My small fruit tree orchard

The corm of my first seedling of Helen’s hybrid survived our cold winter last year with low of minus 8.9°C, but the p-stem died in the first hard frost. It was my only first-year banana seedling to survive outside (I had that and one of each of M. thomsonii and M. balbisiana and they failed to regrow this spring). So it seems like Helen’s hybrid is promising as at least an ornament perennial here, and maybe it will fruit if we string together a couple mild winters back to back. I’m sure it will do great for you, though!

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I think it’s Musa Sikimensis…

I assumed with “hybrid” in the name it’s an interspecies hybrid?

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I check with my friend and it’s not helen’s hybrid, it’s musa sikimensis…

Description

From monsoonal mountain forests in extreme eastern India on the border to Burma comes this colourful variety of the famous Darjeeling banana. While just as easy to grow and just as cold tolerant as the regular Musa sikkimensis, it has a most stunning pattern to its leaves, with dark purple zebra stripes on the upper surface and a reddish purple underside. The pseudostems are yellowish green.

Your Helen’s hybrid looks exactly like mine, though? My leaves:


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Well… my friend offered me this banana tree. I thought it was hellen’s hybrid but hask him and he told it’s a sikimensis so… one or the other! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

New Red Variegated Cold Hardy Banana Trees! Musa sikkimensis ‘red tiger’ & ‘bengal tiger’ - YouTube

Helen’s Hybrid Banana

A recently discovered banana from the eastern Himalayan region of Darjeeling. A hybrid of Musa sikkimensis and the edible Musa ‘Chini-Champa’. The large green leaves with a red midrib are sometimes marked with red markings. Very sweet fruit.

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I think mine is a Helen’s hybrid like yours… And that’s a good thing! :grin:

Pepino melon

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Edible bananas do not produce seeds.

I mean seeded bananas are still edible if you can manage to process the seeds or don’t mind spitting out mouthfuls of gravel!

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I’m referring to Luis’ post.

I understand, but a banana with seeds can have very sweet fruit, even if there’s very little pulp and lots of seeds.

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It is false advertising to lure novice growers that has been going on for decades.

Peluche loquat tree full of flowers

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I purchased “Helen’s hybrid” seeds from a source that was very clear that the fruit is mostly seeds with just a little pulp, but that the pulp has good flavor. Are you saying bananas with seeds cannot have good flavor?

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No.

If a seeded banana can have sweet, tasty pulp (albeit greatly out-massed by seeds), then which part of Luis’s post were you correcting? Is it just that “Helen’s hybrid” specifically has been falsely advertised as being tasty?

My concern is of course self-serving, since I do hope to some day get one of my seedlings to fruit if we have a few mild winters back to back. My expectations are low as it is, but I’m at least hoping it won’t taste terrible on top of being full of seeds!

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He didn’t mention it was seeded.

I reacted to it because over the decades many gardeners and nurseries unwittingly bought Musa plants with seeded fruit, usually because the sellers omitted the fact and also because they thought all banana plants grow fruits like you find at a U.S. grocery store. In fact, seeded banana fruit cannot be sold as Produce in the U.S.

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Akebia variegata fruits that a friend gave me… :yum:

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