|
Tue, Oct 23, 12 at 2:17
| I notice that when i repot my alocasias, i find lots of bulbils growing on short underground stolens. My observation is that these rarely ever grow until severed from the mother plant, The last time i repotted my A. poly you could clearly see there was 3 sets of bulbils that where not growing, and one round of smaller bright ones that were yet to fully develop. it had been 3 years of growth with out repoting, the oldest bulbils were closest to the mother and very dark, almost black, several had detached from the mother, via rot, and were lighter and larger and growing. 2nd set of bulbils was farther away and pretty dark the 3 set was 6 inches from the mother bulbs and quite light. All were just as viable as the next, the newest ones were not developed and died mostly.
It seems like an odd strategy to me, I often wonder why do they do that, 3 yrs is a long time for a dime sized bulb to just sit there why not just go ahead and grow? I also wonder do all alocasias do that, and do any other aroids do that besides alocasias? Just bored and thinking off all the bulbils i just found in my frydek, it was unbelievable. |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by miketropic none (My Page) on Wed, Oct 24, 12 at 7:48
| alot of them will not grow simply b/c they don't have to. they get there energy from the mother bulb through the stolen and don't need leaves to produce there food. once severed they will start themselves and grow leaves to produce there own food and continue the cycle. colocasia on the other hand will grow with only a half root in the ground from a stolen. |
|
- Posted by grabmebymyhandle 6 kentucky%21 (My Page) on Thu, Oct 25, 12 at 1:15
| I actually had been thinking what a wonderful storage device these were, i couldnt really take a pic but the stolens were very short, and the bulbils just packed in. I bet in an emergency the mother could easily tap those non growing bulbils and cannabalize them. fun. |
|
| my alocasia polly was doing very good for 3 years, flowering every year, but polypodium fern seeded into it and i let it grow into a fernery. but now it's too dense and i decided to separate them. i have 3 large tubers (2 dormant, 1 has a leaf, but also not growing yet). they were planted vertically next to each other - with 2 leaves each making one pot. i want to plant the tubers horizontally to produce many sprouts. should i leave top half above ground? i also found lots of bulbils in the pot. most are 1/4 " , some 1/2 ". i would like to pot them up and see how many will sprout. there are also 2 little bulbils that already produced a small tuber(corm?) and have been growing 1 leaf. the little tubers were underground and 1 still has a bulbil attached at the bottom. so i will plant them also underground. but what about the bulbils? how deep and how far apart ? i can't find any info on this and also on how long it will take for them to develop into larger plants. any advice? |
|
- Posted by grabmebymyhandle 6 Kentucky (My Page) on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 16:55
| should be fine to bury all of it just not too deep... any bulbs that have leaves will generally take less time to take hold and get going than the inactive bulbils... some alocasia can be painfully slow to emerge and start growing...mine still havent broken ground, some havent even attempted to wake up... plant em an inch or so down in loose well draining mix, they can rot out if kept too wet but too dry and they never wake up... i put em in one big pot so they stay evenly moist, and save space it will take sometime before they need much room |
|
| oh, thank you for answering so fast. naturally i dug them up and then was in quandary what to do? dah! was afraid that it's not good for such tiny bulbils to dry up, so googled until the pain in the neck and found on british forum that bottom heat helps to wake up tubers in general, for all aroids. so basically interim i set up a propagator: in an egg carton put moistened perlite, stuck the bulbils half way in, lid on top and on heater pad, mid-setting. they said bottom heat at 80F will be good. can i keep them like this until there's some kind of life showing? and then plant them deeper like you said? do you have any idea how long it takes for a leaf to show? |
|
| The mother bulb actually produces a hormone that suppresses growth in the bulbils. Once separated from the mother plant, the bulbils will grow. Sort of like an insurance policy: should anything happen to the mother plant, there are plenty more to take her place. The same thing happens in the apical meristems of most vascular plants; the apex suppresses the axillary buds, until they are the appropriate distance for branching. |
|
- Posted by grabmebymyhandle 6 Kentucky (My Page) on Sat, Feb 23, 13 at 5:16
| sounds good to me petruska, not too wet tho... they should be fine there for some time and then transplant, hopefully in ground they will astonish you! as for when...lol...a GUESS would be 4-6 weeks if all conditions are perfect... sooner depending on season? thanks leafhead, i had supposed as much about the hormones, good analogy considering aroid bulbs are compressed stems, i guess the sceince there is very similar. |
|
- Posted by jardinerowa 10 (My Page) on Sun, Feb 24, 13 at 14:32
| yes there are other aroids that grow tons of small offshoots/bulbs that will grow! The amorphophallus, sauromatum, and arisaemas genera come to mind! Have fun with lots of new plants. Z |
|
| i would be thrilled with just a few more plants - got about 2 dozen bulbils. they have all plumped up so far. i was afraid of dampening them first, now i actually put some more moistened perlite to cover the tops. i also finally planted the big tubers from mother plant and it's all sitting on the heating pad. the temp of the plastic lids is about 90F. i read that's ok. 80-90F range is good. i suppose the young plants will be quite small for several years and best planted together and bagged. i grew 2 cyclamens from seed - they were bagged for 2 years if i remember correctly. so would i be right to think that it's best to keep young plants growing continuously thru winter to form the tuber? i know that small tubers/corms are more prone to drying up/dying. out of 12 bagged cyclaments only 2 survived (and i never let them go into dormancy). any idea what would be bulbil rate of sprouting and then surviving a year? my tubers made 2 sprouts by themselves: 1 and 2 year old. they are quite small, increase about an inch or 2 in size each year. so for adult size it would be many years? |
|
| here's a pic of my amazonica polly tubers before planting. the front 2 small tubers are 2y and 1y babies. the mature leaves are about 10", the 2 year leaf is about 5-6", the 1y is may be 2-3". both babies had only 1 leaf growing. grab, how are your bulbils doing? they are much larger then mine of course, being frydek. have you ever planted bulbils before, or is it the 1st time? anybody else done it? |
|
| They do love the heat, and make sure they are warm (room temp) for at least 24 hours before planting. You're on the right track keeping the little offshoots going.... they'll continue growing all winter and summer, until fall. |
|
| grab do yours show any sign of life yet? i got the 1st year polly bulbil sprout. they were sitting doing nothing so i browsed again in british forum and found a great post about 'mayan mask' boiling : heating them hi and wet. so finally after 3 weeks on low setting i increased the temp to medium (96Fin cups, the mat itself is at 114F!), rewatered well. and today, on 22(that's 2 weeks at 96F) noticed the root pocking out 1/2" ! so i dug it up to check , snap a pic and repot. also decided to repot all egg carton ones (2year large ones) into indiv 1.5" cups - they seem to retain moisture better. and now am really hopeful for a whole batch! notice that the roots are growing from the top of the bulbil! and growing tip is showing pink. couldn't take a better pic to see. |
|
| well, i have 3 sprouts so far: 2 1inch pink 'leaf sheaths' and a 3rd one just picking out. they are all in moist perlite, bagged on a heat-mat in good bright light. am waiting for the first leaf to develop to transplant and put into 'shoe box' propagator. grab, what's happening with yours? |
|
| well, nobody's answering... but I just wanted to post in case smbody will want to sprout bulbils. my planted big mama tubers leafed out , one produced 2 flowers. the 2nd yr bulbil produced largest leaf yet: 8", 1yr tuber have rotted, but I trimmed it and it rooted and produced 3" leaf . the bulbils are producing leaves: so far I have 5 leafed out from 3" to 4" and 7 more showing sprouts and 3 more showing roots. and 10 more left unsprouted - mostly smallest ones. I am keeping all sprouts still bagged and on a heating pad. |
|
- Posted by grabmebymyhandle 6 Kentucky (My Page) on Wed, May 22, 13 at 12:19
| Sorry didn't notice any posts in my thread... I actually still have dormant mask type alocasia, they are so stubborn. There's not much more I can do for em, it's 80 out right now 100 in the greenhouse... WAKE UP! : D I've nearly lost my variegated poly, it had problem after problem this winter, I had such high hopes but should have waited to now to divide it, I jumped the gun... Sigh lesson learned, and it is still kickin! Not growing leaves yet but white roots are hanging out of his pot, I think I'll go throw that guy in the grond now I actually recently acquired A. Ivory Coast,a nice new mask hybrid, |
|
| well, finally... just tell me this: is this the first time you are sprouting bulbils or you've done this before? there's absolutely big-ZERO info on the subject. honestly, I only did it, 'cause I saw your post. and then I googled the heck out of my shoulder until I found "this"post in british forum. so I put it on a heating mat and when it did not sprout, kept pouring more hot water on it! and jacked up the heat too... it looks like it takes lots of root heat+very moist perlite to get it going! but now that you have 100F in the greenhouse it SHOULD sprout. give it some HOT water, really! |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Aroid Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.