Alocasia

[marfanuk]

Am I in the minority or are Alocasia really easy to over winter?

Mine is in its second year after surviving the last winter in my living room. Over the winter i kept it growing and produced another 4 or 5 leaves. Now its approximately 5ft tall.

How do others deal with over wintering Alocasia?

[Dave Brown]

They are relatively easy to overwinter as they don't need much light. I am not allowed to have them indoors after a banana dripped water onto an oak table completely taking the polish and varnish off All 'Drippy' plants are now banned

I overwinter mine in the conservatory and covered bit. but they need to be almost dry, and only ever watered from the bottom. They tick along in temps of 5C in the conservatory and with a couple of degrees below freezing in the covered bit. A. calidora and portadora are quite tough not minding 0C. A, wentii Aline will take low temps to about 3 or 4C, as will Alo Mac. but be careful of going into dormancy as they are much harder than Colocasia, to get restarted.in my experience,

[marfanuk]

Thanks Dave, luckily my wife lets me get away with anything regarding plants. We don't have a conservatory as we only live in a small cottage, so plants get dotted all round the house.

I might go against the 'normal' and keep it going through the winter again. This didn't stunt its growth this summer and maybe when I increase to 2 next year i will try both methods of over wintering.

[simon]

My experiece is not necessarily easy but at least successful in the conservatory. The portodora got a bit of rot in the trunk last winter but I dusted it with some yellow sulfur and it dried out and came through OK. It was probably a result of it not being dry enough.