matures, it will need the nutrients provided by the compost.

  3. Sow

    Sow seeds 1/4 inch deep in the tray. Sowing seeds outdoors in a bed is not possible unless the soil temperature remains above 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

  4. Water

    Water the tray so that the soil becomes moist, but not soggy. Take care not to drown the seed, only maintain conditions that are damp as the seed settles in and begins to germinate. Soil that is too wet can cause the seed to rot.

  5. Pay Attention to Temperature

    • Use a heat mat on a timer to maintain an indoor soil temperature of at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
    • Depending on the variety of the banana, it may need as much as 19 hours of cool temperatures and only 5 hours of warm, but research your seed to maintain the correct ratio.
  6. Give it Time

    You can't rush banana seed germination. Depending on your variety, seeds could germinate in two to three weeks or it could happen in two or more months or longer.

How Bananas Produce

The flowering stalk of a banana is called the "banana inflorescence." Emerging from the middle of the "pseudostem" 10 to 15 months after the seed has been sown, it will likely be surrounded by 26 to 32 leaves by then. The banana flowering, or "shooting," process is characterized by flowers appearing in spirals on the axis of the stalk in groups of 10 to 20. Fleshy bracts, purplish-to-greenish in color, eventually shed and give way to the first flowers that are functionally female.

Edible cultivars like the ones listed above have fast-growing ovaries that develop without pollination into clusters of fruits, some of which can produce seeds. The last flowers, functionally male, come next. When you plant rhizomes, the time from shooting to fruiting is typically 180 days depending on the cultivar, temperature, and the moisture of the soil. When grown from seeds, expect to wait 14 months or more.

banana tree
​The Spruce / Letícia Almeida
FAQ
  • What does a banana seed look like?

    Wild banana seeds are typically hard, black, and less than a 1/2 inch in diameter. To find the seeds, you first peel the banana and remove the flesh to expose the inner seeds.

  • When did bananas stop having seeds?

    It is believed that seedless bananas were being developed as long as 1,000 years ago in Africa 650 AD. However, the sterile, seedless Gros Michel banana (now nearly extinct) was developed well over a century ago to be replaced by the Cavendish around the 1950s.

  • Are banana seeds rare?

    Banana seeds from wild banana varieties are not very rare. If you want to know how to get banana seeds, simply research your options from seed sellers that specialize in banana seeds.

The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. HS10/MG040: Banana Growing in the Florida Home Landscape. University of Florida, IFAS Extension.

  2. Musa acuminata. Missouri Botanical Garden.

  3. Drying banana seeds for ex-situ conservation. Conservation Physiology. Oxford Academic.

  4. The banana seed. ProMusa.

  5. Bananas, a short history. Australian Banana Growers.

  6. When is a banana tree not a tree? Gross Michel Banana. Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.

  7. An end to banana nostalgia. Blue Book Services.