From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2000.07.13 at 23:29:45(5086)
Dear Denis,
See my other postings from this AM with my opinions on this virus thing.
One other point---since most or all of the commercial Caladium vars. in
cultivation are produced from tubers that were created YEARS ago by crossing
different species and varieties, if we were to produce seed from these
present day ones the chances of obtaining anything worthwhile are slim to
none, most of them just have too many parents!!
I thought that a strain of Aroid could be 'cleansed' of this virus by
'doing' it in tissue culture, which eliminated the virus? Read it
somewhere.
Cheers,
Julius
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>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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