parid09

My experience with these guys are that they tend to be sensitive after germination and do not grow as fast as some of the others. I have two 2 year old guys that are now three feet tall, and are finally starting to take off, especially after placing them outside this spring. Once I put them out into brighter conditions, the leaf striping became much more pronounced also. The real growth screamers that I have are Darjeeling Giants. These guys are much hardier from germination and I have one that after two years is now over 8 feet, and this is after cutting the p-stem off twice. These do seem to have a degree of variability between individual plants as some of the other Giants that germinated at the same time as the big ones still are at about four feet. Musa Balbesiana are probably the best "sprouters" that I have ever had, with a 100% germination rate under the same conditions as the others, and all are still alive and growing rapidly. Don't get discouraged by slow growth at first, and I think that some of the reports of seed to "Jack in the beanstalk" stories might be a tad exaggerated at best. Once the corm gets good and established with some size to it, the p-stems will shoot for the stars under the right conditions. Good luck!