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Aroids
ficusgw

Konjac aggravation

8 years ago

So this past spring I potted up my Amorphophallus corms a few weeks earlier than usual in hopes of giving them a little longer growing season. Put their 18" pot outside (SE facing, unobstructed balcony) on the warmer spring days -- though did actually forget to bring the pot in on a couple chilly (but not freezing) nights. Considering they are supposedly hardy to z7, shouldn't have been an issue. Knowing they can be a tad slow to wake up, I wasn't worried (though a bit disappointed) when none of them had popped up after the first week of June. As I usually do, I oversowed with alyssum since I love the scent and it helps to fill out the pot. Well by July, there was still nary a hint of the Amorphs. Quite bummed and baffled, I assumed the corms had rotted out for some reason. Well, a couple weeks ago the dumb things finally popped above the ground. There is no way, if I leave their pot outside, that they will get much chance of growing and replenishing their food stores in the time we have left. Killing frosts generally start in October. While I am happy not to have lost them (the mother corm I have had for easily 5years or more now -- probably closer to 8) I am not looking forward to bringing that pot inside as space in my apt is lacking. Allowing frosts to kill off the young growths this "early" might kill the younger corms and set the mother corm back a couple years -- assuming it survives.

Then, too, if I do bring the pot in and let them grow for a few months, there is the Q as to whether I will be able to get them to go back to their normal growing cycle....

Comments (3)

  • 8 years ago

    I bought a small corm off of eBay last autumn and left it unpotted until early spring, while it was still too cold outside. After potting it up, I kept it in my small heated greenhouse to give it an early start. This seemed to help it and it did fine all year long. I gave it as much bright indirect sunlight as possible, with the occasional dose of diluted fertilizer. A couple of weeks ago, our nighttime temps dipped down into the mid-fifties. I guess this triggered it into going into dormancy early. The foliage died back, and I let its soil dry out on its own. After this, I dug it up and noticed no real difference in the size of the corm. Maybe it was slightly larger than I remember, but once the corm dried out even more after being unpotted, it shrunk down somewhat, so that now it looks no different than it did when I first purchased it a year ago. I guess next season I'll give it a bigger pot for it to have even more room to grow. Perhaps that will help? I hope so, because at this rate, my konjac won't be blooming any time in the near future.

    I guess these aroids love the heat, too? I also have an Alocasia amazonica, which I know loves the hot weather. It was also started early in my heated greenhouse, and it is still doing great. It lost a couple of the smaller leaves, and it's no longer actively growing newer ones like it was during the summer, but it hasn't even come close to going into dormancy. I guess it has been helping that I've been bringing it into my garage on the chilly nights.

  • 8 years ago

    Amorphs that have the regular annual cycle can be quite erratic in their timetable. It's not very common but at the same time not unusual for them to begin to sprout towards the end of the season. But then they'll usually come back to more normal times later on. However, if their growing season is shortened it will affect their development. That's why it's important to try to stretch their growing time out as long as possible with some sort of protection.

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  • 8 years ago

    You can see my other post here in aroids. I had the variegated 'Shattered Glass' come up very late the summer after purchase. It was on a much more normal timetable this year. The year it come up late I did bring it inside after frost and brought it out a few times in between frosts but it died down relatively quickly.

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