Alocasia and colocasia... differance ?

They sprouted days back kristen im getting a leaf on one Not as big as sals thou!

 

Does anybody when is the best time to lift and store the colocasia(bulbs) please? Temps are dropping now but mine still look ok,ive got some small ones appear aswellwill those tiny bulbs be storable aswell?? thanks x

 

Personally I'd start drying them off a bit, keep the pots under cover and no water.
Then I would keep them in the pots till next year, above freezing and dry.

 

I have some in my white brugmansia pot aswell(not sure how long brugs last yet), them ones in the pic are in with a canna,do you think they will be ok until those are ready for over wintering in the pots? cheers pete x

 

I find overwintering these difficult.
They tend to not build up sufficient energy in the corms again and don't come up again in the spring.
But they are so cheap, that I grow them like annuals now. c

 

Difficult to say, I'm not really a fan of Colocasia or Alocasia, I only have an A.something or other, (the name escapes me), now as I gave up on Colocasia last year.

Id say just let them take their chances, not sure planting one in the same pot as a brug was a good idea.
Cannas and brugs are easier to overwinter I find.

 

I have just dug up my Colocasia, which I had put in the border for the summer, and potted them up. They had a few surprisingly long roots, and tended to lose most of the soil on lifting. They were all growing well and one was really quite big, but I saw very little sign of a tuber on any of them. They have been in pots inside the house on a windowsill for 3 days now and don't seem to have suffered. Like last year, I will leave them there over the winter when they did well and kept growing slowly all winter.

I also lifted my Arisaema, which had much shorter roots, but large well formed tubers. I am sure the tubers continue from one year to another, rather than making new each year. A couple had little tubers attached to the side. On two the leaves had already died, and on one of those the tuber had started to rot at the bottom, so I just cut the rotten bit out and sprinkled with sulphur powder. It worked well last year. One had a healthy tuber and still had a bit of leaf - but had no roots at all. So I left it in an empty pot in the light, so the remaining leaf could put a bit more energy back into the tuber.

My Amorphophallus nepalensis had just rotted, as Amorphophallus always seems to do with me.

 

Peter, is not your Arisaema hardy?

 

I have three Pete. Arisaema speciosum, tortuosum and sikkimensis. I have no idea if they are hardy or not. I assumed that they weren't - in Yorkshire anyway. But the real reason for lifting them was to prevent rot.

Last year I lifted them late and one speciosum had completely rotted and another had rotted at the bottom. That was the one where I cut the bottom off and it survived. In fact this year when I lifted it I could see where I had cut part off. This is what makes me think that Arisaema retains its tuber during the year.

By contrast Colocasia doesn't appear to me to keep its tuber. I bought one, which was the size of a small grapefruit from a West Indian stall in the market. The plant is a good size now with a culm the thickness of my wrist - but no sign of a tuber. I can only assume that it would make that when the foliage started to die down.

 

what I am going to do with this ???

 

Dunno Spruce, you should have thought about that before you grew it Nice plant.

Peter,

As for Colocasia I can well believe we dont get the heat/ dry season/ wet season, that they require to grow properly.
Probably why its not good to let them go totally dormant in our conditions.

 

That'a a beaut Spruce. What did it start off as - a tuber or a plant. I reckon that would fit nicely on top of the television in the sitting room - that is unless you have a flat screen.

 

its even bigger now that was taken ages ago , I moved on to the patio so you could get the true size as it was placed in the border so you coudnt see the pot , it was a tuber the size of a turnip , flat screen telly

 

Thanks guys is not digging around for the bulbs to overwinter dry not an option?
Spruce mine are biggish(well bigger than my black magic) but yours is huge in comparison
well done x

 

Depends a bit on the variety I think. Some are very difficult to re-start once dormant, but IME growing them over winter is not easy either ... Red Spider loves them if you grow them under lights.