International Aroid Society

DearAlison,

Apologiesfor the long delay in answering your email; have just returned from the Nancyaroid conference, followed by visits to Josef’s collection in Munich and aspell in the Beccari Herbarium, Firenze.

Ithink it would definitely be beneficial to try inoculating. I would also trysome larger leaves; we use whole leaves of Meliaceae and Ficus (ca 3 – 4 cm x 2cm or more).

Verybest

Peter

From: aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com[mailto:aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com] On Behalf Of STARSELL@aol.com
Sent: 05 July 2009 10:07
To: aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Alocasias

Dear Peter,

I use a commercial mycrorrhizal fungi for some things when

I pot them. I don't think I have used it on the alocasias.

Would it be a good idea to sprinkle a little of it into the

leaf litter?

What I have done since your advice via email is that I have taken

the two species and put each into a pot that is almost half filled

with sandy-loam, laid the tubers onto that and just pressed them

to get good contact, then I scooped from an area where I let

leaves from last fall and even before accumulate. They arepieces

of leaves, all maybe 1/2 inch or so.

I filled the remainder of the pot with these and wet the leaves.

They seem to stay moist rather well.

I am considering inoculating all of my alocasias with themycrorrhizea

now. Almost everything that got re-potted this spring gotit.

Thank you so much! This is some of the best, most usableadvice

I have ever had.

regards,

Alison

In a message dated 7/3/2009 9:00:46 A.M. Central Daylight Time,phymatarum@googlemail.com writes:

Anotherfactor that is only now becoming clear is that Alocasia, and many otherterrestrial aroids too, I suspect, have some mycrorrhizal association. I firstbegan to suspect this on finding super-vigorous specimens with infeasibly smallroot systems in the wild. Clearly the roots were too small to support thenutrient uptake that the plants needed, and yet the plants were thriving. Thepoint was reinforced by observations of litter-trapping Schismatoglottis,notably species in the S. barbata complex, where investigation of theleaf litter revealed copious fungal hyphae and significant composting of theoldest leaf litter, with the plants rooting from the stem and through the leafbases into this composted material and the decomposing leaves above. >From ourexperiments we have observed a beneficial fungal population developing in theleaf litter within a couple of months, and a notable increase in plant vigour atthis time. In fact, we no longer apply fertilizer to our plants (a considerablesaving in time and money with ca 10,000 individual pots...) and this despitethe fact that the nursery receives 5+ m of rain per anuum, and thus theflow-through of nutrients from the pots must be considerable.

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