Re: Initiation of Flowering in Amorphophallus

At 12:04 PM 3/24/2008, you wrote:
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Fellow Aroiders:
 
            My Director is anxious that we flower Amorphophallus titanum which we have had here for many years.  It has always been an embarrassment that we, among all the institutions in the world practically, have not flowered this species even though we have had the species from the earliest days.  Anyway, I am now asking for advice from those of you who have flowered this species if you know of any way it can be induced to flower. I know that many of you do not actually want your plants of Amorphophallus to flower but if you have any ideas about what would induce these ?lazy? plants of mine to flower (short of killing it) please let me know.
 
Tom Croat

We repotted over the years into pots that were larger than the corm, but not too overly large (fear of rotting, along with the difficulty of locating an appropriate pot, were driving forces).  The plant, after reaching a relatively large size, would inevitably grow the corm to fill the pot, and also begin to heave itself out of the pot.  We always add Osmocote when repotting, along with extra Perlite in the potting soil to keep it well-drained.  During the recent flowering were top-dressing with a mixture of composted manure and peat moss.  The plant is now producing a new leaf, and we're curious as to whether or not it will do the heave-partly-out-of-the-pot action with regard to the current 44" pot.  To see the new shoot on our webcam, see:  http://arboretum.blog.gustavus.edu/2008/03/06/perry-grows-again/ - scroll down to the webcam link.  The shoot is now much larger than what is shown in the photos.  See other entries on the blog for the flowering event (the peak was May 12, 2007).

Brian O'Brien

--
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 

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