Well, I would think that citrus and cacti can take way more light than your titanum to be honest. I have some of mine in the basement under a 400W MH light, but there the problem is that it is too cold this time of year...the Helicodiceros and Arum seem to think that it is a good idea...likely because of where they are from, but the Amorphs are in general unimpressed. Mine seem fine in a south facing window, but maybe they are etiolated and I'm just not clever enough to know it.....or care....as long as they are doing well. Best of luck :o) Dan

What I have to say may not be the best info seeing as I killed my titanum seedlings the first year out the gate.

But, from what I have read, Seedlings seem to be able to tolerate a good amount of shade. This would make sense seeing as how every picture I have seen of titanum has them inside mildly dense jungle.. seedlings would have to put up with the competition for sunlight. I would suspect that like Dan hinted to,the larger facter would be heat. I bet you could have reasonable success in a mildly well lit window if you added bottom heat.

Chris

Here is what I have in my terrarium.

I have two 18" Compact florescent bulbs, one a ESU desert 7% UV bulb (I used to keep reptiles), and a Aquatic plant light (I forget what K). So far results have been wonderful for tropical plants and seedlings.

As far as lighting goes, my many years experience with reef tanks and reptiles far exceeds that of plant lights, but combining the two types together, although probably overkill, seems to wonderfully.

For anything not in a terrarium, Metal Halide bulbs are the best for light output, but put of a lot of heat and may burn plants that get close. I would think getting one with the appropriate Kelvin rating from a fish store would work much better then a normal home depot MH.

Although, if fill your garage with MH bulbs, you can expect to get a knock on the door from the police asking what kind of plants you're growing :P

IÂll post a pic of my terrarium set up when I get home from work.

So far, this would have been a marvelous year for amorphs in the ground here, the hardy variety anyway. We have had absolutely no rain for a couple of months. We are expected to get snow on Wednesday, but with the temps down to 10 degrees, the high of 22 degrees, I doubt if it will be wet snow.

Wish I had planted that konjac now. Sigh.....

Susan

I don't know what the best type of indoor light is, but for what it's worth, I have a couple of titanum plants (6 months old) growing outdoors in full sun in Honolulu and a couple of others (same age) growing in partial sun. They all look healthy, and there's no appreciable difference between both groups.

Susan, I will probably plant my Konjac in the ground this spring. It split into five, but my sister gave me hers with is a really good size, and I gave her my smaller one. She insisted. The one I gave her didn't split, so it was actually bigger larger than mine. I would love to get the bulb to grow really big, but I have't to stop this spliting business. Wonder if it could have anything to do with the fact that I let it bloom out of the dirt. Hummmmmmm. :) Arum

Arum, how big is your largest tuber? What causes the splitting? I think we talked about this on another thread, but I've forgotten (short term memory loss; and not forcusing on aroids right now hasn't helped). I have a tuber to plant this spring as well.

How big does a konjac tuber get, under ideal conditions, of course.

Susan

Im not sure what causes spliting but if a frost hit it early in the season or it was broke sometimes they split. my konjac tuber is 7 inch diameter. I am waiting on a flower still this winter.

See the growing under lights forum. Those guys are professionals. I use twelve 4' 40watt 6500K florescent tubes in a semicircle hood to cover the plants more evenly in light. The lights run from 6:30 to 9:00. Still does not seem to be enough for my pine cone gingers though. The paeonifollius love it, and it seems to be enough light for amarylis. This is without any window lighting. They are in a windowless basement room.

Susan, someone said that to keep them from splitting, you let the first shoot grow, but if it puts up another you snip it off. Makes sense to me. Don't have any idea why they split in the first place. I think a konjac can get to 40 lbs.
Brandon, have you had a konjac flower yet? They do need a lot of fertilizer.
Klaiver, when do you use these lights? My bulbs are dormant. :) Arum

I bought my 400W MH from AHL. They were very nice and helpful. I think any "professional" grower would use either MH or HPS as these give massive amounts of light in the correct spectrum. There are newer bulbs that give a wider spectrum as well. For Amorphs that are not your typical flower plant use MH as this is best for leaf growth...HPS is the flower power light. The problem with a good MH light is the cost up front and that is why most people go with a set up like klavier instead. My 400W MH light with ballast cost $300. Yes it produces quite a bit of heat, but you would likely want fans running anway unless you want stagant air around the plants. My problem is that my basement is a bit chilly for the Amorphs so I can not grow my titanum, etc. down there for the winter....it is around 55F or a bit colder on these really cold nights...that will be too cold around the tuber and cause rot. I'm pretty confident in saying that titanum has never seen 50F in its natural environment!! I really think that a sunny window is fine for us northern geeks until the plant gets big and then I will likely have to get rid of them......I've got a couple over 3 feet tall now and are on their 3rd or 4th petiole after nearly 18 months of constant growth without dormancy and this is simply in front of my south facing window....they have never seen the outside of my house except when I'm spraying them for aphids every now and again during the summer.....they only get aphids on the newly emerging leaf...once it is all the way out they seem to leave the alone for whatever reason....too tough I suppose. My only advice would be if it is growing well then ignore anything you hear since you obviously have it figured out for your particular conditions :o) Dan

Dan, will your Titanum go dormant, will the leaf fade? :)

I had a Arum palaesitum crack this year. My guess is that I didn't water it enough and the top of the tuber just dried out. Also probably means it could have been planted deeper to avoid the drier soil in a pot that would be near the surface caused by evaporation.

Hi Arum, I've had my 13 titanum like most of us for around 18 months now. I've had two (2) go dormant. One because it got knocked over and the petiole severed (does that count as dormancy) and one on its own terms. The other 11 have not gone dormant yet. One of the guys that went dormant stayed that way for perhaps a month and the other was already putting up a new petiole by the time I knocked it out of its pot so that was very short. When in growth I water every 4 days....when dormant I watered every 7-10 days....not that much different.....kept the mix barely moist when dormant as suggested by the guys on aroid-l. I assume that this time around most will go dormant since they now have pretty good size leaves, etc. Some now have 8 leaflets so they are coming out of the baby stage into toddlers....how exciting :o) Dan

Ok Arum my amorphophallus konjac is going to flower for the first time . This last week i have kept my eye out and it was originally about 2 inches like normal. Then i noticed changes this week its grown 2 inches and as off now its coming up 1/4 inch a day at least but its getting ready.

Brandon, I am very happy for you! It was so exciting the first time mine flowered! It does seem a little odd that it's coming out of dormancy that early. Keep us posted on it's progress! :) Arum