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  Re: [Aroid-l] A. hewetti and gigas dormancy requirements
From: "Russell Coker" <cokerra at bellsouth.net> on 2007.03.01 at 15:10:02(15377)
Hi Kirk.

I'm glad you've asked those questions, I've been kinda wondering too.

I received some hewettii seeds a few years ago and I'm pretty sure this will
be their third summer. The seeds germinated in the spring (March or April,
it seems like) and so far have flourished through the summer. As the nights
began to cool in October they yellowed and withered just like the others
considered hardy here in zn 8b. I knew they were tropical, so I figured
that was the end of them. But when I dumped out the pots I found fat little
dormant tubers! I kept them inside and dry-ish for the winter and they were
back up last spring. This past fall I intentionally left them outside again
and the same thing happened. After repotting them (again to check if they
were dead) they went into a friend's COOL greenhouse where they are kept on
the dry side because I'm terrified of rotting them and don't want to
encourage new growth until I can safely put them outside in another week or
two. As the nights begin to warm, good God willing, they'll be back up
again for the coming summer.

This has been my experience so far, but I have no idea if I'm actually
controlling dormancy or just rolling along with some adolescent natural
cycle. My hope in all of this is that I'll one day have huge happy plants
that enjoy my long humid summer but go dormant in the fall like
paeoniifolius for easy winter storage. I'm pretty sure this is called
"having your cake, and eating it too". I don't have a greenhouse of my own,
and don't really know where I'd put a big pot with a leaf the size of a
small tree - or how I'd get it there. I guess I'll worry about that
tomorrow.

Thoughts, anyone?

Russell Coker

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