Looks like a good start. Good luck with them.

These are simply growing in Promix HP. The ones I started a month earlier than this one are growing in very well decomposted leaf compost, and I think those may fare better, but they still haven't put out full leaves yet.

All of them grow pretty slow especially in the middle of the winter with low lighting.

I read somewhere that in habitat they often grow in deep accumulated leaf litter over limestone. So I think a very organic medium is best for them.

After a week and a half, here's how they generally look. It should take another 2 months or so to get leaves going.

They grow pretty slow. It looks like the pro-mix hp is pretty effective too eh. I may need more lighting than the 27 watt cfl though.

I think low lighting would slow them down. They're an equatorial plant where light is very bright, except on heavily overcast days.

Here are the bigger seedlings from before. Some are getting up over 8 inches tall with the giraffe spots.

{{gwi:2122174}}
{{gwi:2122175}}
{{gwi:2122176}}
{{gwi:2122177}}
{{gwi:2122178}}
{{gwi:2122179}}
{{gwi:2122180}}

Good germination. Under heat definitely helps. Looks like you might need a bit more light and possibly a "tad" of soluble iron chelate with the occasional half strength fertilizer feeding. I hit my seedlings (only the ones in leaf) once a week with half strength "African Violet" 14.8.23 fertilizer.

Here in Far North Queensland (Australia) I give them as much sun as they can handle without leaf burn. With seedlings you do get a bit of a "mixed bag" genetically. I've got several seedlings that are weak and pale in the leaf. I'll keeping them until they either die or produce a healthy new shoot. As they are now, they're really only fit for the compost heap.

Thanks. I plan to start fertilizing once the leaves fully uncurl. How old is that bigger one you have with the 2 leaves?

I didn't have much success growing these 1 year ago since I put them out in the sun too soon, but now I have a much better idea of their growth requirements. It seems like thes are fine staying as permanent house plants as long as they get some bright window or artificial light. I just can't expose them to temperature swings either.

The larger "seedling" is roughly one and one half years old. I keep hoping the bugger will go into dormancy, but it just keeps sending out new healthy shoots (see recent photo below). I'd love to get the dormancy period to coincide with our cool, dry winter period. As has been said before on this forum, the bloody things are incredibly variable when it comes to dormancy!

I've got a sickly little six months old seedling that I thought was finally throwing in the bucket and dying, but it turns out it has decided to take its dormant cycle. There is a healthy little tuber just under the surface where a rather wimpy juvenile leaf structure once resided.

Wonders never cease!

Since there's genetic variability, there's a chance that the titanum you have there may be more similar to konjac where it sends offshoots instead of continuing to make a larger tuber. You may have multiple plants that can be separated now if there are 4 shoots off 1 plant at one given time.

I can't wait for the titanum in the photo to go dormant so I can actually see what is going on. Unlike konjac the shoots are still basically coming from the center of the underground tuber rather the offshoots.

I've tried several times to carefully dig down to see if I can feel the size of the tuber, but there are too many roots packed in the surface soil and I'm not keen to disturb them.

If it doesn't go dormant by the end of the wet season I may try severely cutting back water and fertilizer to see if I can force it to.

Rob, if you're not real fussed about keeping the Titanum's leaves why not do a few leaf cuttings & propogate your numbers up that way.

It looks like it could be possible to literally divide that entire plant down the corm into 2 plants since you have multiple leaves already.

Is there a threat of corm rot if you do that?

I would imagine that it could heal, and make 2 large healthy plants. The flourescent bulb seemed to burn leaves on my seedlings so I decided to change over to a LED light bulb. It's only 18 watts, but provides 1600 lumens of day light without very much heat generated.

I've got a small pot with four rooted leaf cuttings and I still have three seedlings that are chugging along with the hot, humid weather we are getting. I don't really need any more titanums. I suppose there is a "market" for them, but I'm pretty satisfied with my current numbers and situation.

As far as the larger plant goes, I'm more interested in building up the underground tuber then getting more plants. I'm also not sure that splitting up the tuber is possible without causing problems (like ultimately destroying the thing!).

I really doubt that splitting it half would kill both sides. It may at most set them back.

Here's an update on some seedlings.
{{gwi:2122181}}

{{gwi:2122182}}

{{gwi:2122183}}

{{gwi:2122184}}

{{gwi:2122185}}

{{gwi:2122186}}

{{gwi:2122187}}

Steve,
Good germination and healthy looking sprouts. Do they "harden" up well under the artificial lighting?

I'm not sure how well hardened off they are under the t5 light fixtures, but the growth does seem to have sped up in comparison to when it was under the 18 watt LED light bulb. It is now 4X 54watt bulbs so that's a lot more power. In addition, I have added the white plastic to keep light reflected inwards.

I'm sure you can tell how much growth happened after 2 days by these pictures. At this rate, many of them will have their leaves fully grown in another week.
{{gwi:2143313}}

{{gwi:2122181}}

Many of them are fully leafed out now. Most of them should be leafed out in another week.

Hey Steve,

2 of my 3 titanum seedlings are starting to put out the actual leaves. the 3rd is a bit behind (it started later) but is still a couple inches tall and growing. I started growing these a ways away from my metal halide light shaded by some bamboo but I moved them closer over time and they seem to be handling the light ok. They aren't shaded anymore but still aren't as close to the light as some of the bamboo leaves (which seem dead set on shooting straight toward the bulb). I would assume this would harden the seedlings a bit more then florescent bulbs, but i'm not 100% sure on that. Did you try any under the halide bulb?

I'm not using the metal halide bulb at all since that amount of energy doesn't appear to be necessary, but some of my tallest ones are within 2-3 inches of touching the t5 light bulbs. I have about 8 of them fully leafed now, and the only issue I've seen with them is that some of them appear to be very light, almost yellowish. I'm guessing this may be due to genetic variation, nutrition, or a combination of both. It may also be due to overlighting, but they're still doing fine so I'm not that worried about it.

I think if they it should be find if they are gradually getting close to the metal halide bulb, but anything closer to 2ft would probably cause burn, especially since metal halides generate a large amount of heat. A titanums are also mainly adapted to indirect light in a tropical rainforest so I doubt they can handle that much, but if you do have them used to strong light already and they are leafed out, you should be able to give them a good amount of water. Last year, I tried adjusting them to full sun, and only managed to get one of them to survive, and it is still barely hanging on so I would be careful about giving too much light.

I'm finding that the pots with the leafed out plants appear to always dry out faster than the ones, partially, or not leafed out yet. I have them on a 16/8 light schedule.

I only intend to use the metal halide light for veggie seedlings started early indoors.

The seedlings are about 3' from the bulb and I plan to move them away as the leaf height increases. That distance seems to work well for most plants, nothing seems to be getting very lanky and nothing gets burned. I do have them at somewhat different distances from the light, so if one gets burned I should be able to intervene with the other 2 before they all get damaged.

3ft should be a pretty good distance for most plants. I'm finding that the 1-2ft zone is comparable to full sun during the summer time, and 3-4ft is still enough to keep them very happy.

When I decide to get these guys adapted to outdoor conditions in about 3 months, I will likely start them out in full shade, and slowly move them to spots with more sun. One thing I already know is a threat in bringing them outdoors is that chipmunks, voles, or other types of rodents tend to like attacking this plant so I think it's smart to give them some protection, especially at the 1st leaf size.

Titanums are starting to shoot. It will be exciting too see how big the second shoots get.