10 replies to this topic

[flycatchers]

Hi
I was interested to see on tonights "A New Year at Kew" BBC2 that even Kew get rotting A. titanum tubers :cry:  And use sulpher dust and cutting the rotten parts away to try and stem it. At least my tubers are in good company!!

cheers

bill

[Chris C]

Yes we grow several of the plants at Kew out of the public view and the tubers smell even worse when they are rotting than when they are flowering. There is even talk of  a recent discovery of a new way to propogate them other than from seed - should be interesting!

[flycatchers]

Chris C said:

Yes we grow several of the plants at Kew out of the public view and the tubers smell even worse when they are rotting than when they are flowering. There is even talk of  a recent discovery of a new way to propogate them other than from seed - should be interesting!

Yes I know the smell of rotting tubers rather too well   :cry:  

Does Kew suffer much from rotting tubers? No matter what I try most seem to go that way....

cheers

bill

[hen]

theyre researching (quite successfully I think) a way to propagate them through leaf cuttings. Should hopefully bring down the price of these giants by a fair bit.

[Rob-Rah]

Getting hold of these plants is frustrating. There is a seller on eBay selling seeds regularly at £5 a pop. He claims they are all totally fresh, yet the one I had a go with rotted. If they really are fresh when he received them at his end.... for goodness sake why doesn't he germinate them all and sell the seedlings instead? A plant keeps fresh much better than a seed. So many seeds must have been wasted by now.

[flycatchers]

Rob-Rah said:

Getting hold of these plants is frustrating. There is a seller on eBay selling seeds regularly at £5 a pop. He claims they are all totally fresh, yet the one I had a go with rotted. If they really are fresh when he received them at his end.... for goodness sake why doesn't he germinate them all and sell the seedlings instead? A plant keeps fresh much better than a seed. So many seeds must have been wasted by now.

Were they from a person in Poland? Mine rotted as well!  

cheers

bill

[Rob-Rah]

I thought mine were in the UK, but I don't really remember.

[Chris C]

I wouldnt say that Kew has a huge problem with rotting tubers, but it certainly happens, with all Amorphophallous and members of the Araceae, but is kept under control by removing the infected sections and dusting with fungicide. A large tuber shouldnt have any great loss from this, and as hey produce a new one every season, by the time it has finished growing, a new perfectly formed tuber will be under the soil rather than an infected one. Yes they have started to be propagated by leaf cuttings, but it still very experimental. I will be looking at it as a project in the next few months (i am a student there) and ill let you all know how it goes.
Cheers
Chris

[Alexander Nijman]

Hello,

Maybe they should take a look at the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden. They get plenty of A. titanum plants there! Almost every year they get one in flower.

Regards,

Alexander