Jump to content

A. titanum at Kew


flycatchers

Recommended Posts

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!! :D

cheers

bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 :wink: :cry: :D

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

cheers

bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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! :wink:

cheers

bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have personal and expensive experience of this. A. titanum seed can not be stored for any great length of time. Fresh seed may germinate near instantaneously. More than approx. thirty days off the mother plant and I believe it will rot every time. Older seed, even if it looks good on arrival it will turn to mush within days of planting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...