Amorph Konjac

From: Dana <dana at homecom.com> on 1998.06.18 at 15:59:59(2329) Since we're on the subject of Amorphs, I've got a quick question or two.. I've got a few tubers of A. Bulbifer which are all coming up nicely, and a single larger tuber of A. Konjac which is doing much of nothing. I dug it up about two weeks ago to see what the tuber was doing, and it still appears to be dormant. Looks like the old tuber from last year, which was still attatched to the side had gone soft and mushy and came off in my hand as I was inspecting the tuber, but there was no damage to the new tuber, which is still very firm. I had it in a 6"clay pot with potting soil in it.. Is this the best way to keep it or should I pull it and keep it dry until it sprouts? I want to make sure the tuber doesn't rot. I overwintered it in a plastic baggie with a moist paper towel in the bag along with it. When I pulled it out in the spring it looked like it had started growing (the growing tip was nice and pink and about 1" tall) but since then it's dried back to it's normal dormant tip. Is it too much to hope for to get this puppy growing this summer? Any suggestions? Thanks!

From: Don Burns <burns at mobot.org> on 1998.06.18 at 18:12:20(2331) Dana, My konjac's are usually the last to emerge in my Amorphophallus farm, and I have always suspected this was the case because konjac is the "least tropical" of my plants. I don't believe konjac particularly cares for this hot and steamy south Florida weather. Your note said you had the tuber planted in a 6 inch pot, but you did not say how large the tuber is. My potting technique usually calls for a container diameter that is a minimum of 3 times the diameter of the tuber. You mentioned the use of "potting soil". The word "soil" to me means "dirt". You should be planting in a loamy planting medium that does not collect and hold water. Don +More Don Burns Plantation, FL USA Zone 10b

From: Michael Marcotrigiano <marcotrigiano at pssci.umass.edu> on 1998.06.18 at 21:04:09(2332) We store konjac dry in the 45F cooler or dry in it's pot. No added moisture. Our experience is that bringing them into a warm room and waiting for the pink sprout to come up is a better guarantee against rotting. I would suggest digging the konjac up and leaving it in a warm room until you see if wants to sprout. I pot mine very shallow with the sprout right at the surface. Corms (yes I think Amorphophallus are corms not tubers but no one has an opinion to my listserv query so they have contractile roots that bring them down deeper as needed. This is just my experience - others may have other opinions. I've grown over 2,000 konjacs last year and none of them rotted. +More At 11:03 AM 6/18/98 -0500, you wrote: >Since we're on the subject of Amorphs, I've got a quick question or >two.. I've got a few tubers of A. Bulbifer which are all coming up >nicely, and a single larger tuber of A. Konjac which is doing much of >nothing. I dug it up about two weeks ago to see what the tuber was >doing, and it still appears to be dormant. Looks like the old tuber from >last year, which was still attatched to the side had gone soft and mushy >and came off in my hand as I was inspecting the tuber, but there was no >damage to the new tuber, which is still very firm. I had it in a 6"clay >pot with potting soil in it.. Is this the best way to keep it or should >I pull it and keep it dry until it sprouts? I want to make sure the >tuber doesn't rot. I overwintered it in a plastic baggie with a moist >paper towel in the bag along with it. When I pulled it out in the spring >it looked like it had started growing (the growing tip was nice and pink >and about 1" tall) but since then it's dried back to it's normal dormant >tip. Is it too much to hope for to get this puppy growing this summer? >Any suggestions? Thanks! > > > ************************************************ Michael Marcotrigiano (email: marcotrigiano@pssci.umass.edu) Associate Professor Rm 211 French Hall Dept. of Plant and Soil Sciences Univ of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003-4210 USA ------------------------------------------------ phone: 413-545-5227 fax: 413-545-3075

From: Dana Scholle <dana at homecom.com> on 1998.06.18 at 21:09:57(2333) Thanks everyone for the responses thus far! Well, the tuber is.. let's see... about three inches across. It does need a bigger pot, doesn't it? Well, another thing that struck me as strange was that it leafed out really late last year, July or August I think, and kept growing through the winter. I'd just assumed from the sprout that it had broken dormancy. I think the high humidity in the plastic bag had caused it to sprout, but then when I opened it, the lower humidity caused it to die back. (?) *laugh* anyway.. Wish I could be languishing in some hot, steamy south Florida weather! +More At 01:12 PM 6/18/98 -0500, you wrote: >Dana, > >My konjac's are usually the last to emerge in my Amorphophallus farm, and >I have always suspected this was the case because konjac is the "least >tropical" of my plants. I don't believe konjac particularly cares for >this hot and steamy south Florida weather. > >Your note said you had the tuber planted in a 6 inch pot, but you did not >say how large the tuber is. My potting technique usually calls for a >container diameter that is a minimum of 3 times the diameter of the tuber. > >You mentioned the use of "potting soil". The word "soil" to me means >"dirt". You should be planting in a loamy planting medium that does not >collect and hold water. > >Don > >Don Burns Plantation, FL USA Zone 10b > > >

From: "ken johnson" <ken2j at dte.net> on 1998.06.19 at 00:00:52(2334) A general comment regarding A. Konjac, ours are just now coming out of the ground, as the have done in mid-Jine every year for the last three. They should be around until September, when they will go dormant for another eight months (no flowers yet). They grow outdoors completely untended in our Z-8 So. Carolina soil. +More Dana Scholle wrote: >Wish I could be languishing in some hot, steamy south Florida weather! Dana- Five minutes in today's 110 degree heat index might make you think otherwise :-> Ken J

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