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'shrinking' alocasia macrorrhiza

paradisefound
18 years ago

My A. macrorrhiza started as a 'volunteer' seedling 2 years ago and grew like crazy last spring and summer, going from 1 foot to 3 feet of trunk. This year it appears to be developing gradually smaller leaves, shorter petioles, and narrower trunk. It seems to be flowering as usual. It grows in a moist portion of amended clay up against the northeast corner of the house. My neighbor's plant seemed to do the same thing at about the same height, though his probably received less light than mine. Additionally, I have a 1 year old potted specimen with about 1 foot of trunk which appears to be suffering the same fate. I wanted to blame excess moisture after our heavy rains this winter, but this process seemed to have started last fall before the rains. If anything, I've been fertilizing more regularly for the past year. Do these plants just start to peter out once they reach a certain height or age? The tallest specimen I've seen in our neighborhood has about 6 feet of trunk, but it has smaller leaves than mine. I would love to see 3 feet long leaves on 3 feet of petiole, but for now it's more like 1.5 and 1.5.

Comments (4)

  • plantman69
    18 years ago

    Hi....I also have an Alocasia macrorrhiza and its going crazy.....leaves are around 2 feet long.....how big of a pot do you have yours in? Mine is in a 24 inch pot and its starting to get too small...prob move it up to a 30 or 40....my guess is that the pot you have it in is too small...hope this helps, Brent :)

  • susanlynne48
    18 years ago

    I bet yours is in the ground in Huntington Beach, right? Is it surrounded my other plants that it competes with for growth and moisture? Have you fertilized it? I believe Dan told me to fertilize mine with a high phosphorus fertilizer like Super Bloom (10-55-10) or something similar. We had tons of rain in the winter in Oklahoma zone 7, and mine is going crazy, like Plantman's. Also, mine is planted in my shady backyard and does well.

    Also, ours were very late getting started because we had a very cool spring, virtually no rain until June, and consequently everyone here has had the same issues with late growth.

    Susan

  • aachenelf z5 Mpls
    18 years ago

    Mine has never shown any signs of petering out and it must be at least 10 years old. Now granted, I don't grow it outside year round because of where I live. I let it go dormant for the winter and just store it dry. I know the ruber is at least 10 inches long and maybe 5 inches across now. It just keeps getting bigger every year. It also produces at least a couple of offsets each year.

    Kevin

  • paradisefound
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    plantman69...one of my a. macrorrhiza is in a 24 in clay pot along with a bunch of moiture-draining impatiens...i guess it's time to pot it up.
    susanlynne48...yes, my other a. macorrhiza is planted in the ground, and with a monstera planted about 2 feet away, along with a bunch of assorted bromeliads and other ground cover surrounding it, there's probably too much competition for resources; not much i can do about it...space is such a precious commodity here. i guess i'm just cramming stuff into space i just don't have.
    thanks for help and the light of reasoning.

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