From: "Clark T. Riley" drriley at mypcr.com> on 2003.07.20 at 02:28:24(10412)
Last year was extremely hectic at work and through oversight, my three
Amorphophallus titanums were left out awfully late -- right up to a
light October frost (Baltimore, Maryland, USA). I realized in the
frosty morning what had happened and brought them in. The leaves on all
three turned a sickly yellow and the leaves died within a month. I left
the plants alone and let them get rather dry in the basement where I
keep most of my plants in the winter. I've learned over the decades it
is often better to leave plants alone in these circumstances as I am
more likely to damage them by digging.
When spring arrived, there had been no subsidence in the pots to
indicate that the tubers had perished, so I brought them out when it
was safely warm and began watering. Once our temperature passed a
routine 80oF, I saw that all three had sprouted. Now that temperatures
are routinely in the 90s, the largest spear is up to about 2 ft high.
They are on a bench in the side yard which gets full sun most of the
day. When my titanums sprout and grow in the strong sunlight, they
mature short enough in the autumn to fit under the fluorescent lights
of my main plant bench.
This is by no means recommended culture -- I'm sure they have lost a
year of growth enlargement. But at least 3 of 3 survived a brush with
frost.
Clark Riley
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