mskitty38583

anybody had any experience with the musa helen or helena? not sure which it is. my fav gh house some and i looked in the wiki and there not much to it. need to know cold hardy and height weather it likes all sun -part shade...the gh i go to has them for 7.00 and they look a little worn i guess its because its still winter, but they show promise. they dont have the red on the leaves like the ones in the wiki, could they be mislabeled? or i there a solid green one. he dosent know if hes getting any siam or raja puri in yet...im trying to wait till its closer to spring. any help would be appriciated.

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Tropicallvr

Is it Musa Helens hybrid? I wonder if it's being tissued cultured?
Some may have green leaves, and some have splotches, but they ussually only show up later. I'd venture to say that they are basically as cold hardy as regular sikkimensis, but if thy are grown from seed then there maybe a few weaker ones.

Panaroma

that's right; some are weaker then others when sown. In 2007, I got 26 plants from seed and they not only vary in hardiness. They also seem to vary in vigor, colour of the stems (from black to completely green ones). One of them looks not too good once touched by -3* C in the greenhouse. The others look quite ok. One is virtually unharmed!
It's my fastest banana; they grow much quikcker then Sikkimensis and to my my opinion, they look very beautifull and gracious.
In a couple of weeks i'll start up some 50 seeds of Daj. Giant. Anyone can tell me if they hatch as good as Helen's or Sikkimensis?

Greetings

Tropicallvr

Panorama- I'd love to see a pic of the black stemmed ones! You've convinced me that I need to try sprouting a few more Helens hybrid this spring.
I found the Daj Giant just as easy to hatch as the other sikkimensis hybrids, and super fast growing too.
That would be nice if someone(like panorama) grew all of their seedlings up to fruiting size, and figured out which one was a seedless edible and then TC'd it.

bigdog

Mskitty, who in TN is selling this?? I'd like to check that out if they are anywhere reasonably close to me. I have Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' in the ground here for its first winter. I'll be reporting on it in the spring if and when it comes back.

mskitty38583

bigdog it is at the burgess falls nursery in cookeville. he has a web site but he dosent have it finished so none of his tropicals are on it yet. ill send you a pm and give you directions from k-ville.

i dont have a clue if they are tc or not. they just looked like they were a little worn. they were only about 1-3 feet tall. they had 3-7 leaves on them. some of the leaves had brown around the edges but that could of been from lack of sun during transport.

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Last edited by mskitty38583 : 01-30-2008 at 09:15 PM.

Panaroma

Tropicallvr; I'll try to take some pics this or next week; kind of busy right now and my Musa and Citrus are kind of packed up in the greenhouse.

About raising so many Helens to a mature hight, there's always the question of space and cold-wet out here in Brussels. I think I'll raise them up in bigger pots this spring. One concideration; how tall is Helens fruiting size? Maybe it could be that there are ones that fruit at a lower hight than others; big-green-sikkimensis, small-black-chini champa?
I don't know how they produce a seedless banana really, but, it would be very fascinating to have one given by faith!

Succes in lifting bananas to another level, to u all!

Panaroma

Tropicallvr

Yeah that's a thought, maybe the black stemmed ones have more of a chance of being edible!?

penJ.

hi all...
is it true that few shoots come from one seed of this species?

Tropicallvr

Yes sometimes you get a few sprouts from a single seed, especially in hybrid bananas, sometimes others too like M.cheesmani, Musa veluntina, Ensete ventricosum, ect.

penJ.

i see...
thanks