Re: Overwintering Alocasias

Hello,
 
In zones 4-6 Alocasias may not spend the winter outdoors, first the leaves die, then the rhizomes (when it's below 0*C), take them to a cold place at home. If they don't have leaves, store them in a basement or in a fridge (above 0*C), if you want them not to fall into dormancy - simply put them in a sunny place at home and water less, cos the tubers may rot.
 
Best,
Marek
----- Original Message -----
From: c*@yahoo.ca
To: aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 2:38 PM
Subject: [Aroid-l] Overwintering Alocasias

Firstly, Hello again!  I have bee away from the list for a couple of year.  But after search the archive I can only find some hints to the answer to my question, which is... How to overwinter rather large Alocasias.  I have more plants than I can bring into my house and put under lights and I would like to do an experiment this year.  I live in Toronto, Canada (Zone 4?) and the temperature in the evening is now about 5 degress C.  The plants have been outside since the spring and are doing fine and still putting out new leaves.  The plants have large "trunks (6" diameter) and are in 16" pots.
 
So to overwinter one of the plants should I:
 
1)  Stop watering them and let it sit outside and take it until the soil temperature drop near but not below freezing and let the leaves "die off".
 
2)  Cut off all of the leaves and leave about a foot of trunk and bring these in now.
 
And when I bring them in should I:
 
1)  Just leave them in the pots in a dark, cool part of the basement.
 
2)  Try to dig out the root system and store them either in bag or in sand?  If I did them up should I trim off all of the roots and just keep the main root structure (tuber) or keep everything.
 
And I do have access to a cold room so I could store these at about 5 degrees C until the spring, which would be more constant qnd a little cooler than my basement.
 
Thanks for any suggestions that you might be able to provide.
 
Cheers,
 
Chris

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