View this page "AMORPHOPHALLUS "

[aroideana]

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[aroideana]

I have just found an infloresence on a species I have been growing for
ages .
After discussing it with Wilbert Hetterschied we decided it was most
likely A. cicatricifer , due to its strange growing cycle and
appearance. Well sorry for those of you who have bought one from me as
it is really haematospadix .
I will take some pictures when it is opened fully .

[corydale]

how many sp of amorphophallus do you think you have?

[Michael Pascall]

I might have as many as 50 spp. Cory , but several are still to be
identified . Some may just be different colour forms of the same species .

Michael Pascall

[corydale]

michael,
i notice in the photos of your paeoniifolius, the stems are very light
in colour. are they smooth or bumpy? i have a few different
paeoniifolius but yours are quite different to any of mine. it also
looks like the leaflets are far more dissected and narrower than mine
too. whats this you mentioned about a new aussi paeonifolius ssp?
i have a rough light coloured one which seems to be the common one. i
also have a dark coloured smooth stemed one and the borneo giant
growing one which is light and smooth.even the little offsets grow
much taller than normal ones.
any chance of getting hold of one of your paeonii's??

[Michael Pascall]

The recent discovery of a very pale coloured flowered paeoniifolius near
Darwin will be described soon . The one I grow is the only one I know .
It has a very rough stem , maybe the harsh full sun spot makes the leaflets
thinner ?
They should have a ton of offsets this season . I would like to grow the
Borneo Giant form , be interesting to compare them .
I have an opertus coming into flower by the look of it .

Michael Pascall

[corydale]

michael,
when i have growen paeoniifolius in the past the sunlight hasnt
affected the leflets size at all. i find it makes the stem shorter and
more robust than ones growen in part shade.
when my opertus flowered i was quite dissapointed, it never opened
fully. it was almost like it was slightly deformed. its on of the
amorphs i miss most. its a beautifull plant.
while talking amorphs, do you gow kiusianus by chance??

[aroideana]

I have tried kiusianus several times , it is more of a temperate
growing species and will not grow for me up here in the tropics . Do
not think I will ever be able to flower a konjac up here either , but
I will persist in growing it , as I would not mind eating it one day ,
and it sure does look great .

[Ed]

G'day
I have been thinking about getting A. titanum, but I heard it only
flowers once every ten years. Does anybody know if this is true or not?

[corydale]

hi ed,
it flowers when ever it feels like it.... once the tuber is big
enough. it needs to be upwards of 3kg before it will even think of
flowering. my big titanum is about 1kg now and is just breaking
dormancy. i will have seedlings of titanum in a few weeks time if you
would like to try. so long as you dont over water it, it is quite easy
to grow. although sometimes it will be in leaf during winter so it
needs protection from frost.

[Ed]

That would be great Cory. No frost in Tingalpa remember!! BTW we
better catch up before X-mas mate, being so close. I'm starting to get
a small collection of aroids, Anth's and Philo's are more my thing, so
I will be up for a trade. Otherwise I have a fair collection of
tropicals if you wish. Heliconias, Cordylines, Crotons, Orchids etc
etc. I think you still have my email, drop me a line...

[Michael Pascall]

Cory , noticed that the paeoniifolius leaflets are actually nearly folded in
half , so only appear thinner . Took some more pictures of the haematospadix
in flower , the spadix is really inflated and looks amazing , the flower was
full of green ants a few days ago .
The henryi seeds are filling out well ,maybe will be ready early next year .
Good luck with all your titanums mate .

Ed , once the tuber is mature on titanium it should flower every second year
or so , that is what paeoniifolius does . I would start of with some of the
easier growing ones to get the knack , but go ahead , at least now they are
not $100 ea. like a few years ago .

Michael Pascall

[corydale]

ed-
i agree with miachel. perhaps try konjac or paeoniifolius or bulbifer
before titanum. they arent hard to grow at all. ive never killed any
of them. even little bulblets come up in the rubbish heap year after
year.

michael-
thats an odd looking haematospadix. i thought the spathe was bigger.
very odd looking indeed!
my biggest paeoniifolius (3kg) is just about to put its leaf out
through its shoot. its already about a foot high so i think the leaf
should be a good size. i have it growing in ground in a little garden
i have done up at work. i am the gardener at the teys bros abbitoir so
we have plenty of recycled water full of nice nutrients ( and a rather
pungent smell)

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[Bruce Newton]

Hi Cory, Ed and Michael,
I thought I'd better say hi. I've been following your conversations with
great interest.

I hope to plant out my small A. paeoniifolius into the garden during this
showery weather. How wide is a 3 kg bulb Cory?

Here in Toowoomba I find A. titanium very easy to grow. They handle the cold
very well. 3 of my titans were forced into early dormancy by frost and were
the first Amorph to grow in the spring! The other 3 kept their leaves
through -0 temps and are now sending up new shoots without going dormant.

Cheers
Bruce Newton
Toowoomba

[Ed]

Very interesting Bruce...

OK I will try something else first

[Michael Pascall]

Young Ben , with a paeoniifolius bulb he had grown .
Think it would be close to 3 kg , he had it in a vege garden .

ED , didn't you know my alterego on ebay ???
aussiearoids at your service ..

Michael Pascall

[Ed]

No I didn't mate, but now I know....

Ed

[aroideana]

i JUST PUT A FEW MORE PICS INTO my picassa web album ..one is a
species I got from a nurseryman in Brisbane .. he did not have a name
for it . But it is a very attractive distinctive species . Even
though I have not flowered it yet , Wilbert was cofident with his ID ,
as very few species have hairy stems . The leaflets are also very
slender . It is Amorphophallus maximus , the nursery is up near the
big pineapple . Second is the small flowering species from Vietnam ,
A.opertus , Cory has flowered it , and gave me my plant in a trade .
It does not open very much and is a very low little flower , but I
like its prolific offsetting and very dark petioles . It seems a very
easy species to grow. Would love to get A.dracontioides also . If you
lok at the pictures on the IAS site , you will notice how low to the
ground the flowers are in habitat , and then how high it is in
cultivation . The tubers must be very deep in the ground .

[Bruce Newton]

Hi Folks,
It is a small world. I got my A. maximus and A. prainii from the same
nursery.

A. opertus seems to be a later grower. I managed to rot two orange-sized
bulbs this winter because I was too slack to knock them out of their pots,
when dormant. They were at least 6 weeks later than my other Amorphs.

Anyone got a spare A.opertus??? I bought seed a couple months back but
nothing is showing yet.

Bruce

[aroideana]

Yes , that guy on eBay has sold lots of old unviable seeds , hope you
give him negative feedback , he also is using Wilberts picture . I
wonder if he has asked permission , I doubt it . I may have some spare
offsets next season .
Just put up some more pics , found a flower on symonianus , tinly
little thing .
And seed is maturing on henryi . Lok in my picassa web album again .

[Michael Pascall]

Another albus opened up today , and it is a different colour to other one I
have flowered . This one was from a different source , it was from a batch
of imports into America from a nursery in China . This one has a green tip
to the spadix . I have so many of these and they have been mixed up in
storage, so those of you who have one, may have this colour form already .
Will add a picture of the first albus that I flowered .

Michael Pascall

[Michael Pascall]

Well a very wet Christmas up here ..over 30 cms rain .
Just ventured outside and noticed the spadix on the flowering albus had
magically changed from green , to yellow . OH WELL another boo boo .
It was just young , and I had just looked up the IAS photo and saw the green
ones , it looked exactly like it ! Wishfull thinking , its exactly the same
plant .. amazing how the colour changes as it matures .

Michael Pascall

[aroideana]

One of the Pseudodracontium species I am growing has set seed .
A first form me , though I have grown on seed sent to me from
Thailand .
I think it helped that I had several plants in the pot together .
These plants can get very long tubers , and I got some very deep pots
for them .
This one is P fallax . If the seed comes to maturity , I will share it
with any member who makes some serious postings to this group .

[Michael Pascall]

This was one of the species I imported a few years ago .
It has flowered for me before .
I have been successful in getting leaf cuttings to strike , and this one
does seem to make offsets from the tuber as well .
Maybe some variation will come in the seedlings , with any luck some gold
spots from the P.lacourii that was flowering at the same time .

Michael Pascall

[corydale]

hi all,
one of my psuedodracs is seeding as well. no idea what sp it is but
it originally came from the nong nooch gardens in Thailand. i found
small plants strike from leaves 100% of the time but when the plant is
more mature they rarely do.
michael- do you have any lacourii for sale??? ever tried it from leaf
cuttings?

> Psuedodracontium-fallax.jpg
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[Michael Pascall]

I have done leaf cuttings of the spotted form of lacourii a few times , act. got a pot full of sections now . Hope this constant rain does not turn them into mush . There are some little tiny ones from last year . BUT SORRY

I have traded all these already with a commercial grower in Darwin.

Sorry Cory , your name goes to the top of the list for next years propagules. Did you take pictures of the Nong Nooch species when it flowered  ?

There are not many of these so it should be easy to ID it .

They will all be Amorphophallus soon anyway . Do you know if anyone has the glaucous blue sp. that has just been described as an Amorphophallus ?

A.glaucophyllus ..I know a few growers in America with it , so have access to some . I hope they are successful in getting some leaf cuttings to grow .

Michael Pascall

 

 

[aroideana]

The seed did not mature on the Psuedodracontium , it held on for a few
weeks, but just collapsed . Checked th4e leaf cuttimgs and they have
done well , tubers approx 5mm + . I will have to give them a bit of a
feed to boost tuber size .
Have lost a few Amorphophallus tubers to rot , must modify the media
used .
A mate not far away uses 5mm quincan , straight !! Talk about perfect
drainage .
Another mate who has a massive collection , gets a special blend made
by 'Tableland Peat' our local potting mix supplier .. it has a very
high percentage of quincan added .
Gee a rotting Amorphophallus tuber nearly smells as bad as the
flower .

[corydale]

hi all,
sorry for the lack of activity, work and etc has kep me busy but we
now have a computer and internet so im back!
got some beaut amorph news-
i dug up my A.konjac i was growing at work with all the loverly
recycled abbitior water a few weeks ago. when i planted it it was
about 400gms. when i dug it up it was now 2.5kg with maybe 50 offsets!
but the big news arrived just today. i dug up my big paeoniifolius
from work today. it was 2.5kg when planted and when it came out today
it was 8.1 kg!!!! what a monster. it left a nice big hole in the
garden..... i will add a photo of the bulb soon.
cheers
cory
ps- michael, ill be up your way for a few days in april. where are you
in relation to cairns??