Poly whackage update

8 years ago

Well, finally couldn't take it anymore and "whacked" my Alocasia Poly (?Polly? ....I've seen it spelled both ways) in two. Back in late August or early Sept that was, if memory serves. Around the bottom of the upper section I wrapped some damp sphagnum and enclosed that in some plastic wrap. I then laid the wrapped section across some shoplights in my plant room (closest thing I had to a heating pad. In a surprisingly short time I found this:

So i potted it up in the same pot as the lower section. Currently, the prognosis for the patient looks promising.

The bottom section has nine activated nodes.

My hope would be for all nine to continue to grow as it would make for a very full looking pot. However, it will not surprise me if the plant devotes all its energy to the topmost growth which could very well cause all the other nodes to stall or even abort. The fact that it is cooler nor and the days shorter as winter fast approaches will not help matters.

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Comments (5)

petrushka (7b)
8 years ago
i'll be eagerly awaiting updates - as i am thinking of doing what you did, but come spring. the trunks on my Alo's are getting longer and i don't want to repot them so soon, but...getting a few buds to sprout on the cut trunk would be very exciting!

my trunks have lots of buds, but they don't do anything with top growth going.

this forum is very slow, but at least your posts will stay up top, so very easy to find them :).

that trunk on the cut-off top part - is it about 3"?
tropicbreezent
8 years ago
Once the growing point is removed it opens up the way for the lower trunk to put out new shoots. Laying it over you might have more success in getting extra plants. Vertically it's likely the top shoot will dominate and the others become 'inactive'.

The right name is Alocasia "Poly", it was an abbreviation of "polyploid". Originally it was thought to be a polyploid plant (had extra chromosomes) and was given that name. Turns out it's not a polyploid plant after all but it had already been 'christened'. A lot of nurseries have no idea of polyploidy in plants and just assumed it was a mispelling of the female name Polly.
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Paul MI
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks for the naming info, TB! I had wondered.

Hmm, don't know how well that would work out to try laying the pot on its side at this point ...Media spring long out would make for a mess. Makes sense though that stem orientation could be used to "trick" the rising auxins.
tropicbreezent
8 years ago
I was actually meaning that the stem could be replanted laying on its side, not the whole pot. Could work if you had a wide but shallow pot.
Sara Sidwell
8 years ago
How’s she doing:) ?? So interested in this thread as I just got a poly and would love to see how it all works out for you. Good luck ..please keep us updated ;)