Amorphophallus FAQ part 3

From: "Randy Story" story at caltech.edu> on 2002.10.01 at 08:03:05(9473) Hi, Great news--Scott Hyndman tells me that the FAQ will go on the IAS website (Thanks Scott!). Here are the remaining questions. As a novice grower, and since the questions will go on the IAS website I really, really need input on this next set. Send feedback either to me personally or to the list; I will try to incorporate comments the best I can. This may be obvious, but I guess I should add that input sent to me I consider personal and I will only mention the name of the sender if he or she requests it. I may decide to acknowledge people who helped when I've put something together (presumably the questions will continue to evolve), but again only after checking with them. Minor points and corrections, by all means send them to me. I've decided that the appropriate way to deal with revisions is to repost the revised question/answer as needed. Again, I'm always receptive to new questions and ideas. I'm thinking of adding a question something along the lines of "can I grow A. titanum?". I would imagine that a lot of people become interested in these plants after seeing A. titanum in bloom or hearing about it in the news, etc. I know that I did! As I've mentioned before, I do not anticipate these as real answers, merely starting points for discussion. My inexperience as a novice grower really limits how well I can answer the following questions. Thanks in advance for any help, Randy +More Final set of questions, comment in brackets [ ]: Q. What sorts of soil/fertilizer/watering/sunlight should I give these plants? A. For most commonly available species, regular potting soil is usually adequate, although additives to "lighten" it up such as perlite are often beneficial. Plants appreciate regular watering and balanced fertilizer [???] while in growth, tapered off while entering dormancy and generally withheld while dormant. Part shade or dappled sunlight usually suffice. Many of the less commonly available species require special care--a detailed discussion is found in the Hetterscheid and Ittenbach cultivation chapter and their detailed descriptions of individual species in the Aroideana Amorphophallus issue. Q. When should I plant my tubers, and when will they start to grow? A. Tubers are usually planted in Spring, after all danger of frost has past. If active root growth has started, do not delay. They may not send up a leaf until as late as mid July. Q. Should I grow them in pots or in the ground? A. Growth in pots is preferable in many cases as it allows control over temperature and watering. Dormant tubers in cold, wet soil may be prone to rot. Q. My tuber didn't grow, now what? A. If it is mid July or earlier, just be patient (see above). After that point you may wish to check that the tuber has not rotted. Unrotted tubers without signs of growth can be treated as for dormant tubers (less or no water or lift the bulb) and watched for signs of growth. After blooming, many species will be delayed and some, such as A. bulbifer, may even skip a year. Q. Will my plants set seed? A. Most species require another plant which is not the same clone for pollination. To do this, blooming must be perfectly timed, otherwise manual intervention is required. Some species, A. bulbifer for example, produce seed without fertilization. See the Hetterscheid and Ittenbach cultivation chapter for more information. Q. How do I know when the seeds are ripe? A [???] Seeds are ripe when they have reached their mature color; see the Aroideana description of individual species. Q. How do I sow the seeds? A. First of all, do not let the seed dry out. Remove the skin of the fruit and the pulp. For some species germination may be aided by soaking the fruit in water overnight prior to this step. A mix of peat with perlite or sand may be used. Germination generally takes one or more weeks. Q. When will my plant go dormant and what should I do? A. The commonly cultivated species generally enter dormancy in September or October. In pots, either lift the tuber or store the pot dry and in a frost-free area. Depending on the species watch for offsets, which may be small or be left in the soil. Some of the less commonly available species and/or their offsets should not be stored completely dry. See the the cultivation chapter and the individual species descriptions of the Aroideana Amorphophallus issue for details. Q. How do I harvest and store my tuber's offsets? A. Some offsets easily separate or fall off the mother tuber, others may be detached. Many tubers will resorb offsets that are not removed. Offsets are generally stored as for the mother tuber, with the exception of thin rhizomatous offsets, which should be left in the pot. A special case is species that produce bulbils on or in the leaves, such as A. bulbifer. These can be removed from the wilted leaf and later planted "upside down" (with the rounded side down). Q. What do I do with my extra tubers and offsets? A. On the trading post: http://www.aroid.org/trading/index.html you can either give them away or trade them for something else. On the other hand, certain species are edible when properly prepared--follow the links at the IAS website (http://www.aroid.org). [I'd like to add a section about pests and rot at some point]

From: MossyTrail at cs.com on 2002.10.01 at 21:24:22(9476) One question I did not find on the FAQ: for those of us unfortunate enought to live outside subtropical Florida, which species can grow in a regular house vs. a greenhouse? Jason Hernandez +More Naturalist-at-Large

From: "Randy Story" story at caltech.edu> on 2002.10.02 at 02:51:00(9479) Jason, Great question. Do you mean the tropical Amorph's that can't be grown outside in a strongly seasonal climate? So will they get enough light (and humidity) to grow OK and increase in size every year and ultimately bloom? I'm curious as well and also wondering whether there are some that can hack it as indoor/outdoor plants. I'm in zone 10 (S. California) but we still can't grow some of the tropical plants that grow outdoors in S. Florida because we don't have the near constant warm, humid air. The broader question of whether any of these plants, including those that most of us can grow outside (say A. konjac), can be grown entirely (and again increase and ultimately bloom) inside is also interesting. Wouldn't a six-foot konjac or paeoniifolius make a cool indoor "tree"? Someone must have tried this, even if just temporarily... Too bad they (usually) grow in the wrong season for Christmas! Randy +More p.s. I have Sauromatum (Typhonium) venosum berries that are ripe right now. Not the hardest-to-find species, but it still might be fun to grow from seed. Free, of course. ---------- >From: MossyTrail@cs.com >To: aroid-l@lists.ncsu.edu >Subject: Re: [aroid-l] Amorphophallus FAQ part 3 >Date: Tue, Oct 1, 2002, 2:24 PM > > One question I did not find on the FAQ: for those of us unfortunate enought > to live outside subtropical Florida, which species can grow in a regular > house vs. a greenhouse? > > Jason Hernandez > Naturalist-at-Large >

From: Riley2362 at aol.com on 2002.10.03 at 12:56:37(9482) Hi Randy, I'm a little confused about your perspective of classifying anything as indoors or outdoors, even though that may make perfect horticultural sense to a specific grower in a specific climate. Basically, they were all born outside ... someplace. +More The exact reverse perspective, that some of us face is that we grow everything indoors. In an apartment, with natural window light and fluorescent lights, amorphophallus wake up when they want and go dormant when they want and basically when they are growing you give them light and water, and when they are dormant you stop watering and put them in a closet, or some such place to rest. I know many people that have successfully grown amorphs for years with this routine, although probably only the more common species such as A. konjac and bulbifer. Now that some of us grow more uncommon species with the same culture in mind, we find one of the major problems is not dormancy or season, but whether they want or need a wet or dry dormancy, so people tend to lose their tubers from drying up or rotting. Given the above basic premise, some of us do employ other horticultural options such as putting plants outdoors (back yard/rooftop/fire escape) in the summer - we call this "sending our plants to summer camp". However, that implies that they are growing in the summer and dormant in the winter which we all know is not the case for many of the "tropical" growers where season are erratic. It would never occur to us that people in Florida or California would have a problem growing anything because they have more cultural options than we do, although I know many people in both states who would not dream of growing a plant indoors. Just a slightly different perspective for your FAQ's. I was once asked to edit a horticultural encyclopedia where 90% of the information was geared to growing in a "stove house" in England and I was to translate that to horticulture in the US. They gave up on the project because it made no sense unless I did a complete rewrite. Good luck - Michael

From: "Randy Story" story at caltech.edu> on 2002.10.03 at 17:41:33(9484) > Hi Randy, >> I'm a little confused about your perspective of classifying anything as >> indoors or outdoors, even though that may make perfect horticultural sense to +More >> a specific grower in a specific climate. Basically, they were all born >> outside ... someplace. >> Michael, I reread my original post (below) and I guess I really don't think that I said that. If what I said could be interpreted that way, sorry, it wasn't my intent. I am definitely curious whether people can grow them inside for part of the year where the growing season is very short, and outside when the weather permits. I received a post that suggests this is in fact the case I am very pleased to hear that people can and do grow these inside. I will include that in the FAQ. On another note, I noticed that I said that Christmas is the wrong season for an Amorphophallus Christmas (or other holiday) tree. I forgot about the southern hemisphere! Randy > Jason, > > Great question. Do you mean the tropical Amorph's that can't be grown > outside in a strongly seasonal climate? So will they get enough light (and > humidity) to grow OK and increase in size every year and ultimately bloom? > I'm curious as well and also wondering whether there are some that can hack > it as indoor/outdoor plants. I'm in zone 10 (S. California) but we still > can't grow some of the tropical plants that grow outdoors in S. Florida > because we don't have the near constant warm, humid air. > > The broader question of whether any of these plants, including those that > most of us can grow outside (say A. konjac), can be grown entirely (and > again increase and ultimately bloom) inside is also interesting. > > Wouldn't a six-foot konjac or paeoniifolius make a cool indoor "tree"? > Someone must have tried this, even if just temporarily... Too bad they > (usually) grow in the wrong season for Christmas! > > Randy > > p.s. I have Sauromatum (Typhonium) venosum berries that are ripe right now. > Not the hardest-to-find species, but it still might be fun to grow from > seed. Free, of course. > ---------- >From: Riley2362@aol.com >To: aroid-l@lists.ncsu.edu >Subject: Re: [aroid-l] Amorphophallus FAQ part 3 >Date: Thu, Oct 3, 2002, 5:56 AM > > Hi Randy, > I'm a little confused about your perspective of classifying anything as > indoors or outdoors, even though that may make perfect horticultural sense to > a specific grower in a specific climate. Basically, they were all born > outside ... someplace. > The exact reverse perspective, that some of us face is that we grow > everything indoors. In an apartment, with natural window light and > fluorescent lights, amorphophallus wake up when they want and go dormant when > they want and basically when they are growing you give them light and water, > and when they are dormant you stop watering and put them in a closet, or some > such place to rest. I know many people that have successfully grown amorphs > for years with this routine, although probably only the more common species > such as A. konjac and bulbifer. Now that some of us grow more uncommon > species with the same culture in mind, we find one of the major problems is > not dormancy or season, but whether they want or need a wet or dry dormancy, > so people tend to lose their tubers from drying up or rotting. Given the > above basic premise, some of us do employ other horticultural options such as > putting plants outdoors (back yard/rooftop/fire escape) in the summer - we > call this "sending our plants to summer camp". However, that implies that > they are growing in the summer and dormant in the winter which we all know is > not the case for many of the "tropical" growers where season are erratic. > It would never occur to us that people in Florida or California would have a > problem growing anything because they have more cultural options than we do, > although I know many people in both states who would not dream of growing a > plant indoors. > Just a slightly different perspective for your FAQ's. I was once asked to > edit a horticultural encyclopedia where 90% of the information was geared to > growing in a "stove house" in England and I was to translate that to > horticulture in the US. They gave up on the project because it made no sense > unless I did a complete rewrite. > Good luck - Michael >

From: ". ." iamwhatiam52 at hotmail.com> on 2002.10.04 at 04:54:57(9489) About growing A. konjac in the house, here is my experience. I've grown a few itsy bitsy (less than1/2") bulbs on my table by the computer in poor light for 2 years, leaving them in the 2" pots while they go dormant. They grow, but are a bit thin, and do multiply. They are now 16" tall. Interestingly, they seem to come up late, but go dormant about the same time as the outdoor plants. I also tried some larger ones inside because they look so damn cool blasting up out of the soil in spring. They came up a month earlier than the outdoor plants. They were then put outdoors and seemed OK untill August, when they all burned out and went dormant. Sadly, no offsets or increase in size. I'm going to try a large one next spring and leave it inside. +More Mitch _________________________________________________________________ Join the world?s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com

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