My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

I've been keeping it at the greenhouse on the UT campus, where I work and attend school, since it sprouted last Fall. The only germination out of 80 seeds. Well, I finally brought it home this weekend, and will plant it soon (final exams are this week and next). I darn near killed the poor thing a couple of months ago, when I was spraying it with Insecticidal Soap. I accidentally used the same sprayer that we spray Roundup with (oops). It sent out a bunch of deformed leaves, and grew real slowly for awhile. Had me worried, but it's grown out of it (no thanks to me). A positive thing that resulted from it is the pup! I think it must have formed it out of stress to the apical meristem. You can still see one, slightly deformed leaf on the left side in the first pic. Anyway, here's a few pics I just took. Warm day here today, so the leaves were folded. And yes, that is my bare, plastic-covered, banana-free garden in the background. Just no time to plant yet, with school and stuff. Hopefully this week or next!



This is the newest leaf on the pup. All leaves have reddish-purple midribs on the topside of the leaf, and this one is starting to show some streaking.



And here's just another angle, showing the Virginia Pine in the background that just won't fall down. We had storms here in December, and it halfway uprooted and fell into a Shortleaf Pine (not pictured), and got hooked on it.



It's going to be planted near my Musa sikkimensis 'Red Tiger', so comparisons can more easily be made (for cold hardiness and looks).

Re: My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

Frank,

It's a beautiful plant. I cant wait to see it when it fruits!

:bananas_g

Re: My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

Thanks, Jeff. I'm looking forward to that also! I'm leaving it in the ground this next winter though, so depending on how much of the pseudostem survives, it may never fruit in my climate. I am going to protect the pseudostem with a bag-o-leaves, so we'll see how it does like that. My Musa sikkimensis pseudostem survived, and it was pretty small, so we'll see. Maybe sometime in the future I'll dig one pseudostem and store under the house with the fruiting plants.

:0490:

Re: My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

Very nice, Frank!

Re: My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

Here it is, about two and a half months later. It is finally growing quickly, and hopefully I won't try to kill it again (I've failed twice so far).

Re: My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

Looking good plant ya got there Frank. Must be very special to grow them from seed.

My plants are starting to grow finally but The plan is to discourage more growth than is necessary .

I have them in 5 gal. buckets in 50% shade this year so when we finally get the deal done on our TN house:dreadlocksnaner:
I can just grab em and go .:0519:

Take care,
Shirley

Re: My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

Shirley, where in TN are you moving to?

Thanks,

Frank

Re: My Musa 'Helen's Hybrid' has come home...pics
 

Just outside of Decatur if everything works out as planned.
~S