Flowering size is determined by pseudostem height, to some degree. If a plant is getting ready to flower fairly soon and is cut back, however, it can flower at a smaller size. The number of leaves "rule" is definitely not a hard and fast rule by any stretch of the imagination.
So to answer your question, I don't know. LOL!! Well, I will give you an example of my experience here. I have a mat of Musa itinerans, and protected one stem to just over a foot or so, and let the other 2 die to the ground. While the protected one had a head start and was the larger of the two the previous year anyway, both pseudostems ended the year at about the same height. Neither one flowered though. Hmm...that really doesn't help either, now does it? LOL!!
Frank
