I'm always impressed by the persistence dedicated hybridizers like yourself exude about their work and can think of few things requiring more patience than what you do. If they were giving odds in Vegas I think they'd be in your favor so keeping my fingers crossed for next years work. Will T. venosum overwinter for you or are you too warm?

Evan,
Yes, the S. venosum will overwinter and I'm going to push it for tuber size in order to insure blooming next Spring. Same goes for the S. giganteum, which I'm also going to push for size.

LariAnn

"Push for size"? What fert. please?

Evan,
OK, here it is! A number of years ago, I discovered that changing fert element ratios probably takes place seasonally in natural settings and that these changes cue certain plants to begin storing food for their dormancy periods. Specifically, I was working with Amorphophallus and found that with the proper fert regime used throughout the whole growing season, one could cause the tubers to grow so large that they could distort or break their pots open. The regime is as follows During the first 1/3 of the growing season (leaf emergence is the start), use a fert like 18-6-8, something with nitrogen highest and phosphorus lowest of the three.. During the second 1/3 of growing season (usually midsummer period), switch to something like 14-14-14 (NPK all about equal). Finally, in the last 1/3 of growing season (late summer, early fall), switch again to a high phosphorus mix such as 14-26-6. That is my special secret sauce for maximum tuber size in plants which go dormant for winter. Be sure that adequate levels of micro-nutrients are available all season. Not only will this augment tuber growth, but will encourage blooming and excellent new leaf health on emergence.

LariAnn
Aroidia Research

Hah, I read your article "Soil fertility by the seasons". I also stored the data but I didn't "absorb" the information appropriately. My small A. konjac tubers grew from 1-1.5 inch dia. up to 4 -5 inch diameter in one cycle. Thanks for the super advice.

Hi LariAnn,
I know the first fert 18-6-8 is time released, would the other two be granular (dry) or could they be liquid? Do you use your ¼ strength solution of Miracle Grow reg & acid all through the growing season?

I have MG pelletized slow release that is 10-16-10 would that be really good for the last third or should I look for something with higher phosphorus? Something like super bloom which go’s to 55 on the phosphorus would that probably be too high? And finally, what are your thoughts on adding beneficial soil microbes & Mycorrhizae to the potting mix? Is that something you do?

I am glad Eclayne made reference to your article "Soil Fertility by the Seasons". I read it and liked your observations and follow through. Great article! I have spent almost all of my life with animals and like plants, they can’t tell you what they might need at the moment. So it’s important to become a good student of observation (the easy part) then taking what you observed and figuring out what to do with that information (which is the hard part). Keep up the good work!

The general protocol calls for granular time release but if you do regular liquid ferts you can use a similar protocol using the liquid solutions. I use my 1/4 strength Miracle Gro all season long.

If you are using liquid fert, the bloom booster would be the one you use nearing the end of season. You could use the 10-16-10 but I haven't tried that analysis in my work.

I have used beneficial soil microbes and mycorrhizae, but if you are doing the fert protocol I suggest, the mycorrhizae are not a good idea because the higher phosphorus will shut them down. My potting mix has mycorrhizae in it (endomicorrhizae) and I apply ectomycorrhizae to my Rainbow Eucalyptus seedlings to get them inoculated for the long term. But then I don't do the high-phosphorus protocol on them!

Thanks for the compliments on my article - you might be interested in some of the other articles I've written on DG. When you have my soil fertility article onscreen, scroll down to the bottom of the page for a link to other articles I have written.

Hope this helps,
LariAnn

Here's a pic of some venosum berries taken two weeks ago. First time for berries so I don't know if they're viable or what to look for to tell if they're ripe.

Evan,
A question - in your experience growing Sauromatum, how many leaves do you get from a single plant (growing point) in a season? The reason I ask is because on the one you sent me, one point has 4 leaves and the other one is now throwing a 5th leaf!. Also, on my S. giganteum, each of two individual plants has thrown 5 leaves and each has a 6th leaf emerging, along with a number of new pups throwing little leaves around the two main plants..

In the past I've seen two or rarely, 3, leaves from an S. venosum in a season.

LariAnn

Hi LariAnn,
I planted very small tubers last year and the larger tubers this year after finding a source that had them at flowering size. So far none have grown more than one leaf. I've seen images that look like more than one leaf per tuber but 5! Do you think stressing it by interrupting the spring growth might have caused this? Here's a photo. of the tuber I sent.

~3" dia.

They're starting to go dormant now with all the leaves starting to flop over. A. konjac is still looking good but I'm lifting some early. Last year we had a very wet autumn and I lifted after first frost, petioles didn't flop even then. Several of the tuber had rot which I removed and all grew well this year. Those which had no rot/tuber removed definitely grew much larger. The largest leaf had a tuber about the size of a hardball.

Evan,
The one you sent me is going dormant now as well - must be on same timing as yours. They topped out at 5 leaves each. My S. giganteum is still up, though, and has produced 7 leaves per plant, plus numerous offsets that have their own small leaves. Most pictures I've seen of S. giganteum have one or at the most, two, leaves. I'm looking forward to seeing how large the tubers get with such intensive photosynthetic input. One fact about the multiple leaves is that each successive leaf was somewhat smaller than the previous one. Most of the Typhoniums are still up and running, with a few still blooming. I expect they'll start to go down in November.

As far as what made them so precocious in leaf production, it may be my robust fertilization regime involving both incorporated 18-6-8 Nutricote and regular applications of dilute Miracle Gro solution.

LariAnn

More sun and heat, more water, more leaves, more and better fertilizer applications and still on the same schedule?? It will be interesting to see if they bloom at the same time next year. Do you have a photo of one of your S. giganteum to share? Here's hoping you'll have loads of bloom next year for your work.

LariAnn said:As far as what made them so precocious in leaf production, it may be my robust fertilization regime involving both incorporated 18-6-8 Nutricote and regular applications of dilute Miracle Gro solution.

I may try to replicate your regime with one next year to see the difference up here.

As a general question will you lift your tubers to inspect them? Do you think they'll do better if undisturbed?

Evan,
Here is a picture of my S. giganteum when each plant had 3 leaves. There are two plants in that 2 gallon pot; at the time I took this pic, a fourth leaf was emerging on each one. At the present time there are so many smaller leaves from offsets that it is very diffcult to see how many leaves are actually from the original two plants. A very close look at the bases of the plants shows whose leaves belong to which one, but it is quite crowded in that pot now.

The wild extremes of leaf shape really jump out after seeing your S. giganteum and the addition venosum is difficult to envision. Does the silver veining in your crosses come from trilobatum?

LariAnn said:If the blooms both opened at the same time, it is unlikely that cross pollination could have occurred because both would have been at male anthesis at the same time. The blooms would have had to have opened one after the other in order for any chance of pollination to have occurred.
LariAnn

Two fruit heads resulted in only one seed. Oh well

Evan,
The silver veining in my trilobatum crosses comes from a T. varians hybrid done by John Banta. His hybrid had silver veins and dark red spots. I got quite a range of variation from my trilobatum addition to the mix.

For the record, I have another Sauromatum that has green blooms and velvety palmate leaves. It blooms after the leaves are already out, and sends up several blooms throughout the summer, making it seem like an intermediate between Sauromatum and Typhonium. It is a smaller grower than S. venosum, but it will be in the hybridization program come Spring. I'll sure try it with S. giganteum to see what comes out of it.

LariAnn

LariAnn, I didn't understand the scope or complexity of the crosses your involved with. Thanks for the update.

Evan, I wanted to update you here on my latest Typhonium work for the sake of others who might be following my work. One of the Sauromatum tubers you sent me last year is throwing a bloom now - it is close to opening and I am waiting with bated breath because I have a big T. trilobatum also with an unopened bloom next to it. I'd love to get reciprocal crosses here but will take whatever I can get. I've also obtained a collection of assorted interesting Typhonium species, most of which have not yet come out of dormancy, so I expect to be attempting Typhonium crosses throughout the summer.

For the record, my T. trilobatum hybrids are mostly fully up and many blooming already. Sadly, I haven't seen any pollen on them!

LariAnn

Glad to hear you have the simultaneous blooms LariAnn (good luck) and sorry to hear about the T trilobatum hybrids lack of pollen. Are these yours? Is it likely or possible they will produce pollen in future years? Since your work is so diverse I had to re-read Typhoniums - Growing and Hybridizing these lesser-known Aroids to refresh my memory.

With Sauromatum being revitalized, I guess your job got harder last year since you're no longer doing solely inter-specific crosses on Typhonium. So you've added even more Typhonium species, with T. varians in the mix your breeding area must look a wondrous mess.

Evan,
Well, the Sauromatum bloom opened this morning in all its odoriferous glory, but the T. trilobatum also opened last night so they both were receptive to pollen at the same time. Looked at first like I was going to miss out until I checked one of my Pinellias and found that there was some fresh pollen available there. So I crossed Sauromatum and Pinellia while the Sauromatum bloom was at its stinkiest. I took pictures to show the abundance of flies on it; when I cut open the bulbous area to reveal the female flowers, a horde of flies rushed out of the opening. With pollen-laden brush in hand, i anointed the pistils - twice!

Now all is in the hands of the Goddess of Blessed Pollination - tomorrow I'll have pollen on Sauromatum and a second bloom of T. trilobatum in a day or so to receive it.

LariAnn