UK grown Alocasia x calidora produces seed and seedlings :-)

[Dave Brown]

The huge leaved Alocasia x calidora from member Kentgardener decided it was going to flower this year, much to my disgust. When they flower they stop producing leaves so this was not really what I wanted

It only produced one small leaf from May to August, but has finally resumed now with 2 leaves in 2 weeks

It produced 4 flower spathes which I didin't think anything about, one split open a couple of weeks ago and had 2 green berries. Then last night in the rain storm the latest and largest pod split open revealing 30 or so bright orange berries. I think the last 2 flowers overlapped time wise so may have pollenated each other.

When planted out in May with one flower.

The four flower stems

Pod burst open

Alocasia calidora Berries

Now the hard bit..... how do I germinate these

Lifted this off a Clivia forum which seems to be advise from LariAnn Garner

The Alocasia x calidora (correct name) usually blooms in the Spring and sometimes again in the Fall. That is delayed in your case due to your weather requirements.
Alocasia blooms are pollen receptive when first opened, usually in the morning, and the next day, pollen will drop. If you want to try selfing this plant, you need to collect pollen in a small airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator until your next bloom opens. Once it does, you warm up the pollen, gently cut away an opening in the lower (swollen) spathe area, and apply the pollen with a clean artists brush to the pistil heads.

If you are successful, berries will form and ripen in about two months after pollination. Seeds should be planted immediately upon harvesting from the berries and kept moist. Seeds should never be dried out prior to planting; they should go directly from berry to moist planting medium. I soak mine in distilled water overnight before planting to leach out germination inhibitors.

LariAnn
Aroidia Research

Has anyone sown Alocasia seed and been successful If so what temps etc

I have never bought seed as I know they have to be fresh, but didn't realise they died if removed from the berries and allowed to dry out

[Yorkshire Kris]

This is a great success! What will happen to the fruiting plant now? Will it continue to grow or will it's pups take over?

[Dave Brown]

This plant hasn't any pups Kris, and it has resumed growing leaves again. I'm now reading up on how to grow these from seed, as I don't think anyone on here has tried.

[Dave Brown]

Finally got around to doing an update on the Alocasia x calidora home grown seed.

As I did not have any other Alocasia in flower at the time of this one, it was by pure fluke that 2 flowers opened overlapping each other, and it appears that they have pollenated each other. Following questions about whether these will be hybrids, no, I don't think so... but most likely they are inbreds which does not normally happen by all accounts. I'm not sure what will come from these.

The fruit stem was cut off the parent on 28th August in preparation for seed removal and sowing. As I have no experience of this I read up on http://www.Aroid.org, and several forums. As is usual there was some conflicting information so I had to weigh up a consensus. Particularly useful was a Gardenweb topic with LariAnn Garner contributing. She is the creator of Alocasia hybrids x calidora and x portora.

Although the topic was about sowing Alocasia robusta, there was a lot of generic information useful to me.

The first was if you buy Alocasia seed and they come dry in a packet, just throw them away, as once dry they are dead and non viable. LariAnn says you must remove the seed from the berries yourself to stand a chance of germination, and then do not allow to dry out before sowing.

At least picking the berries off my own plant I knew they were fresh.

The second point worth bearing in mind is the berry juice is highly irritating so removing the seed from the berries should be done with rubber gloves. I put marigolds on to start with before removing the berries from the fruit stem.

There were 55 berries on the stem, but some were huge and contained 3 seed, although most had a single seed. Removing the seed from the berries was very fiddly when not used to wearing cloves, and the first seed removed shot out of my grip and onto the greenhouse shingle floor, and was lost. I was very much more careful from them on. It took over an hour to remove all the seed and ended up with a total of 69.

The berry was squashed removing most of the flesh then rubbed between finger and thumb in a dish of boiled, cooled water. This stopped losing any more seed and allowed the removal of as much flesh as possible.

As I had read conflicting report of copper fungicide being toxic, and fatal, to Alocasia, I decided not to risk it, as may be my one and only chance of germinating my own grown seed. Instead I soaked the seed for 2 hours in 3% H202 (Hydrogen Peroxide). They fizzed away killing bacteria and fungal spores.

While the seed was in soak I prepared the sowing medium, which following advice from Aroid.org used 50/50 coco coir and perlite, they do have several suggested mixes, but this was what I had to hand at the time.

The coco coir was in dry block form, so to ensure sterilisation I rehydrated with 6% H202. This was then squeezed to remove any excess water before mixing with the perlite. This gives a very open mix which allows air to the seed. Alocasia are extremely fussy about having air (oxygen) and any mix which is too compacted or wet may result in rotted seed. The mix was added to the seed tray, without tamping down and the seed placed on the surface. Then a thin layer of the mix was sprinked over the seed bearly covering them. From what I have read it is important to have light for germination.

Once sown the tray was bagged to keep the humidity high.

Temperature seems to be a little different to what I had expected, with temps in the range of 21 to 29C being suggested. Also a recommendation that a heated propagator not be used, to allow the temps to rise and fall. As a result I have kept the tray in the shade in the conservatory by day, reaching about 30C max, but with autumn now setting in is too cool at night. so they are moved to the kicthen and placed under a kitchen unit light overnight. This drops to around 22C.

Next installment to follow shortly

[Dave Brown]

The bagged seed tray was moved from conservatory to kitchen to keep the seed as near as possible between the 21 -29 suggested, I think I went over and under slightly, so between 20 and 30C, and after 5 days (2nd September) noticed the first movement on some of the seed. Also, worryingly the first signs of fungus appeared.

As I do not want to apply copper fungicide, I opened the bag up to allow more air, and applied 3% H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) to the areas with fungus.

After another 3 days (5th September) the sprouting seed that had fungus around them, which were treated, showed no signs of damage from the H2O2, but the fungus appeared to have gone, and the sprouts were starting to grow

At this point I have started to apply 1% H2O2 as watering, leaving the bag open during the day. The mix is very open so there is plenty of air getting to the seed/sprouts, and the H2O2 produces oxygen in the compost. The bag is closed again at night under the kitchen unit light as was in danger of drying out which would be disasterous for germination.

After 10 days from sowing the sprouts are starting to look like miniture plants, but do not have true leaves yet.

I have noticed that some of the tiny plants are a different colour. I don't know if this is normal, or whether I will end up with variations. Also tiny roots are now evident on some.

As these roots were in the open air, I have sprinkled another thin layer of coir/perlite to avoid desication when the bag is open.

Further updates to follow.

Also the second flower stem that was open at the same time and pollenated the first, has split open, revealing 15 or so berries. I will have to repeat the exercise with that one.

[Petefree]

Fascinating stuff, Dave - well done. It will be interesting to follow the progress.

[Yorkshire Kris]

Really interesting Dave. You could end up with a lot of plants!

[DaveP]

Fascinating. It will be interesting to see how the plants turn out. Being a selfed primary hybrid, there's a possibility that some of the offspring will be the parent species, but you could also get a new odora/gageana orientation making this a potentially exciting batch of seedlings. Your only problem Dave is that you simply must grow every one to maturity... Or at least enlist others to help you do it

[Dave Brown]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Dave you're worrying me now I hadn't thought of getting anything possibly that different. I suppose the original Hybrid is an F1, so my seed will be an F2, and could be any variation between the two parents.

[DaveP]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Dave you're worrying me now I hadn't thought of getting anything possibly that different. I suppose the original Hybrid is an F1, so my seed will be an F2, and could be any variation between the two parents.

It's always difficult trying to second guess the outcome of selfed primary hybrids and to be honest, you could end up with not one plant that is any better than either of the original species or the hybrid parent. It's a complete lottery and as with lotteries, you could end up with no winners at all (most likely) or the jackpot (most unlikely).

Sometimes I feel that it is easier to forecast likelihoods where the hybrid is more complex, because you have a better idea of what characteristics are consistently dominant through the parent chain. Theoretically, x calidora could be reconstructed over and over again because it is a simple hybrid of odora and gageana. In reality, something totally different is just as likely, as is a reversion to the type species. This is why it is better to grow on all of the seedlings for at least a year or so. Then you can decide which to keep and which to pass on.

[Leigh]

Nice one Dave , how will you keep them going through the winter

[Dave Brown]

I have a 4ft heated prop in the conservatory, it is just used as a humidity tray in summer but I'll put the lid on over winter and plug it in. I imagine they will be big enough to pot up separately before then but will probably have them in square cell trays to keep the space taken to a minimum. The prop is capable of being heated to 35C although I won't set it that high. I'll do some more reading on the web before I get to that stage.

11/Sep/2010 Update. Day 15 from sowing.

The seedlings are now visible without having to look for them and counted 27 out of the 69 so far. The colour range is quite wide with some very reddy, brown, and a couple lime green. This is fascinating

I get far more satisfaction producing and growing plants from my own seed than just about any other gardening.

I have the second berry cluster to sow this weekend, If i leave it any later I will have problems getting the right temps without a prop.

[Dave Brown]

15/Sept/2010 - Day 19 update

Going great guns now, and up to 47 seedlings from 69 seed so far

[Leigh]

I get far more satisfaction producing and growing plants from my own seed than just about any other gardening.

I'm with you on that Dave,

Looking good so far

[Dave Brown]

I'm doing far better than I expected.

Update Day 24 from sowing - 55 seedlings now 79.7% germination rate so far, many with first true leaf.