Nancy's Revenge

[GREVILLE]

Anyone tried Colocasia Nancy's Revenge?

I bought one from Vale Exotics at the end of last year which appeared to have been damaged when packed. The stem was partly cut against the edge of the cardboard box and it was leaning over when I unpacked it.

I kept it dry in my cool greenhouse but in time the top died off. I was eventually left with what I thought was a dried out corm. At the turn of the year I examined it and found it had rotted. Upon further investigation, I sifted through the still moist compost and found two tiny stolons with what appeared to be a live nodule on one and an upturned tip with a few tiny roots on the other. There was still some rot travelling along the stolons from the mushy corm so I severed them at a point of cleaned tissue and put them in a propogator.

Ten days later a tiny leaf emerged from both stolons. Last week the smaller one from the nodule collapsed and died while the bigger one from the stolon tip put out a second tiny leaf only to collapse and die yesterday. There was no sign of any root or stolon to be found in either.

Any similar experiences to share?

[Yorkshire Kris]

I got this from Vales exotics last year as well. Mines done a bit better than yours although it did decline for a few months with a bit of botrytis (sp) and shock of moving. It is ticking over this winter and hopefully will do well this summer

[GREVILLE]

Thanks for your welcome message and reply, Kris.

I'd be interested to know how yours performs this year, particularly if it sends up pups from the runners. Perhaps this is a temperamental performer like 'Black Magic'.

[Dave Brown]

I have tried to get this several times but has always just gone out of stock before my order gets fulfilled.

With Colocasia in general rhizomes can rot, but you only need a tiny piece for the plant to regenerate.

Stolons in my experience are much less prone to rotting, however it does require enough stolon for a plant to be able to establish itself. The plantlet has one shot and if the stolon is started when conditions are not favourable the first setback, for whatever reason could be fatal.