Re: Caladium bulbs shrinking ?

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2000.07.13 at 23:28:04(5084) Dear All, I do not think that ALL commercial Caladium tubers from the Sebring area are infected with this virus---I purchased some this year, among them are a new variety 'Florida Sweetheart', it looks like a hybrid with C. bicolor and C. schomburgkii parentage, a BRIGHT deep pink with a green border. Out of this world!!! I also got a few of the older type cultivars, and all have come up to be magnificent plants, and I warrant that they will have doubled (at least!) in both tuber size and quantity by the end of this growing season! No doubt that there is the virus in SOME collections and cultivars, but certainly not all! Cheers, Julius +More >Dear Tsuh Yang Chen: Most of the commercial Caladium bulbs are produced in and around Sebring , Florida & They are all infected with Dasheen Mossaic Virus. They are all propagated from infected stock plants. This virus severely retards the vigor of the infected plants and there is no way for these plants to fully express their full potential. If the Grower used clean stock...of which none exists at this time, they would still have a problem because of all the innoculum from the wild or cultivated plants in their neighborhood which would quickly be spread by sucking insect such as leaf hoppers, aphids and white fly. There is no cure, So the chances of getting clean Caladium bulbs from commercial sources is nill. The one exception might be the Caladium rubicundra which is not a commercial variety and is produced in a Tisssue Culture lab. If you wish you could reconstitute the commercial varieties by producing them through seed since the virus is not transmitted from mother plant to embryo. The vigor would be tremendous. For more info you might check out work done in the mid 1970's by Plant Pathologist (virologist) Dr. Zettler at the University of Florida. PS. Dasheen Mossaic Virus can affect other Aroids so alway sterilize your cutting tools between plants.<< Piabinha@aol.com wrote: > > my previous plant, a small one in a 5" pot, croaked easily and then never > came back, although i expected it to have a tuber... just this weekend, i > bought a large plant (in a 12" pot) for only $9.95 from a vendor at jerry > barad's picnic. i'm keeping my fingers crossed... > > incidentally, why do cultivated Caladium tubers shrink from year to year? > how do they increase in size in the wild then? > > tsuh yang chen, nyc, USA

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