Re: Amorphophallus titanum leaf height inquiry

I'd say you got lucky this time. My experience has been that the leaf will smash itself up against the roof.
Unfortunately, in my greenhouse that means that any part in contact with the roof got burned.
 
I have tried to shorten the leaf by hanging a grow light just inches above the emerging leaf and raising it
as it grew. It didn't seem to make any difference.
 
I also tried tipping the pot over hoping that it would grow at an angle before opening. No luck there either.
The stem just bent itself at 90 degrees and kept on growing straight up.
 
Bill Weaver

From: aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com [mailto:aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com] On Behalf Of Brian O'Brien
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 8:59 PM
To: aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
Cc: bobrien@gac.edu
Subject: [Aroid-l] Amorphophallus titanum leaf height inquiry

Hi All,
   Our largest Titan appears to have reached maximum leaf height for its current growth cycle.  It's about 12 feet high, just below the greenhouse roof level.  My question for other growers of this plant is:  does the plant somehow detect the presence of a barrier, and stop vertical growth, or will it, the next time that it produces a leaf, try to push the leaf through the greenhouse roof?  We were concerned about the latter possibility this time, and it seems oddly coincidental that the leaf stopped growing vertically just at the point when we hoped that it would do so.
   Here's a link for the latest update, including some photos of the leaf scaled to humans:  http://arboretum.blog.gustavus.edu/2008/06/19/gigantic-leaf-garners-gawkers/

Brian

--
Brian A. O'Brien, Department of Chemistry, Gustavus Adolphus College
800 West College Avenue, Saint Peter, Minnesota  56082  U.S.A.
e-mail bobrien@gustavus.edu or bobrien@gac.edu 
tel. (507)933-7310     fax (507)933-7041   http://www.gustavus.edu/~bobrien

Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields,
not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.

Henry David Thoreau 

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