Sorry I disappeared...holidays and health issues...

I'll catch up and contribute again...

Here's pappy, my konjac, sucker grew 5 inches in the last 24 hours, it'll stink soon...

wow..u have a konjac blooming now??? did u keep it in
a warmer spot this winter??
mine dont show any sign of life until late feb..usually march..
looks great man.. how big is that corm??
i hear ya with the growth.. i am always amazed how much growth they can put on in a single day..:)
whether flowering..or vegetative growth..
keep us posted..and pics.. hint ..hint.. :)

I just realized what a deceptive pic that is...
That pots not sitting on the ground...it's on a table...
Tuber weighed 2 pounds on the nose this time last year, 7 this year, pretty proud of that fact!

I did keep it in the house this year, as opposed to the attached and heat, but somewhat cooler conservatory last year.
The hope was to have him at full mast but Xmas!
It's a real pisser cuz the spike wasn't over a foot tall for the party, I knew it was close, I figured 2 weeks off from last years bloom speed...but he'll be stinkin tmrw I think...one week off basically.
Had I thought I had a shot at getting it so early I'd have really kept him hot and under the big cfl hood to push it...Oh well, better luck next year I hope.
Here's the pics in sequence...

Dec 24

Dec 31
11 am

Dec 31
11pm

It's not hard to tell it's grown, but it's now been measured to have grown almost exactly 4" in 12 hours...

Just for fun, here's Buford, under said big cfl hood, he's seemed to enjoy it you can see his upturned arms, indicating he's reaching toward the light, unlike when he wasn't gettin enough, and the branches stretched down so low he almost touched the rim of the pot, looking like a mushroom.

I worry everyday that he's gunna give it up and I'm gunna miss my shot at cuttings, I've just taken such poor care of my tender pups and propagators that I'm afraid I'll let em die if I cut em off now, I just keep sayin, another week, another week, and very well will keep saying that for another month, or another month...
I see signs that hes gettin close so I think I best get on it!

Wished I could smell it through the computer screen.

Konjacs are nice, but I personally prefer the titanums because of the size potential and thickness in the stem. I think it's cool to literally have a tree growing out of a massive tuber which happens to be only a single leaf.

super pics grab !!! and you did a fantastic job getting that corm from 2# to 7 # !!! way to go.. want to pass on any secrets for your success???? :)
i think i like all of the amorphs..for various reasons..
i do find titanum the most facinating..i havent flowered a corm... yet.. :) i know when i do..and i have 3 corms that could be 2 growth periods from flowering.. if i dont kill them..
i know seeing the plant ..i grew .. flower.. that will be very cool !!!!!!!!!
for me..it will be getting a large enough ..height.. greenhouse to house them .. and im talkin 2014 fall..winter..so..not far off..
im now thinking of renting a tall commercial greenhouse.. there are some in my area.. for me to put up a 16 ft tall greenhouse..its not going to happen this yr.. 2014.. what we do for our plants.. LOL
hope to see more pics of titanums... when my small ones
pop out of the potting mix..i'll get some pics posted..
hope everyone had a good,safe new yrs eve.....

If you have a house with an attic, you could simply change a section to have a higher ceiling and install windows on the south facing side which will solve the height problem eh.

Just wondering, how well do these plants adjust to stronger light once spring comes along and they go outdoors?

I have mine only under a weak led light, and intend to move them to 54 watt t5 light setup once they get bigger.

Here's a picture of my tallest ones so far.

steve..very cool seedlings!!! yea.. i have a few sprouting
i gotta get them in pots..i started them in starting mix..in a plastic bag on heat pad..:)
i do have an attic ..but so far..i have 4 big titanums..and
1 large hewettii.. good idea..
my titanums got alot of pretty strong summer sun last year..wow.it is last yr..its 2014 now..lol
i wont put them in so much sun when they go out in may..
there has been discussion on this..how much light is good for titanums..
as for your seedlings..im sure they will do fine under your T5 lights.. i have my big titanums (inside) in south facing window(its a big window.. 11 ft wideX 5ft tall) and with 5 double bulb T5 lights going 14 hrs a day.. and they seem to appreciate the light..
keep us posted on progress steve on your seedlings..
good luck..

I can't decide which amorphs are the coolest, size definitely counts but hell my konjac is as tall as my Titan and a spread nearly as wide, from a tuber half the size...
If it makes it to 30# it'll be massive!

Here's the pair, pappy the konjac was only a 2 pounder and made that leaf, while Buford the Titan was over 5#...

Here's Buford in his mushroom phase, he was hurtin for light!
It got much worse after this so I built that DIY light you see above...

It has a dozen 33-36w cfl's in there for an output of roughly 40,000 lumen...
A 400w hps would have been a better choice! As they, for the same amount of energy with output nearly twice the lumens!
The trade off is in the initial investment, the hps woulda cost 3x as much, and wouldn't have nearly as fun to build!

very cool pics and plants grab !!
im jealous..i dont have an enclosed porch,sun room like you.. sigh.. ?? how tall is the ceiling??
potting mix u have buford in..looks like alot of perlite??
do you like your potting mix?
what temps are you keeping that room at??
i see an alocasia in the room too.. looks like my backyard in summer.. :)

One question I've always wanted to ask, is towards the end of a leaf's life, couldn't you just take all the leaves to make cuttings, or would that result in a smaller tuber?

Mine haven't even put out leaves yet, but I think this plant is very cool and I like propagating cool plants.

good question steve.. im still practicing at successfully starting seedlings from leaf cuttings..
only thing i could see as a problem with using leaves when the parent plant is ending its vegy stage and petiole wilts..then dormancy.. is.. the leaves may not be of quality for doing cuttings on..
i look at my 3 largest titanums..there are alot of leaves there..even the smaller one..its 40inches tall..and it has alot of leaves..
i also found with 2 of my big titanums..they come from a
strain that sports HUGE leaves.. 11-13 inches long..
the leaf cuttings i tried on them..didnt go well..:(
on smaller leaves..they are doing better..
i dont know if id want to strip the parent plant of all its leaves .. good question for those out there with ALOT more experience with that than me..

I believe with this plant, leaf cuttings would have to stay under relatively high light because more photosynthesis would be needed, humidity to keep the leaf from drying out, and a rooting hormone to stimulate root growth.

I believe honey may work in terms of keeping away infections, and potentially as a source for starches. I'm far from the point of doing it, but my goal is to have a titanum tree with a diameter of a foot some day.

The ceilings low!

My mix was only around 1/3-1/4 perlite, it just constantly makes it's way to the top, hateful stuff, I think I'll prepare a top dressing for next year, I guess it'll need sterilizing too...
The other amorphs performed very well in this mix, and Buford has seemed happy enough, i do keep him rather dry, and humidity only runs at around 30% lol, so they can certainly handle dryness!

That's actually my garage in that pic, he withstood some very cool 45-50 degree stents in there before I moved him on inside, doesn't seem to have bothered him as far as I can tell.

lol..your garage looks like my basement..:)
great looking EE's man !!!!
?? whats the reddish/purple colocasia/alocasia on left side of pic?? thats a really attractive plant!!!! i gotta get me some of them...
your big colocasia on right looks like it has flowers..???yes??
steve..wow..thats a great goal for a HUGE MONSTER titanum.. you know thats gonna be a TALL plant.. :) hehehe.. i know the one up in canada at muttart conservatory..i think its 13" diameter..and over 15 ft tall..
theres was a 240# corm starting fall 2012..it flowered spring 2013..its now in vegy growth..

wow..no one chatting... ????
i did take a shower... LOL
im very anxious to see how one of my largest titanums
did..or more so..how i did in growing it.. one is now
going into dormancy.. the petiole just slumped over the other day.. im guess will take another week or so to completely wilt.. then..i get to unpot and see how the corm looks..
ok..i did poke around in the pot.. didnt unbury it..but felt the corm..and its firm..so.. hopefully thats a good sign..
hows everyone elses titanums doing this winter???

My larger titanum is dormant this summer so I expect it will start off again this coming spring. Seems to like growing alternate years. I've read sometimes they do a 3 year dormancy, certainly hope mine never does that. The 2 seedling ones (couple of years old) are still going well. I took a leaflet off each one and potted them. Hopefully by the end of the season there'll be 2 more plants.

Been getting a lot of rain this month. Last week got just under 200 millimetres in 2 hours. So far for January I've had over 600 mm of rain. The dormant titanum is sitting in its pot out in the weather. I ended up putting a lid over part of the top of the pot to reduce the amount of rain getting in. I want some rain to get in, it's highly oxygenated water. But don't need the amount that's been falling lately.

I really doubt there's a need for 3 year dormancies if the conditions for vernalization are met.

wish we would get some snow/rain here..we got some start of winter and nada lately..
i plan to take some leaf cuttings from couple smaller leaf
titanums..i took some from couple of my large titanums..but the leaves were so big.they didnt take..so im hoping i'll be more sucessful with smaller leafed ones..
i havent read any detailed comparisons/studies on variations found in titanum..but i know grower i got my largest titanum corms..has several "varieties"..he starts all his from seed..but gets seed from many sources..
the large leafed ones i have..put out nearly 13" ( 33 cm)
long..seems like a long leaf..lol

Stevelau1911, not sure how you can relate "conditions for vernalization" to growing titanums, they're an equatorial plant.

Dave, of the 2 leaflets I potted, the older one is now showing signs of senescence. It was over 6 months old whereas the other is closer to 2 months old. The leaflets are large so hope the nutrients in the ageing one are going towards a tuber, even if it's going to be very small. Probably younger leaflets are the best way to go.

hey to my buddie down under..:)
wish we had just a hint of your weather here..sigh..
its what i get for living here..lol
i wanna do some titanum leaf cuttings this week..
made some room for heat pad,and couple covered trays..
like i need more titanums..LOL.. but..its the experimentation and see if i can do it..
large titanum thats wilted..sure is taking its own sweet time wilting.. im not in any hurry..just really want to see what the corm looks like.. that'll tell me how i did growing the plant ..

I want to get several plants going so I can put some out in the garden. We do have nematodes, but there are thousands of species of them and I'm hoping that perhaps the one that likes titanums isn't here. But I'll only try it with "extra plants".

hope titanums can fight off any soil nematodes there!!! and u end up with a forest of titanums..:)
i finally got to unpot and check out wilted titanum..
yea..i didnt kill it..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL geesh there were a TON of roots on the corm..
only thing..i cant remember what sized corm this was when i planted it..LOL
i am all out of pine bark..so ive got to get to box store and get some bags ..i have good amount of pumice still..
and soil additives i put in when i pot up..
only thing..this new corm is gonna need a bigger pot..than one it was in..so that tells me..maybe i did get a larger corm from last growing season...?? anyways..
i have a "fabric pot" 80 gal size comming this week..im sure if i keep corm warm,and barely damp..it'll hang in there till i get new pot..
so far..ive liked using these "fabric pots".. and..i can get them in BIG sizes..which i need.. and i havent been sucessful in finding BIG heavy duty plastic pots..
i'll take some pics tomorrow..and post..
BIG pots

A pot that size you obviously won't be able to move. Better make sure it's in the right place before you set it up.

Just got home tonight (after being away at work) and there's been a lot of rain. Even though I mostly covered the pot with the largest (dormant) tuber, the soil is still very wet. Probably have to completely cover the pot. Going by its usual cycle it still has another 8 months of dormancy. Of course, in its habitat it wouldn't be unusual for it to be sitting in soggy soil during dormancy.

ya..i think im gonna have 4 big potted titanums this growing season..oh my aching back..LOL :)
heres a couple pics of the corm i just unpotted..
i couldnt believe the roots on it still..
the corm is only 9 inches ( 22 cm) across..but the roots make it look alot bigger..

heres another pic of same corm

got the pots,and bark nuggets..so..now its potting time..
just rain here today..so i can go outside and pot this one up..without freezing the corm..or me..LOL ..sure thinkin climate u have tropic would be nice..:)
also have a hewettii corm to unpot..the leaf completely fell over couple weeks ago..but base of petiole is still hanging on..so i havent been very agressive to unpot..but i am curious to see how it did.. christmas again!!! lol

I guess it's about time to share pictures of my largest ones. They are by a south facing window and I'm looking forward to their progress when it warms back up to bring them outdoors.

very cool steve!!! so how old are these babies then??
looks like u cover the potting mix with plastic wrap..?? does the potting mix dry out to fast otherwise??

The ones in this picture are about 3 months old from seed. Most of them appear to just lack vigor perhaps due to lack of light and heat that you would experience under full sun during summer, but these are doing fairly exceptional under south facing window light.

The soil would dry out within a few good hours of sun without the plastic wrap which is the reason why I have it there.

wow..almost a whole month and no one posting???
its still early i guess for any titanum growth..i guess..
i do have one of my large titanums that looks like its starting dormancy.. and one in earlier pic..has petiole
bud starting to come alive..
my titanums are all over the place in growth.. lol..
i remember posting here or other garden blog . "do you think
you can control active vegetative growth time"... mmmm..
i think ive answered my won question.. NOPE>>>>
:) i am thinking once the corm gets to 14+ pounds.. (northern hemisphere) they follow seasonal growing cycle.. sort of.. i have one smaller corm.. started at 8#, and its been growing now for well over a year.. and shows no sign of waning.. i wonder how long it'll go..
then tallest of titanums.is going strong..no sign of dormancy.. its the sleepy one..it took its own sweet time
to get going..then when it did..it shot up like a rocket..
im anxious to see how i did in growing it..the new corm..and roots..

??hows everyones titanums doing so far??
my 2 biggest titanums are hanging on to vegetative
growth..lol..maybe they'll go into fall?? lol
one in earlier pic (roots galore) is potted up again,and
shooting out roots.. petiole is just breaking out of potting mix..its outside now too..
small titanum is also hanging on to leaf..its showing major signs of being tired..but ..guess as long as it hangs on..
2 mid sized titanums are just starting to wake up..few roots,small petiole showing growth..
im really anxious to see how much corm growth is on the
2 largest titanums..but..they wont give it up..LOL
hope all is well .and with u all's amorphs....

My little seedling from last year didn't survive the winter; I had a week-long trip and it dried out. (Actually, the only Amorphophallus plant that didn't die during that stint was a well-established bulbifer, which I was surprised to see send out a new spike just last week!) I do, however, have yet another growing this year. It's looking like it's gonna grow rather well this time.

Our nighttime temperatures have been relatively moderate; I think the lowest I've seen this past week was about 58F. In spite of this, the forecasts have been calling for temps to drop into the upper 40s still, so in the interest of being careful, I've not yet put this one outside just yet. (Well, that and the fact that it's so dry here, I've literally watched pints of pooled water evaporate within a 24-hour period; we're a touch parched in southern New Mexico!) July is typically the start of our "monsoon" season, so it will likely go outside around then.

My largest is still dormant, but isn't due to start emerging until about September anyway. The larger of the 2 small ones is still going, thought it was going to start winding down not long back. And the photo below is the other small one which started sprouting again not long ago. It's going to be a donor in my next leaflet cutting propagation program. The current leaflet cutting is still going. Thought when the leaflet started to yellow a bit it was going to wither and leave me with only a tiny tuber. Somehow it's hanging on and the leaflet seems to have a bit more green now than it did earlier. I'm wondering how big a tuber I'll get from a leaflet in a single growing season.

So, we're right into winter now and so far this year have done reasonably well. Average minimum to date for June is 21.4C (May was 21.2C). Darwin (on the coast) was in May 23.3C and June also 23.3C. A lot of advantages to being right on the coast. Our minimum the other morning was 25.0C. But I think it'll start cooling down again soon. It's very dry, and the last few days very windy. There's still some water laying around from the late wet season, but cloudless windy days are drying it fast. In a couple of weeks time the days will start getting longer.

The titanum in the above photo is now opening out it's leaf. Nights have turned cold now so guess it'll be slowing down a bit. My leaf cutting surprisingly is still going. Not the healthiest looking leaf but it's doing the job of feeding the young tuber. When the new leaflets fully open out on the new plant I'll take a couple of those for cuttings as well.

{{gwi:385775}}

{{gwi:385777}}

tropic..whatever u r doing.your leaf cuttings are working!!
my last attempt was with to big a leaves i think..
im learning there are various "sports" of titanum..like so many plants.. i have 2 titanums with MONSTER leaves..
last yr..one big one had leaves almost 14" (35 cm) long
geesh..i guess i need to back off on the radioactive fertilizer..LOL :)

Dave, I've done the calculations and I figure it this way. Each year I'll take 2 leaflets off my plants and propagate them. The new plants should take about 3 years before I can take 2 leaflets off each one, and then every year after that. At that rate, by the year 2030 I should have about 15,000 titanum plants of various sizes. Now, I just have to work out how I'm going to get that many pots and potting mix.

lol.. well u live in a climate that u can at least grow them
outside..:)
u will become the world supplier of titanums...maybe with all the deforestation in PNG you can repopulate them there..
:)
i do plan to try my hand at leaf cuttings again this yr..just not with MONSTER leaves..
im at 9 titanums..i think..mmm.better go count again..LOL
dont plan to buy anymore titanum corms.on to the other 3 "tropicals"..and the african amorphs..

My new seedling has opened its leaf and seems to be thoroughly enjoying its present location at the window. Given that we're starting to see lows in the upper 50s / lower 60s F, I'll probably be moving most of my Amorphophallus specimens outdoors tomorrow; this one miiiight stay inside for just a little longer. Maybe.

great looking seedling baphijmm !!!
dont give the seedling any direct light..
i made that mistake with my hewettii.. they did ok..but
took them all summer to recooperate from my giving them
to much sun..
keep us posted on how your titanums are doing...

Just a bit of an update on this guy:

This was our wettest, coldest monsoon on record; with a total accumulated precip thus far for the year exceeding 17 inches, we're still seeing sopping-wet clay in some areas. (Consider I live in a mountainous desert-forest; this is far more than usual.) As a result, the titanum never made it outdoors; I kept it inside to shelter it from the excess moisture and cold. Its main stalk is looking a little sad (healthy mind you, just a bit limp); however, it would appear it's trying to send out a new petiole. Not sure what the corm looks like (it's not gone into hibernation yet), but clearly it feels it can push that envelope. This image was actually taken a few nights ago; that new spike has continued to grow. :D

Hope no one minds if I "put my foot in the door." I'm just wondering if this thread is still active.

A few photos of my feeble titanum collection and my smattering of assorted Amorphs. Our "wet" just started here in far north Queensland, Oz and things are starting to wake up!!!

The large water tank planter has (from the foreground to the rear) A. bulbifera, A konjac, A. muelleri and A. paeoniifolius. The other photos show my collection of the elusive titanums in various states health and vigour.

Here are the titanums...

A new, healthy shoot from one of the A. titanum seedlings...

Your season does start fairly late there Rob. One of my paeoniifolius flowered but that's now long gone. The bulbifers went crazy with about a dozen of them flowering, last one withered not long back. Glad they've finished. The smell wasn't that overwhelming, just persistent. Next time I'm going to cull the flowers before they open. The konjacs are all up but no flowering yet. Symonianus, albispathus and galbra are all up as well. One of the titanums is still dormant, the other powering along now that the wet is kicking in. The oldest leaf cutting withered finally but the tuber is about the size of a large seed. Planted it in with the dormant one as the pot is extra large. The gigas hasn't started growth again, but it usually had a year's break after growing for a year. Maybe it's taking a year off for having flowered.

Your titanums are looking good. My seedlings produced multiple stems the first couple of years, sometimes three simultaneously. Now they only have the one at a time and have a dormant period as well. I was hoping my dormant one would start growing now so that I could get a few more leaf cuttings at the start of the wet.

Tropic,

The bulbifers grow like weeds around here. In fact I was somewhat reluctant to put them anywhere near our patches of rainforest for fear that we could end up with "rampant aliens." (big grin).

I noted that A. galbra flowered down at the Cairns Botanical Gardens several weeks ago. I'm still trying to score some seed of galbra through a plant collecting mate that works for the Queensland Dept. of Environment. Plenty of local sightings in the past, but the activities of feral pigs seem to have almost wiped them out on this part of the Cape.

I'll keep my eye on our fishtail lawyer vine for seed if you're still interested.

We can definitely use more rain out here, but I'm not keen on the sort of activity that "Brisvegas" is getting with the the huge hail stones, high winds and flooding. Give me a good 'ol cyclone any day!(another not so big grin)