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flycatchers

Mushy Titan!!

flycatchers
18 years ago

Oh dear my original Titan tuber has turned to a messy smelly mushy dead tuber!!

It started a bit of rot earlier but seemed not to have spread, but it must have..

Now I hope my three germinating seeds are more sucessful. I was very careful in watering and while it was in full leaf had looked very healthy. HO Hum.. Still I suppose that when you grow a new species of anything you can only learn by mistakes.

cheers

bill

Comments (4)

  • bluebonsai101
    18 years ago

    Hi Bill,

    Sounds like a good perspective to have!!! Sorry to hear yours turned up rotted though. What are you growing the titanum's in?? I hope your seeds do very well for you over the next year or so before they go dormant!!

    I've just repotted a couple of just dormant titanum tubers that I grew from seed starting a year ago. They are already throwing new petioles and I was happy to see the tubers were nicely 2+ inches in diameter so they increased pretty well I think. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for about one more year of good growth out of them and then I will hopefully start to have some nice 3-4 foot plants that look like Amorphs rather than the few leaflets they produce as babies, although unfortunately, titanum does not produce a very nice heavily dissected leaf like most others. I'd be interested to hear how other peoples titanum they grew from seed last year are doing :o) Dan

  • kellyschofield
    18 years ago

    Dan,
    I also grabbed 5 seeds last year from Troy and they haven't gone into dormancy yet. I thought mine were just slow; just now putting up their second leaf, but the tubers are nice at 2+ inches also. They get full strength fertilizer weekly and are enjoying the high humidity and heat of NC in the summer. THrough the winter I kept them just in a sunroom on a heat mat. What mix do you have your guys in? Something similar to your standard Perlite/pine bark mix, or something with even MORE drainage? Take care and good luck to everybody with their titans.

  • bluebonsai101
    18 years ago

    Hi Kelly,

    Well, mine stay in all year round so that I can really control the water in a major way!! Mine are in 40% turface (high fired clay), 40% pine bark and 20% charcoal....by volume...which of course means there is much more turface than pine bark.....I'd say 95% of the water drains through in perhaps 1 minute or less and then there is only moisture left. I only water once ever 2-3 days and the top 1 inch of the pot is bone dry by then. MIne get maybe 3/4 strength fertilizer with almost every watering....sometimes I'm too lazy to walk downstairs to get the fertilizer!! When they were dormant for a very short period of time I watered maybe once ever 8-10 days to keep the tuber just barely moist and then checked on it every now and again until it started a new growth....so far it has worked, but we shall see how it goes over the longer haul!!! I talked to Alan G. again about his specimens and he claims he has never had one grow for more than 3-4 years in his hands....makes me wonder what chance I have since this is the guy introducing several new species to science over the next couple of years as they get described! Couldn't get a maxwellii out of him by the way....no surprise, but I tried :o) Dan

  • susanlynne48
    18 years ago

    Dan, I'm curious (a perpetual state for me). Where and how to you purchase your pine bark? Do you buy it like in 2cubic foot bags or more, or loose and delivered to your doorstep? I have pine trees in my yard and was wondering if I could use composted pine needles? Also, I have never heard of turface - how and where to you find this? I don't think I've ever seen it at the local HD or Lowe's or Wal-mart.

    Susan

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