Musa Sikkimensis Gigantea

[musa_monkey]

This is Musa Sikkimensis Gigantea growing on well.
Still not found very much information on it.
So far it looks different to other variants i have tried in the past and i like the colour its developing.

[Dave Brown]

Not heard of that one MM. I presume it gets bigger Seems to be growing well

[musa_monkey]

No idea Dave, info is scarce Europalms were selling the seed last year and some of the bananas.org members managed to grow a few.

Another one turned up recently Musa Sikkimensis "Fire" there's even less info on this one but i managed to find one reference here; Excuse the Google translation from the original German !


http://translate.google.co.uk/translate ... ensis-fire

[Palmer]

Hi Alan,
I bought some of those Sikkimensis gigantea seeds from Europalms; unfortunately I only managed to germinate the one though.
The thing that impressed me was the size of the seed they were much bigger than any other sikki seed I have seen before.
Has yours started to develop those dark markings on the leaves yet!



Tony

[bobbyd44]

just ordered one off ebay so will see how it goes.. for a 5fiver its worth a punt..

[musa_monkey]

Hi Alan,
I bought some of those Sikkimensis gigantea seeds from Europalms; unfortunately I only managed to germinate the one though.
The thing that impressed me was the size of the seed they were much bigger than any other sikki seed I have seen before.
Has yours started to develop those dark markings on the leaves yet!



Tony

Hi Tony, Yes, just started to see the dark markings. That combined with the red marking on the trunk makes for a very nice plant. Looking forward to seeing what it will be like when it reaches 6ft

[maritimesbob]

Interesting, I purchased five of these seeds from Ebay back in late March. Three germinated within a few weeks, they were then planted in the beds and growing fairly well all be it slowly in the cool summer weather of late.

I am glad to see some of these plants posted here as I have little idea about them at all. Just figured they would be fun to grow.

They are called Gigantea but they are smaller than the normal Sikkimensis?

[musa_monkey]

Though i would post a close of season picture.
Its growing on well. Its an interesting plant very distinct from red tiger, i like it a lot.
Lets see how it over winters.

[Mr List]

how is this getting on?

any thoughts on potential hardiness?

[Palmer]

Hi list,
I haven’t tested the hardiness of my sikkimensis gigantea… that is not planted out, it spent the winter in my loft with temps down to 0c.
The seed of this variant only became available at the start of last year so best tested in its second year!
I only have the one plant and although it’s a robust looking sikki with a P-stem of over 4ft it hasn’t produced any pups yet.

[Mr List]

updated pictures?

[Palmer]

Hi List,
Here is a pic of my Sikki gigantea, it isn’t looking its best at the mo.. Because it lost two new leaves in a hard frost in April.





Where’s Alan (musa monkey)

[Mr List]

it does look big for it's age doesn't it?

anything else you have noticed different with it?

[Kristen]

Dunno if relevant but I grew some from seed from Jungle whatnots last year, including both their bog-standard Musa sikkimensis ("Hookeriana" or somesuch) and their Musa sikkimensis "Daj Giant". I managed to germinate two of each.

Couldn't see any difference last year, and can't see any difference this (second) year either. Both are impressively large (to my eye) but of equal height, leaf size, etc.

Not a scientifically significant sample size, so just mention it for info only.

[Palmer]

Hi Kristen,
I’ve grown them both and would agree they do look alike! They both even produce a percentage of the normal green from seed.
The first Sikkimensis seed introduced to the UK market was Hookerii back in 1998, I think! The seed was collected in Sikkim by Tobias Spanner; I germinated two of the said seed, gave one to my Dad and planted the other out in my garden where it remained for 10 years.
Interestingly although the winters were mild compared to the 9/10 and 10/11 winters, they survived -8c a couple of times over that ten years and only loosing half the P-stem.
Sadly I don’t have that Hookerii any more I dug the clump up because they never flowered, i kept a couple of pups and gave three to friends as backups but we all lost them in the 10/11 winter.
I found the “Darj Giant” only hardy to -5 to -6c likewise Red Tiger and another sikki I tried from Myanmar was only hardy to -3c
I’m not saying all Hookerii will prove hardy because we can’t guarantee the provenance of the seed collected!!
Hopefully Gigantea will prove hardy.. I’m keeping my fingers crossed; I think i will plant it out this summer.


Tony