colocasia non-tubers

From: Lester Kallus <lkallus at earthlink.net> on 1997.11.12 at 22:10:26(1610) It's that time of year and I'm digging up my colocasias and alocasias before the frost for a change. Usually I try to dig through frozen, thawed and now-mushed leaves to find tubers. Anyway, it makes me realize that there's a great variation in tuber formation in these plants. Perhaps the best example is the plain Colocasia esculenta. Some of these have the typical cone shaped tuber at the base of the stalk. This is even true for some of the smaller plants. Others look like roots coming out of the base of the petiole with no tuber at all. C. antiquorum illustris, C. fontanesii, C. "Burgandy stem" and C. "Blackie alias Black Magic alias Black leaf alias Voodoo alias whathaveyou" formed no tubers at all. They have roots coming out of what looks like the base of the massed petioles. So the question is: for those Colocasia that formed no tuber, is there a way to safely store them out of the soil over the winter? shall I just save several inches of "base of petioles" in vermiculite? I'd rather not have to purchase these over again and so will grow smaller pieces of them over the winter if I have to. With the limited space, though, I'd rather store them in a bag. I'd appreciate any help. Les

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