It needs more sun....see how its "stretching".

This one looks like X. atrovirens. Planty's right, it needs more light. They don't make good houseplants. It takes a 400w MH lamp and high humidity to grow them indoors here. The leaf should turn a much darker blue-green with enough light or sun. Hopefully you can move it outside soon.

Keiko

i know i need to get some better lights.

Theres a real good one, and its free.

I looked in my paper sack of tubers yesterday and my malanga tubers are just now sprouting little pink buds. I think I best get it potted up this weekend. It is still going to have to wait another month or two to be potted outside. I don't know what I'm going to get yet, but as Keiko said, it's probably going to be atrovirens.

Good show there, BT. I need to get to the Asian market again.

Susan

When the buds are quite pink to a candy-apple red rather than maroon, they are often X. violaceum, a real beauty. In general, violaceum tubers are larger and smoother than atrovirens. Sagittifolium tubers are usually still larger, smooth, and a lighter tan color than either of these. If you have an Asian Indian or Hispanic grocer in your area that sells them, they are the best at telling you what to expect from the tubers they sell (by description, they probably won't know the species name).

All are worth growing for the big foliage where summers are hot and humid.

Keiko

Mine are neither candy apple red or maroon - light pink.

Susan

The light pink is from storing during the winter in the dark which is the best way and nothing to worry about. No way to be sure what it is at this point. It's warm & uncomfortably humid in Dallas this weekend; all tropicals are trying to break dormancy and grow. Musa basjoo is sending up huge leaves, but a hard freeze to set them back is possible here for at least for the next month.

Keiko

New to this, so was wondering how you plant malanga. How deep etc. Also do you buy the biggest tuber?

Thanks,
Lee

I'm wondering the same thing, Lee. Keiko, I picked up some different malanga tubers today at the market. Two of them were in a different bin, and the tubers are a very dark purple, similar to the atrovirens, but much darker purple.

The other one was a very large, almost the size of a small, but flatter baby pumpkin, light tan. I am hoping that this is the saggitifolum you are speaking about.

Now about planting. Should the tuber be planted with the top of the tuber at least 2" or so beneath the soil? One of my tubers is sprouting all over, so some of the sprouts are definitely going to be covered more deeply than the top.

We need help!

Susan

I used to plant them more shallow for good drainage during spring flooding, but I came across a kind of agricultural station site in India that said 10cm (about 4") is the right depth. This works well in Dallas. They would be hardy in the ground here, except the ones that have very large tubers like sagittifolium and violacea tend to expand upward so that the top of the tuber is at or above ground level, leaving it prone to freezing. When the top of the tuber freezes, I just get a few small plants coming back from the base in mid-summer. Covering with about 6" of soil or a pile of dry hardwood leaves keeps this from happening here.

For the ones that are already sprouting, set them out in basins about 4" deep next week as it warms up and gradually fill in around them as they grow. If they get frozen back again just go ahead and fill in around them.

Good grief! Most of January was warmer than this week of March in Dallas. Supposed to be back to normal by next weekend.

Keiko

Thanks, Keiko. I will keep you posted on the growth. This one malanga tuber, the big one, I am hoping really is sagittifolia. I am also hoping the other one if violaceum, although it is NOT candy apple red, but very, very deep purple. Much more purple than the other one that I got the first time. Even the tuber itself appears to be purple under the skin.

Susan

If the swelling bud, petioles and blades are all pretty much a healthy grass-green it's probably sagittifolium, although the most reliable I.D. is the sinus, the open space between the lobes and the way the lobes flare outward.

To me, the varieties of atrovirens that have dark buds and stems are maroon to brownish and not so pink or purple as violaceum. Atrovirens is also always yellow to dark gold under the outer two layes of skin, so it sounds like you should have a big beautiful violaceum this summer. Once up and growing, they will be very easy to tell apart. Violaceum petioles are quite violet rather than maroonish with the color extending all the way up to the blade and a kind of lavender farina on the petioles. Unfurling blades will have a metallic purple color on backside. There will be a purple border in the veining around the outside edge of the blade and the sinus is more similar to sagittifolium than atrovirens, but then a lot of oddities & possible hybrids show up at the supermarket here :)

Keiko

YEAH! I think I managed to pick up all three, because they are all very distinct from each other, and very much like what you have described, Keiko! Thank you so much for your in-depth analysis and descriptions. You've helped me a great deal. I'm so excited I can barely stand it.

Now, one more question. I know, I'm a pest, huh? Will these survive in the ground over winter if I mulch them heavily? If not, I can always buy them again next year, but I'm just curious. Course, I know it always depends on what kind of winter we have, too.

Susan

I think you just have too keep the soil and the tubers that are growing at or above the soil level from freezing. They need to be dug and divided regularly as I get around to it, but the ones I left in the ground this winter started sending up spikes of unfurled leaes when it was warm a few weeks ago. There may be some frost damage to the first leaves that unfurl, but then they will quickly be replaced by larger ones as it gets hot. Atrovirens tends to grow more deeply without rising to the surface and has never needed a mulch in Dallas.

Keiko

How should I store my malanga tubers before planting...I had put them in a container with just a little water in the sun. Would they do better in forming buds without the water? I should be able to plant them in about a couple of weeks....The beginning of our April 2011 has been chilly here in Annapolis. Thanks for any information you can give....and also should I cut off the top before planting?