Amorphophallus albus dormancy?

From: ken at spatulacity.com on 2004.03.18 at 17:52:39(11297) I had two young tubers (not bulbils) of Amorphophallus albus that started growth quite late in 2003. We had a nasty, cold spring in New England and all the amorphs were slow. When fall arrived I was afraid they hadn't had enough growth time, so I took them inside under artificial light. One of them has just gone dormant, leaf collapsed, the tuber is healthy although not much larger than last year, I don't think. The second plant still has its leaf! Will I be able to coax the one that just went dormant back into growth? The IAS web site's Amorph cultural page says the after-leaf dormant "period may take 3 to 7 months." I hate to try to put the plant on my time schedule, but having it perpetually growing during the winter wouldn't be my first choice! Is there an Amorphophallus alarm clock that I can use to wake this guy up when the rest of my plants are starting to grow? Thanks, Ken Mosher

From: "Wilbert Hetterscheid (prive)" <hetter at worldonline.nl> on 2004.03.18 at 20:31:28(11298) Ken, usually Amorphs do not respond to forcing although gradual adaptation to the seasons of the place of imprisonment does occur but may take several years. You could experiment with storing the tuber cold (as in 15 C) and see if this will shorten the dormancy as it does in Caladium commercial cultivation (up to three growing seasons in one year can be achieved). It's experimtal but somebody must be the guineapig (did I spell this correctly?).......... Cheerio, Wilbert +More > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: aroid-l-owner@lists.ncsu.edu > [mailto:aroid-l-owner@lists.ncsu.edu]Namens ken@spatulacity.com > Verzonden: donderdag 18 maart 2004 18:53 > Aan: Aroid list > Onderwerp: [aroid-l] Amorphophallus albus dormancy? > > > I had two young tubers (not bulbils) of Amorphophallus albus > that started > growth quite late in 2003. We had a nasty, cold spring in New > England and > all the amorphs were slow. When fall arrived I was afraid > they hadn't had > enough growth time, so I took them inside under artificial light. > > One of them has just gone dormant, leaf collapsed, the tuber > is healthy > although not much larger than last year, I don't think. The > second plant > still has its leaf! Will I be able to coax the one that just > went dormant > back into growth? The IAS web site's Amorph cultural page says the > after-leaf dormant "period may take 3 to 7 months." I hate > to try to put > the plant on my time schedule, but having it perpetually > growing during the > winter wouldn't be my first choice! > > Is there an Amorphophallus alarm clock that I can use to wake > this guy up > when the rest of my plants are starting to grow? > > Thanks, > Ken Mosher >

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