M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

My only one that germinated is an extremly fast grower, out pacing M. sp violet, and M.cheesmanii(fast grower) , which were all germinated within the same week of December. It is about 5 times as big as my largerst cheesmanii. Since it is a hybrid I guess that explains why some are faster growing than others. My only helens hybrid is alot slower(with light lime green leaves with red splashes), as apposed to my Dar Giant which is darker green, wider leaves, and purple only on the underneath sides of the leaves(at this stage). The top of the leaf also seems strange with two lighter strips(almost white looking) on either side of the mid rib. It makes me wonder if it is a cheesmanii/nagesium hybrid or something else.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

I am also noticing that my darj. giants are picking up now after beeing slow as a seedling.

Do you have a photo please? :nanerwizard:

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

I sprouted one of these last week! It's still working on unfolding its first leaf, so I can't tell anything except that it is keeping pace with those M. balbisiana 'Neue Art' seedlings from sunshine-seeds.com. And that is pretty quick! What was your seed source, Kyle (and Erlend)? Mine came from seedman.com. My M. 'Helen's Hybrid' is pretty quick growing for me, but it's in a heated greenhouse right now, and it has dark green leaves with only very small splotching on the tops and quite reddish undersides. I hope this new M. sikkimensis hybrid turns out to be very stem-hardy. Should be fun to watch it grow.

:2212:

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

I got mine from Banana-tree. Cheap and of good quality. (Good germination %)

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

I ordered from seedman too. Sorry no photos, but I just checked on it again and it does have a little wax, but that doesn't give much clues.
As for hardiness, I brought my helens hybrid inside the heated house after spending the winter leafless in a cold green house. It came back really strong from it's 9 inch tall stem(stronger than others like Musa Bhutan), and has put out about a leaf a week.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Here's a couple of pics of my seedling.





Has either of you guys plants shown any coloration on the leaves?

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

It has. The midrib is red with whitish ridges on either side, and then underneath side is also red/purple. The trunk might end up being the most ornamental part(besides the very wide leafs). The trunk is now covered in wax with alot of black splotches, and black/dark where the petoile claspes the pseudostem. I just hope it is still alive when I get back from vacation here in Nayarit, Mexico since it is being cared for by an digital water timer.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Well, that's good to hear. Sounds like a promising banana hybrid! Hope it's as cold-hardy as M. sikkimensis. Hope yours is still alive when you get home!

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Just took a few rainy-day pics today, and thought I'd update the progress on my 'Daj Giant'.

It's getting some pretty large leaves for its size:



Leaf base closeup:



Pseudostem closeup...colorful! Just like Kyle said it was:

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Niiice !
Yours have really grown well .

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

VERY NICE Dig Dog!!

Those pics are going to make it even harder to wait for my seeds now!

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Hi,

my Musa Helen's Hybrid is the most fast growing banana here in my garden! :choochoo: One also has 4 pups and another 3 pups. The biggest pups are now 1 metre after one month!

The biggest plant is now 2 metre tall.

The biggest pups have even striped leaves like Musa sikkimensis "Red Tiger"!

Best wishes
Basjoofriend

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Daj Giant is definatly my fastest growing musa, and being cold hardy it could be a great one for the northern grower. Yee ha.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

BigDOg-

If i didn't screw up my labeling, i think all the seeds that i sprouted (11) are the dar giant if not they are just the "reg" sikkmensis from bananatree... I'm going to have my hands full next summer! I'll post some pics on here later of mine.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

I forgot to mention that where the leaf meets the petiole it is recessed just like balbisiana, initerans(agristarts), and thompsonii. I'm guessing it's a hybrid of one of those, probally balbisiana.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Yeah, I noticed that also. I'd bet that the other parent is M. balbisiana as well, considering how prevalent that species is in India.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

I have a little variegation in mine . It was present in the seedlings but has just began to show up in the older plants .

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Pete, I've noticed a little bit of variegation on mine also! I didn't think it was enough to really call it "variegated" though, so I didn't mention it. The variegation on my lone plant is even less than yours. Just a little stripe here and there.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Any new pics BigDog? I just keep trying to will my seeds to sprout!

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

I'll get one tomorrow. It hasn't grown much, mainly because I hadn't potted it up until yesterday. Everything slowed way down here during the heat wave/drought, but the last week has been much improved. A little rain here and there, and come cooler temps have brightened things up a bit.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Today's picture. Kind of a hot day, so the leaves were folded. I just repotted it into this pot a couple of days ago, because everything was getting root-bound.

Oh...lol...the price tag is from whatever was in that pot to begin with (no idea what it was: "Tropical Foliage")!

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Very nice...

Is that an ensete glaucum I see in the background?

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Yes, lol! Good eye. I was thinking of planting it yesterday, but planted a camellia instead. I dug up my Musa 'Royal Purple', only to discover that voles were the cause of its puny existence this year (it never grew, and only had two small roots on the corm). The Ensete is in a ridiculously small pot for its size, lol, but I just don't have anywhere to plant it yet. My soil is pathetic here, and I'm saving up for a dumptruck load of topsoil before planting anything else.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Looking Great Frank!
The E.glaucum looks good from here, and so does that beauty on the far right!
Thanks for the updated pics. If you have any extra seedlings that decide to sprout that you don't want, and are not already spoken for, please think of me ;) Hopefully I will already have some of mine sprout, but just in case.

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Ha! I have been wanting one but I will have to wait till next year. And the moles here have been heck on my plants... I finally just potted most of them up and put the pots in the ground.

I need to get a truck load of soil too (if I could get rid of the under ground rodents)... nothing but extremely fine sand 'round here.

-James-

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Bigdog- Why is your soil so bad? I have really sandy soil here, and i think its crap, but things still grow decent (the trees around here are huge...lots of maples and oaks). How has your fruiting gone this year? Are you sick of banana splits yet? :)

Re: M. sikki 'Darjeeling Giant'
 

Frank, my soil is fine for growing things like maples and oaks, redbuds, dogwwods, azaleas, rhodos, etc. However, it is just so acidic (pH=5.1) that I get lots of nutrient deficiencies showing up in my bananas and other cultivated plants. The natives do fine! The low pH causes many nutrients to be plant-unavailable, so I have to add lots of lime. That, plus the soil is heavy clay full of rocks in the backyard. the front yard was obviously scraped clean of any topsoil, a thick layer of gravel laid down, followed by a very thin layer of heavy clay garbage. I just can't work with it, so I'm going with raised beds next year. Many of my bananas have severely twisted leaves because of some kind of deficiency, haven't figured out what though quite yet. Also, there's just not much organic matter in the soil, hence a lack of basic plant nutrients. I need to amend the soil heavily with some good poop!

Some of the leaf issues I've seen: Musa cheesmani leaf doesn't unfurl properly, and is twisted all the way around:



Another banana, the so-called Musa itinerans 'Yunnan', has twisted the last two leaves around completely backwards!



Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' isn't immune either, as you can see on the last leaf on the pseudostem on the right:



I have four plants in various stages of blooming/fruiting, and may get 20 or so bananas out of the deal. Could be more, depending on if I use some protection on a couple of them in October/November.