The Aroid Thread

[Royal]

My Amorphophallus bulbifer as promised:

[mrobert]

Originally Posted by kavanaru

Hi mrobert, Amorphophallus konjiak needs quite warm temps.. I keep my dormant bulb wrapped in a piece of newspaper at not lower than 68F, maybe down to 60F at night (I mist them every once in ahile, when I remember, but do not think it is necessary at all - I do it because normally I have many little ones in the same packet) I do not re-pot the bulbs until I do not see new growth... Then I repot them in normal soil, keep them warm, and moist but not wet, until the leaf has open, at that point they start drinking like elephants!! Once the leaf if mature, they can tolerate lower temps, but I think 50 is indeed too low!!
They will also need a lot of light (but not necessarily direct sun - even though they can tolerate it), lots of water and nutrients (now you know where the water used for watering my S/H chids goes)

Once you get the trick with it, it's a very easy plant and will start producing masses of new bulbs every year. I promised to take a pic of my plant, but have not been able yet. i will do it this WE the latest, and you will see what I mean with masses on new bulbes I normally end up composting them, as most of my friends have already been plagued with them

Thank you so much for you advice and help!
Composting!?!? NOOOOoooooo.....send them to me, I'll pay for the postage from Basel!
-Mateo

[kavanaru]

Originally Posted by mrobert

Thank you so much for you advice and help!
Composting!?!? NOOOOoooooo.....send them to me, I'll pay for the postage from Basel!
-Mateo

if you really wnat, I can send some next winter but... wouldn't it be a problem to send them to USA? wouldn't they need phytosanitary permits & Co?

Just a question in the air... If someone knows the right answer...

and if no special permits are needed... get ready for the post


for next Winter I will have at least 6 new bulbs!

Maybe Tindo would be also interested?

[kavanaru]

here are the pics I promised

the first two pics are from April. This year the plant started producing babies before the mother had started to grow... so, they were already grown by the time big lef started to grow at aprox. 7'' per day.
Pics 3 & 4, are from today, and show the whole plant plus babies.
Pics 5 & 6 show some details of the "stem" and the lower part of the leaflets.
Pic 7 shows how large the this year babies are. 6 in total (maybe more in the coming months) and all in different sizes! This are the ones I could ship to you, if you find out it wouldn't be a problem to receive them via normal post.



P.D.- The plant is currently inside because of a very cold weather front we are having now in the Basel region: Yesterday I had to wear my winter coat again!!! And I normally do not complain because of low temps, as I love it cold!! But 50F in June is really too much!!

[Tindomul]

Wow, very nice plant. What does this plant's inflorescence smell like?

[kavanaru]

Hi Tindo,
my plant was supposed to bloom this year for the first, however it just decided to wait a bit longer... maybe next year? So, I have not been granted yet with the "pleasure" of this stinker at my flat yet

However, knowing it from the Botanical Garden... it is a very strong putrid smell Luckily it does not last too long, may 2 or 3 days.. But the leave are so great it is worth to satnd the smell for a few days (and you have too, because it blooms at the end of Winter, and therefore it is still to cold to place it outside

[Tindomul]

Do you know of any that smell good? What are the ligting requirements for this genus? If I buy one, I would only be able to grow in an east facing window that gets tons more light in the summer than in the winter.

[kavanaru]

Tindo, an east facing window should be fine. I grow my plant in east/south window, but am sure it can grow good with less light (at the Botanical Garden in Basel, they do not seem to get more light than my plant). The plant is active between April and September, so winter darkness is not a problem

I remember I have red once of one Amorphophallus with a nice scence, but cannot remember which or where I read that. I can suggest you to try Amorph. bulbifer. The plant is smaller, the flower is really impressive, and it smells bad only for about 3h one evening, and then no more.. but if the flowers is not pollinated you can enjoy it (the flower!) for about 2 weeks.

[Tindomul]

Wow, thanks. I think I will try it. Its high time I start dabbling with Amorphophallus.

[Faerygirl]

I have a few aroids in my collection, LOL. I really need to take some updated photos of some though. I'll try to do that this week. Here are a couple of new pics.

Alocasia macrorhizza albo-variegata...almost 5 ft tall. I take babies off these 2 mother plants every year and plant them out in the yard (they are hardy here) and so I have colonies of these on my property.