Thats a lot of great growth! I like the leaf form on it. Very nice!
-Alex

Cool.

Can we borrow your heavy rain?

What is the native name and is the root used for food? In PR they have large plants like that and the roots are potato-like large tubers.

I am sure somebody somewhere would try to eat this!

Take my rain,please!

Look at the bottle in the last picture,it looks like a 16oz(?)you get out of the soda machine-
think of it that way and then realize it's a 2 liter bottle and you get some idea of the size of the leaves.
I think the last time I measured the largest leaf was 26" across,can't wait to see the next one open-
they just keep blowing up like balloons-

Really fun to watch grow!

i ordered a couple of those and had no luck keeping them alive. where did you get yours and did you have trouble at first? they look great! im jealous!

The leaf itself, not counting the petiole, will be about 3+ ft. When they max out, flowers are formed and then branching begins.

They don't form a tuber like other Colocasia. They should be kept in a pot with soil overwinter. You can cut off all the leaves except the newest, and let it coast through the winter with minimal growth.

They are also prone to rot in the spring if given too much water prior to fully active leaf growth. This time of year, they can be treated like aquatic plants.

I know all too well about their rotting tendencies. I lost a 3-yr old plant that had a stem thicker than my leg because I tried to force it into growth before it was warm enough.

Live and learn.

Alocasia Calidora is bulletproof. It stores easily overwinter, forms a real trunk with age, and grows quickly too. I have some with stems almost 2 ft tall. Their leaves are upright, bright green and thick. They don't get damaged by wind. Colocasia Thailand Giant will get somewhat tattered and spoiled in heavy wind.

x

I got mine from Brian's Botanicals,as mentioned can't overwater in warm/hot temps.

Xero

I don't think this plant is showing any signs of slowing down,leaves are said to get up to 5' or more around,this one is approaching 3'.

I can see these leaves twisting of in high winds,we have been fortunate there.

Hopefully this one will keep making these beautiful leaves and they will continue to get bigger,it's got at least 7-8 weeks of warm/hot weather,at a pace of at least one leaf per week,it's possible to see(at least)8 more leaves!

jimmy - the descriptions of this plant talk about the leaf + petiole. The leaf itself is not quite 5 ft.

And you won't necessarily get 8 more leaves. What will happen shortly is that a flower stalk will form instead of a leaf. Then it will start to branch. Also, the giant leaves take a little longer to form. Small leaves come quickly. The branches don't make giant leaves right away, they start off smaller.

This plant also pups prolifically, so you'll have plenty to share with friends!

x

I guess by jimmy you mean me?

Look at this picture,you can't see the petioles because the leaves are to big.

I am guessing they are 5' unless the guys a midget.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1146663}}

Another nice picture,leaf and petioles...10'added together?

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have seen that 2nd photo before. I don't think anyone in the US has been able to duplicate that same kind of growth the plant would get in SE Asia, let alone one of us in the colder parts.

The first photo is probably about as big as it can reasonably get in a garden. Check out my photoshopped image:

Assuming the dude is 6 ft, half his body is about 3, and that 3 ft looks like it would be from the tip to the point it attaches to the petiole. Then add about another 18 inches for the part of the leaf that extends out.

I think that would be fantastic if you could get yours that big in one season. Pump it up with nitrogen and lots of water!

x

If that guy could only see what happened to his picture(-;

Whatever -they are freakin big leaves jimmy or no jimmy(-:

If there was ever a year for a tropical plant
to make good this is it!

Super tropical here-you never know with these big leaves plants what will cause them to shut down the biggy production.

My Castors were trying to flower at 2 feet-argh!-

Just have to wait and see-mine has already brought me more joy than any other plant this year,whatever it does from here on out is all good!

My EE's have grown bigger than I have ever seen them too,a nice reward after so many cool summers!

2 yrs ago when my daughter was in kindergarten, their fall project was to bring home leaves from plants growing in the neighborhood.

I had her bring in one of the Thai Giant leaves. The teacher was speechless :-)

I was going to give my gf's kid a Castor bean leaf that was 42"
across to take to school but he thought their heads might explode!

He's a smart kid cuz they probably would have(exploded there heads),instead he took a giant Yucca root
(about 4" in diameter)they had it for 5-6 months,when he brought it back it
was light as air,I threw it in the back yard....now there are several Yucca plants growing off it
-you just can't kill those Yucca roots!

Hey Jimhardy, if you ever get any pups from this one I would love to get one! I live in Canada and these guys are hard to find to say the least. Cheers.

If you think it would make it through customs remind me!

I have heard this is a problem shipping from here to there.

Here's a picture of it today- 7-12-10

Jim, is yours planted in full or part sun? How often do you miracle gro? Mine is just now starting to take off after reading that you can't overwater them. It pushed out a new leaf in 2 days after I kept it soaked. Is that the only trick? Water? I put coffee grounds, miracle gro garden soil, and milorganite mixed into the soil. What else do I need to do? I planted it about 3 weeks ago, and its not nearly the size of yours yet.

I haven't hit it with miracle grow to much,maybe a couple times.
I did put some composted manure on it a few days ago and I also mixed that and milorganite into the soil when planted,as long as it's warm water away.

I figure it needs plenty of water to support those big leaves.

Mine starts getting sun about 11-11:30 and on through 7-8pm

I think an east exposure would produce the biggest leaves depending on where it's growing,keeping the hottest sun off them.

As Xero pointed out,it has slowed as far as leaf # production but not leaf acreage-lol

Can you post a picture of yours?

The weather has been truly tropical here with 20"+ of rain since May 22 when we started our 80-80f+ string of days-53 days in a row 80 or more!

We have averaged 67-87 during this time

I'm guessing a new leaf will break out today.

99f tomorrow!

Sounds like our temperatures are about the same, 60s and 70s overnight and mid 80s to 90s during the day, but we have not had a lot of rain lately. Everybody's lawn has pretty much fried. I think that's where I was going wrong was with not enough water. I've been overwatering the heck out of it, and it just put out a much larger leaf. I'll post a pic hopefully tomorrow(it's dark now).

I think your going to switch into a rainier pattern starting next week if your not already.

Are you in Grosse(sp?) Island Michigan?

Impressive and massive. They must look tropical-like in down-pours. I think I saw an old Thai photo where local people used them as an umbrella from in the rain. I see you have your 90s and I bet your plant is really taking off!

Thanks for the rain - we had 1.6 inches since yesterday and needed it. Hopefully more soon.

We had tons of rain before the heat hit in June-
the growth rate was incredible.

I just put in a Thai Giant into my back border this June. It is getting absolutely huge! It is soon becoming the focal point of the back yard! I will have one of my garden buddies take a photo with me in it soon, because you really can't appreciate the scale of this plant otherwise. I started off planting a 3-gallon which was very healthy and already growing vigorously. Got it for $19 at a local nursery. It gets some shade in the afternoons and I'm feeding it Milorganite and giving it lots of water. We just got about 3" of rain over the last few days, so that should give it a boost!

Sounds like you have it in a good spot.
I wanted to plant mine in a place where it would be shaded from the hot afternoon sun
but there just wasn't room as I really wanted to allow for it's projected size.

I am glad I planted it where I did,with the massive size of the last 2 leaves,a plant that people
didn't notice before now gets those-'what's that?!' comments,(-:

I sure the Giant Thai is enjoying your 91 * f

Greg

The heat just makes these explode!

86 a couple of nights ago burst the new leaf out almost all the way,which is saying something for a leaf this big-
held it's own in 100F heat this afternoon!

I have one of these too (supposedly). I was in a little pint pot when I got it, and then I put it in a 1 gallon pot for about a month. It looked like it was really ready to come out of that pot so I put it in the ground about 6 weeks ago. I would have rather put it in partial shade, but it's easier to keep it watered where it is. 95F days against a hot brick wall haven't bothered it too much.

I'm kinda wondering now what I'm going to do with it during the winter, I don't want it to rot.

{{gwi:1146677}}

They need a ton of water in heat to ensure max size and minimize stress.
I think I will try to store mine in the basement in the off season.

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Yeah, I think next year I may plant it to where my a/c drain line drips on it, it should love that. I also have a Abyssinian banana in full sun that I will move to partial shade next year, the sun removes nearly all of the color.

(Just realized I wrote "I was in a pint pot" in my older post, meant to say "IT".) ;)

HOW WOULD THIS BE OVER WINTERED HERE IN THE COLD NORTH.I WOULD HAVE IT IN A POT

I think in a cool basement and kept dry.

The nice thing about these is they grow so big in one season,so you can start small next year and still have a giant!

Here's a shot of mine 6-29 and 7-27-10

This leaf just finished opening on 7-25,it will continue to expand for another week or more.

Wow. We usually don't get a frost down here until late November, so maybe mine will get big by then. Each new leaf that unfolds seems to be bigger than the last.

My Ensete pretty much looks identical to yours. It has been a bit slower growing than expected, but I'm also used to the old fashioned Musa that gets huge down here.

See mine!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Thai Giant

Thai giant is sending up a bloom stalk,I will post some pics when I get a chance.

I want to see it-out of curiousity but I am considering
removing it,so it can keep growing(-:

Be careful when removing the flower because there is usually a new branch attached to the base of the stalk. This will be the next leaf. If you cut it too low, then no new leaves will form.

In my experience, that next leaf will not be as big as the previous one - so it takes a few more leaves to get back to the large size. I mentioned that in one of my earlier posts. Flowers hamper leaf size.

I'm not sure if there's a way to prevent it - maybe a higher nitrogen fertilizer? I think it's possible that flowering is initiated by the decreasing day length. The real key might be to get maximum leaf growth before August.

x

I think you have grown a different type of Colocasia X.

To my knowledge the Giants do not sucker and the flower stalk is not connected to the new leaves,the new leaf comes out of the last leaf and the flower stalk is seperate on this one.

I will post some pics when I get a chance.

It looks like the leaf size will stay the same for now,I need to find out if this will produce seed,if it will I will leave the stalk,if not I will remove after I see what it looks like-the last leaf was +4'!

I think they flower when they flower,(-;probably day length as you mentioned,although not much change in that so far,so.......
It has been fertilized regularly so,not sure if nitrogen would halt the flowering.

">

Pics from today(8-6-10)of Thai giant

Bloom stalk emerging.

The whole dealeo

Dave

Those are awesome!

Maybe X would like to rethink the 5' with petiole included(-;

I'm not sure a bucket of water will work with Thai giant,I don't think they like cool wet.

My understanding is that the tuber Colocasia like Thai giant don't pup and don't store well-
need to be kept active-unlike the bulb varieties like EE's that store well.

Somebody stole the biggest leaf last night )-:

Sorry to hear that. You need a barking dog and more lights to deter the plant theif.

Wow, I cant believe someone would do that! At least they werent smart enough to take the entire plant. But I think its terrible someone would take it. Whoever the thief is, they probably live nearby and I wouldnt be surprised if they come back for more leaves. Motion detection sprinklers could work but I have no idea where to get them or if they even exist! Ill probably never keep my best plants in the front yard because no matter what neighborhood you live in, someone can pass by and take it :(
I hope it grows back twice as fast. Good thing there is still plenty of time left!
Good luck. Hope you find the thief or at least keep him (or her) from coming back!
-Alex

I hope I don't see them,I doubt the police would understand me offing someone for stealing a leaf!

The main thing is I have got to see this plant all summer and yes,there is time to recover.

They narrowly missed hacking through the flower stalk when they cut it.

Just one of those kind of days I guess-we have been very fortunate this year with the wind not being
to rough considering the # of storms we have had but today many of the Castors were nearly finished off by 50-60mph winds.

Quite a few Bananas were bent nearly to the ground as well but I think will be alright(-:

Hey Jim,

Sorry to hear about the loss of one of your Thai Leafs...

Whoever it was will get to see the life drain from this leaf and finally shrivel up...maybe they will get to see the symbolism with what they did and and how quickly they caused this destruction of this poor leaf...They also have to be very careful...because "Friday the 13th" isn't quite over yet!!! I truly believe..." what comes around goes around"...

I really have no patience for thieves who steal other peoples possessions...

Hopefully they will not come back...(if they have any sense that is!!!)

Take care everyone!!!

Laura in VB

Thanks Laura

It is funny in a way to say"somebody stole a leaf" try explaining that to the police when they ask why you beat this person......um,they stole a leaf from me(-:

Still,I do believe in a form of Karma,even if it doesn't quite work the way we humans think-like you said-"what comes around goes around"
and maybe I too was a leaf stealer!(-: