Re: [Aroid-l] Colocasia gigantea hardiness?

From: Tony Avent <tony at plantdelights.com> on 2004.11.29 at 12:01:46(12445) David: Very interesting about your form of C. gigantea. It could be that this is a clone that is eaten throughout several parts of Asia. I also wondered why it was named "gigantea" until I saw this new ecotype. +More At 09:36 PM 11/27/2004 -0500, you wrote: >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Tony Avent" >To: "Discussion of aroids" >Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 12:40 PM >Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Colocasia gigantea hardiness? > > >> Aroiders: >> >> The Colocasia gigantea that we sell came from Hayes Jackson of Alabama, >> who got it from a next door neighbor, who moved to the US from Thailand. >I >> suspect that most of this in the US originated from this clone. It has >> survived 5 degrees F here, with no mulch, but it never reaches much more >> than 4' in height. This form is stoloniferous, but the stolons don't run >> far from the parent as in C. esculenta var. aquatalis. >> >> For spring, we will have a new form, collected in 2003 by Petra Schmidt in >> Thailand. These plants are much larger...make that massively larger than >> the form we grew before. Seedlings planted in the ground in May reached >> 6-7' tall x 10+' wide in 5 months. In the wild, the clump was around 9' >> tall with leaves much larger than a normal person. This will be our first >> winter with this new form in the ground, but we've got our fingers >crossed. >> I'm curious if there are more forms of Colocasia gigantea being grown out >> there in aroid land. >> >> Tony Avent >> Plant Delights Nursery @ >> Juniper Level Botanic Garden >> 9241 Sauls Road >> Raleigh, NC 27603 USA >> Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F >> Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F >> USDA Hardiness Zone 7b >> email tony@plantdelights.com >> website http://www.plantdel.com >> phone 919 772-4794 >> fax 919 772-4752 >> "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least >> three times" - Avent > >================================= >Tony, do you know when Hayes Jackson got his clone? Mine came from a lady >that moved here from Vietnam in the late 70's. Her family ate the leaves >and petioles of this plant after cooking it like spinach. Your description >of a height of 4 ft. sounds about right for mine. Your description of it's >stolon activity also is similar to mine. They didn't run very far, but >there sure was a bunch of them. I remember selling a bunch of it a few >years ago in a yard sale. That new form you have sure sounds interesting. >I've always wondered how it got the name "gigantea" when it's leaves weren't >any larger than the common C. esculenta. I guess your new form settles that >question! > >David Sizemore >Kingsport, TN (Zone 6a) > >_______________________________________________ >Aroid-l mailing list >Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com >http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l > Tony Avent Plant Delights Nursery @ Juniper Level Botanic Garden 9241 Sauls Road Raleigh, NC 27603 USA Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F USDA Hardiness Zone 7b email tony@plantdelights.com website http://www.plantdel.com phone 919 772-4794 fax 919 772-4752 "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least three times" - Avent _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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