[Aroid-l] Question for Amorphophallus expert?

From: ronmchatton at aol.com (ronmchatton at aol.com) on 2007.11.27 at 14:20:21(16749) Matt: It's my experience that they do best if actively growing kept just a little on the dry side, especially at low temperatures.? If you're looking for a recipe, it would be something like "water when the top of the potting mix is dry".? If you notice fungus gnats you are way to wet.? Keep in mind that at 60F, wet potting soil will be significantly cooler than that depending on the humidity.? At one time, I was growing about 4000 titanum from seed and, at least as juveniles, soil temperature is important in keeping them growing.? Wet potting soil can be as low as 50F due to evaporation with an air temperature at 60F.? The optimum soil temperature appears to be something near 80F and if it gets much higher they tend to cook.? While we are talking about temperature, keep in mind that depending on where you are in the country, your water temperature can be very low during the winter.? If you don't heat the water to your greenhouse, use tepid water for this species. While dormant, I keep mine much drier than some would recommend but that's from experience as well.? It is true that they will not survive out of soil, but they will, in a humid greenhouse survive just lying on top of a pot of soil (not that I recommend it).? When mine go dormant, I lift the corms, clean?them and inspect for superficial rot (be very careful handling the corm since the skin is very thin in this species and any damage is asking for trouble), and then repot it in loose potting soil.? I don't water this species until the soil has dried to below the base of the corm and when I water I do so only around the rim of the pot.? This keeps them rather dry.? If dormancy sets in early, it will typically last until the potting soil temperature gets very warm.? Here in Central Florida, if dormancy sets in in December, the plants come up in July.? Conversely, if the plant continues to grow through the winter and goes dormant in May or June, dormancy is very short, sometimes only two weeks. Ron McHatton +More -----Original Message----- From: Kameron Kissinger To: aroid-l at gizmoworks.com Sent: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 8:45 pm Subject: [Aroid-l] Question for Amorphophallus expert? ? I have a Amorphophallus titanum that i just brought into my greenhouse and it stays above 60 in there all winter. Right now it has a huge leaf and it is my first winter to try and over winter?an actual plant instead of a bulb.?i don't want to rot the bulb... so how often should i water it ? ? Thanks, ? ?????????? Matt Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. _______________________________________________ Aroid-L mailing list Aroid-L at www.gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/mailtour/aol/en-us/text.htm?ncid=aolcmp00050000000003 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/private/aroid-l/attachments/20071127/c124c8d3/attachment-0001.htm

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