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  [Aroid-l] Initiation of Flowering in Amorphophallus
From: bobrien at gustavus.edu (Brian O'Brien) on 2008.03.27 at 21:09:27(17247)
At 12:04 PM 3/24/2008, you wrote:
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>Fellow Aroiders:
>
> My Director is anxious that we flower Amorphophallus
> titanum which we have had here for many years. It has always been
> an embarrassment that we, among all the institutions in the world
> practically, have not flowered this species even though we have had
> the species from the earliest days. Anyway, I am now asking for
> advice from those of you who have flowered this species if you know
> of any way it can be induced to flower. I know that many of you do
> not actually want your plants of Amorphophallus to flower but if
> you have any ideas about what would induce these "lazy" plants of
> mine to flower (short of killing it) please let me know.
>
>Tom Croat

We repotted over the years into pots that were larger than the corm,
but not too overly large (fear of rotting, along with the difficulty
of locating an appropriate pot, were driving forces). The plant,
after reaching a relatively large size, would inevitably grow the
corm to fill the pot, and also begin to heave itself out of the
pot. We always add Osmocote when repotting, along with extra Perlite
in the potting soil to keep it well-drained. During the recent
flowering were top-dressing with a mixture of composted manure and
peat moss. The plant is now producing a new leaf, and we're curious
as to whether or not it will do the heave-partly-out-of-the-pot
action with regard to the current 44" pot. To see the new shoot on
our webcam,
see:
http://arboretum.blog.gustavus.edu/2008/03/06/perry-grows-again/ -
scroll down to the webcam link. The shoot is now much larger than
what is shown in the photos. See other entries on the blog for the
flowering event (the peak was May 12, 2007).

Brian O'Brien

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