Alocasia and colocasia... differance ?

Joolz I use the bag because it`s easy to spot mould and dead ones , but usually if i do them in May , straight in compost .....
plus my shop get fresh ones every weeks , got this lots just because they are variety that he get only in winter , got 3 new variety .

 

Im yet to get to morrisons again dorothy but its on my visit list,seems there are loads of bargains in there im not holding out much hope for my bulbs but they were only £3.65 with fee postage so i cant grumble x

 

May! how fast do these plants grow

Looks like there's no rush to pot up spruce

 

this fast , planted in may and by the end of June



with the right heat and humidity ,they are really fast.......don`t know myself why I keep starting them so early .....

 

Hi do you grow them inside till June then and then put outside? If so that explains why mine never got that big last year.I put mine out earlier and they did not do very well.Must admit, I do like the look of them, so might have another go this year

 

WOW sal..i dont know if im excited or terrified!,il have to start them early to find out x

 

That`s not the biggest .....



I think I`m lucky to get the fresh eddoes that actually most time are already start to germinate .....

look those are already giant and started to grow them self , usually in a month they are already big .


look at the bottle of wine to get an idea.

 

This was the site I found earlier http://durablegardening.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/whats-difference-alocasia-colocasia-and.html

The Alocasias that I have seen often have more ornamental (ie veined) leaves, but I believe they are not as easy to look after.

Sal - you have got me all excited again over these plants. With your prompting I grew a few last year, and chose to overwinter about 4 inside on a windowsill - including a "Black Magic" that I bought. They have all done well over the winter, and I am dying to put them outside - but not in the snow.

 

Also weve not had march winds and april showers yet im guarding my black magic with my life x

 

I've bought Eddoes online from http://www.theasiancookshop.co.uk/ in the past. I think they were about 30p each, which is a lot cheaper than buying Colocasia from a nursery! Pot-Luck what you get though, of course.

Well ... they may rot or go mouldy if you don't pot them up, so I recommend you start them off.

 

From my reading I understand that Colocasia esculentos(=edible) has been grown as a food for about 10,000 years. Consequently its on every continent and is very variable. Also I think some other varieties are edible - but they are often all called by the same name. So as you say - pot-luck.

 

There was a list somewhere - was a link posted here? of the names different cultures give to these things (e.g. Eddoes) which might help anyone shopping at an Asian supermarket. Sal's local "greengrocer" seems to have the most amazing array of things

 

petes , do you remember that we both attempted to grow the calidora palms?
well we both fail , you throw your away , but i didn`t give up on mine ,
even if they rotted , i`ve cleaned and try them again dry on the central heating ......

well restarted again last week and here we go ......they are back in business.



all 5 of them have start shooting and rooting .
also to admire that the old one I`ve in the greenhouse is the only one that didn`t lose the leaves over winter

 

As mentioned Colocasia leaf tips face downward, Alocasia are up, Xanthosoma are downwards but are arrow/heart shaped.

I started my colocasia/eddoes with the baggie method in the airing cupboard. I added a tiny mist of water and the green sprouts came up withing a week. Now on a sunny window during the day and back in the airing cupboard at night for heat. The roots seem much slower than the growing point to come up from my observation, so overwatering and causing rot can be an issue till the roots really form.

 

Sal - I am really delighted that yours have started to grow. Are those your originals, that presumably you kept dormant for some time, and have recently applied heat to?

Yes I remember very well, it was about 3 weeks before Christmas. I managed to get my lightbox up to 38C (100F) and your calidora palm rhizomes looked OK. Then, sadly, I went away for 10 days at Christmas leaving them in my light box. But at that temperature, with no supervision, they dried out completely - leaving the rhizomes totally charred. However, before it died, one of them had clearly started to sprout.

That was my own stupidity - I had hoped that they would start to sprout before Christmas, but once I had commited them to the heat, I felt that I couldn't stop. I should have left them till after Christmas.

You seem to have some superb suppliers near you.