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  Amorphophallus titanum seedling query
From: Paul Tyerman ptyerman at ozemail.com.au> on 2006.03.07 at 06:08:11(13912)
Howdy All,
I am wondering what the normal habit for seedling Amorph titanums
is? I am aware that some of the Amorphs send up a succession of
leaves for quite some time until their first dormancy, while others
basically send up a first leaf which is held until it's first
dormancy. I really didn't know what to expect with titanum but out
of 4 seedlings I am having anomolous results so I thought I would
ask. I got the seeds from Troy when he was selling them (Hopefully
Troy is OK, with people not hearing from him) and I had expected them all
to behave the same.
As you have probably guessed by now they haven't done that. Three
of the seedlings have produced a single first leaf and remained that way
ever since. The fourth however sent up a second leaf after a couple
of months which was a nice surprise as I wasn't sure if the titanums were
this type of grower as a seedling or not......... well none of the others
are. I would have put it down to just being an oddity that it for
some reason produced a second leaf except that now it is producing a
third leaf while the others still have only a single leaf. Maybe it
has natural steroids in there, or else it is intending to take over my
house maybe?
So........ Is this variance in behaviour normal for titanum or do I just
have a seedling that really wants to grow. Do I
repot it while in full growth, or should I just be fertilising it like
mad to try to provide nutrition for it's growth? I am really not
sure what to do re fertilising the titanum..... they have had their first
leaves for much longer than any other Amorphs I have grown from seed and
I am figuring that the slow release bulb food has by now been exhausted
and I need to start liquid feeding or repotting them. Any advice on
which I should do? The 4 inch pot that the rampant seedling is
growing in is currently starting to look a little crowded, so I think I
am going to have to do something sooner rather than later. I don't
have the experience to judge this one accurately so thought I would ask
our experts on this list. Thanks in advance for any information
that anyone can provide.
All the best everyone!!

Cheers.
Paul Tyerman

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From: "StroWi at t-online.de" StroWi at t-online.de> on 2006.03.07 at 08:08:56(13914)
Hi Paul,

I would say that is quite normal that titanum sends up up to 3 leafs
before it enters the first dormacy.

At least I have seen the with some of by babys. Have a look here:
http://www.aroid.org/gallery/strolka/index.html

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From: Ronmchatton at aol.com on 2006.03.07 at 14:06:37(13916)
Paul:
We have now grown about 4000 of Troy's seed and, virtually without exception, they have produced a series of leaves in rapid succession with as many as 5 before onset of the first dormant period. We've had a few that didn't follow that pattern (perhaps 1% or so) and those I've dug up have all had some problem with the roots.

Ron McHatton

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From: "Susan Cox" snalice at dslextreme.com> on 1970.01.01 at 00:00:00(13920)
Hello Ron McHatton,

What were the problems with the roots on the seedlings that didn't produce more than one leaf? Neither of mine have produced but one leaf. If it's food they're wanting I don't think I get the concept of 'amount' of fertilizer they need for optimum growth and what fertilizer to use in amounts sufficient without burning something.

Thanks,
S Cox

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From: plantguy at zoominternet.net> on 2006.03.08 at 00:37:00(13923)
I've only got 13 of them, but they all sent up extra petioles. Some were
very fast about it, some are just now putting up a second petiole after 18
months, but I'm sure my conditions are far from optimal!!

I also have absolutely no qualms about bare-rooting them when they are this
small (up to around 3 feet tall) and re-potting to give them room when they
put up an extra tall petiole. If you are a bonsai grower at heart then
bare-rooting these to repot is trivial and you should have no problems at
all doing it. I remove all the soil to check the roots and tuber before
putting them in a bigger pot with fresh soil. Better to repot than have it
be 3 feet tall in a 6 inch diameter pot that is 4 inches deep and then
falling over (that would be my problem).

Sounds like your are doing well, and hopefully mine will continue to behave
themselves.

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