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Post by emiliasgarden on Jul 2, 2005 5:05:27 GMT 7
Hello! ;D
A year ago i bought an A. bulbifer rhizome and never did anything untill it rot. Then a couple of weks ago i recieved another one from a friend in North Carolina and the plant seem to be fine. 
I have tried to look for information on this plant in my huge Plants of the World book, but there is not too much info and this species is described together with other Amorphophallus. 
Does somerbody have of these plants that can share info with me 
Thanx,
Jorge Joel...
Emilia's Garden
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Post by jk on Jul 2, 2005 7:56:11 GMT 7
Jorge, I bought a small A. bulbifer plant 2-3 years ago. I put it in partial shade, and, lucky for me, it has been growing quite well. I believe it needs a well drained medium that retains water well, and needs to be watered regularly. I have a few A. bulbifer plants now, and I water them every 2 or 3 days so the medium stays at least moist and never dries out. When I bought the original plant I had it growing on a rack with some orchids. After about a year I noticed another A. bulbifer growing in the ground under the plant on the rack. I couldn't understand how it reproduced because the original plant never bloomed, so it never had any seeds. I did some research and found out that A. bulbifer has what looks like a button mushroom on top of the stalk. (For those who are not familiar with the plant, it looks like a small tree that has a trunk and large spreading leaves on top of it. But technically, the whole thing is a leaf, if I remember correctly.) The thing that looks like a button mushroom is called a bulbil. After a while, the bulbil drops off, falls to the ground, and grows another plant. It turns out that the ground was a better medium than what was in the pot because the plant on the ground grew larger. A. bulbifer goes into dormancy during the winter, and the leaf dies. When that happened, I dug up the tuber that was in the pot and stored it in dry peat moss, which I read somewhere I was supposed to do. Over the course of a few months, I dampened the peat moss occasionally. A month or so ago I took the tuber out of the peat moss to look at it, and it was beginning to grow roots. I planted it and began to water it, and a new leaf shot up. So I was feeling pretty good about myself, having successfully navigated the plant through dormancy. But a few days later the tuber that was in the ground, which I left there, also grew a new leaf, which got much bigger than the one in the pot. So much for theory. The ground is just some soft soil that stays damp because it gets water from the draining orchid pots, and it's always in the shade. I figure that maybe the plant in the ground was bigger because the roots could grow out more compared to being in a pot. Unfortunately, I had to dig the plant out of the ground because it was getting too tall (3 ft., eventually) and it wouldn't be able to grow through the rack. It's now in a big pot. Though the plant has never bloomed, the leaves are quite beautiful. They have a nice shape and are green with a thin pink edging. I have had no problems with insects, slugs, or mildew/fungus/etc. The bulbils from the end of last season are now growing. Sorry this is such a long post, but I just felt compelled to tell about my A. bulbifer. For more information, visit the Aroid Forum at forums.gardenweb.com/forums/aroid/. You can also try the Amorphophallus webpage of the International Aroid Society at: www.aroid.org/genera/amorphophallus/amorph.html. The article in the "horticulture" section is especially informative. |
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Post by emiliasgarden on Jul 2, 2005 23:28:24 GMT 7
Hey JK! Once again many thanks for all your helpful information ;D
Do you have pics of your Amorphophallus plants to post here. I love to se pics 
By the way, why don't you post pics of your orchid i the Orchid Section? ;D
Thanks again, Jk! Muchisimas gracias!
Jorge Joel...
Emilia's Garden
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Post by emiliasgarden on Jul 2, 2005 23:43:10 GMT 7
By the way, here are the pics of my Amorphophallus bulbifer: ;D
Here you can see the lonely leaf from above:
And here it the entire plant, well the lonely leaf from the front:
Cheers,
JJ...
Emilia's Garden
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Post by Volker on Jul 3, 2005 4:10:49 GMT 7
I am not familiar with A. bulbifer cultivation, but I do have a Gonotopus bovinii (or similar spelling) back in Germany. It looks relatively similar to the mentioned plant.
What I observed is, that you can also tear of a piece of the leaf (that looks like a leaf itself anyway) and put it on the soil. It builds very quickly a tuber and starts growing into a new plant soon after.
There are many Amorphophalli around the southern Philippines, especially in Mindanao, some of them with spectacular stems. Another obviously salt tolerant variety I saw on a tiny deserted island (just 54 coconut trees!) near Surigao, where I got stranded with a sail boat.
They all seem to like lots of water though.
Volker
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Post by jk on Jul 4, 2005 2:07:47 GMT 7
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Post by Volker on Jul 4, 2005 3:22:34 GMT 7
jk,
Thank you for the images! Normally you just put the link instead of
[url] and [/url] into [img] and [/img]
and they appear directly. But that imagehosting site doesn't seem to allow that - they want you to go to their site.
How about A. titanum? Anyone grows that?
Volker
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Post by jk on Jul 6, 2005 4:31:41 GMT 7
I just planted some A. titanum seeds, but they haven't germinated yet. I understand that it takes about 10 years to produce an inflorescense. It's a long term project.
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Post by emiliasgarden on Jul 7, 2005 7:29:58 GMT 7
JK! Do not desperate. It does not matter if this plant will take10 years to bloom. Once you have it you will be speachless. 
Well you will also need a lot of ambient deodorizer, but the sight will be worth for wait so long. At least it would be for me ;D
Cheers,
JJ...
Emilia's Garden
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Post by jk on Apr 5, 2006 16:10:18 GMT 7
My A. bulbifer plants have been in dormancy for so many months that I can hardly remember what they looked like. I wondered if the tubers were still viable, as the growing medium has been constantly wet because the rain here has been of biblical proportions. In fact, it has rained every day for even more than 40 days (though not constantly). A couple of days ago I dug down to see how one of the tubers was doing. It was still hard, so it seemed to be okay. Jorge and anyone else with A. bulbifer, Is yours still in dormancy?
On the other hand, after the A. titanum seeds sprouted they have continued to grow and show no signs of dormancy.
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Post by emiliasgarden on Apr 6, 2006 2:04:47 GMT 7
Hello JK! ;D
Yes.. my Amorphophallus is stil dormant... Well it seems that it is going out of dormancy just now...
I was scared that my plant had died. But since a couple of days ago the bulb is showing a new growing tip... So i think it is comming back ;D
I did not know that these plants needed such a long period of rest... But now i know
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mindy
Full Member
Posts: 159
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Post by mindy on Apr 9, 2006 3:51:04 GMT 7
Here is a link for a site that has some good information on growing Amorphophallus you may find helpful. www.snowsexotics.com/ |
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Post by emiliasgarden on Apr 11, 2006 0:51:40 GMT 7
Great source! Thanks, Mindy! ;D
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Post by lol on Apr 25, 2006 12:57:01 GMT 7
What does this plant do?
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Post by emiliasgarden on Apr 26, 2006 0:54:16 GMT 7
Hmmmmm.... What do you mean, LoL?
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