Hi Arum,

Pretty typical actually for this species. When the tubers get nice and big, say 12-15 pounds, they will often respond by producing multiple petioles from the same tuber. Not a bad thing really, as you should get 4 blooming size tubers out of the pot this fall if you fert. well. Hope the pot was big enough :o) Dan

Bonjour Dan! :) Actually when I first got this bulb I clicked onto some search engines, and I saw a picture of some people standing beside a konjac,( not in a pot) and the leaf was HUGE. Thus the impresson of a gigantic leaf. Oh well, haveing some nices sized ones will do. Thanks, :) Arum

Hey Arum,

Well, they can get pretty good size. Look at the nice pic on one of the other threads and you can see a very tall one. Mine never get that tall, but I grow them in full shade so they do not get so lanky like they would in shade. You just need to get a nice 15 pounder that decides to only put up one petiole and then you'll get the big un you want :o) Dan

Dan, I'll keep working on it, it's in a half barrel right now, and has PLENTY of fertilizer . I must be doing the right thing or it wouldn't be doing so well. Just gotta give it a few tweaks. Thanks. :)

Arum,
Last year and this year, I planted my big momma Konjac in a plastic pot I bought a few years back. It is 25" wide by 24" high on six wheeles. Nice pots! I have four of them that size. I plant in full to mostly sun, and have great bulb growth. I will get taller plants if I don't plant in full sun, but I go for bulb growth. Here are a few pictures I just took today.She still is growing I think. The stem base is now close to 12" around. She was about 10 pounds when I dug her up last fall. I can't wait to see what she brings in this year! Also, I have had konjac and others send up more than one stem, but mostly when young. Not this large size. If they are coming up right next to each other, Id say you will still have one bulb. If they are coming up a few inches apart... you will get that number of bulbs.
I have an A. asterostigmatus sending up 5 shoots this year. one main larger one, and four others in a 6" circle around it!
David
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David, Nice plants....the guy that sent you that asterostigmatus should get a bonus :o) Dan

Dan,
Last year it only made one plant! so now Ill have more!
This year the napalensis I bought from "THAT GUY" aren't napalensis again.... but now I have like four bulbifers! whats up with THAT????
David

David, that stem is huge!! I think mine will break up, cos they are a little ways apart, and it now has FIVE stems! My Bulbifer has three, and I would never have thought it, cos the bulb was only 2 inch's across. At this rate, it may even bloom next year, and that would be great! :) :) My A.Paenfonious,(sp)is growing really slow, but that's ok, cos I thought I lost it anyway, and was so surprized when I saw a shoot coming up. You have some very nice bulbs there. :) Arum

Thanks Arum,
I have spent a lot of time with them this year, but everything seems slow or off in time! Some are just now starting to shoot out of the soil. Not sure what's going on, but this past two weeks everything popped! We had 90 degree temps and very high humidity.
David

You can always try and remove extra shoots when they first start. I've done this without problems a couple of years ago, and the bulb did not split. I got the bulb up to the 20 lb mark or so with this technique. I didn't do it one year (time got away from me) and it split that year into three large bulbs. I didn't try it again after that.

Joe 'just decide what is important to you' DeRosa

Hey David,

Hmmmmmm, all of the ones I kept this year were definately napalensis.....no doubt about it, but I only kept a couple since I just do not have the time/space/inclination at this point. Well, I'll try again this fall for you....geesh, not sure what the problem is over in India.....the tubers do look quite a bit alike, but the petioles are very different, even with bulbifer being soooooo variable you can not mistake them. These are nursery grown as well...go figure....I'll talk to the guy again.

Mine are also very far behind.......I've got maybe 20 asterostigmatus that all bloomed in the past that are just now thinking about poking their heads up....one of the nicest petioles in the whole genus I think :o) Dan

Joe, thanks for the pointers, I just don't get it though. I've read that these bulbs can get up to 40lbs, and have even seen the pictures, but how can they do so if they keep spliting? I give them excellent growing conditions, if I have'ft to say so myself, and yet there you have it. I was SO looking forward to a 40 pounder. Can't really pinch the shoots now, there's FIVE of them, and some pretty big! Frustrating! OK, this bout of whinning is over :) Arum

Well, I've never seen one that big, except maybe Mitch's, who does not post here anymore. I know that he cut off the minor growth points to achieve that, which you can obviously do, but honestly I do not see the point. The biggest one I've had was 18 pounds and then it produced 6 tubers with a total weight of more than 40 pounds when I extracted them from the pot. I had 6 flowers from that pot worth of tubers alone. Next time you get a bit one give it a try and see what happens. Otherwise, you can grow a species such as paeoniifolius or titanum that naturally grows tubers that large and then get out of its way :o) Dan

Hmmm.... someone gave me one of these in a pot with a rice paper plant. It has one leaf coming up, guess I better relocate it. Does anyone have some good basic info on these? Especially for this winter?
Thanks!

Are you talking about Tetrapanax, Root Digger, or the amorph? I have the Tetrapanax, and love it - huge leaves already on a small plant I bought locally at our herb festival in May.

Back on topic, I was wondering if you can do with the Amorph like you do with other bulbs, which is cut off the smaller growth, to put the energy into the larger one? That's what a lot of people do who show plants like dahlias, iris, etc. Is it possible with the Konjac? or any amorph that sprouts multiple stems?

Susan

I bought a four incher this year and it put up a 4 foot high leaf with a 2" diameter stem. How big are the leaves on an 18 pounder?

Well, my 18 pounder is maybe 4 feet tall from the top of the soil to the point where the petiole splits into the leaf with a similar leaf spread. It might get bigger in the shade, but I'm not really concerned about it since I think you get more tuber growth in the sun. Perhaps I have a specimen that does not get as large, but I have 4 clones of the standard konjac and none of them get much bigger than this under my conditions....even with pretty impressive size tubers. Hope yours get bigger :o) Dan