Hardy Tropicals UK

They are really hard to get through winter looking good. But will come back from cormels (or little side shoots?) in spring. I thought mine had died over winter so didn't water. In spring the compost had been bone dry for weeks. With an accidental watering lots of new plants appeared. I have given up on it for now as I couldn't get them to grow into big plants.

Mine have currently gone back to one leaf each, even under a daylight lamp.

Dave Brown wrote:

nicebutdim wrote:I did a search on overwintering this plant and was amazed to read a couple of posts suggesting firstly that these should never dry out and more amazingly they should be stored overwinter in water.yes water and this should be changed every day until it stops smelling.I have a few pups on mine so am chancing one to see what happens.I suppose if this is dud advice the worst that can happen is the pup will lose it's roots.

Are you talking about Colocasia gigantea As I have heard that standard gigantea and 'Thai Giant' strain do not like standing in water even in summer. They cannot be dried out over winter like other types, but I'm not standing mine in water.

i got my species mixed up, I meant to have posted under Jack's Giant not Thai Giant.If I can find the link again I will post it.I forgot to mention that "Water storage produced the best results as long as it's not freezing!"I find this hard to believe but as I have three pups I can spare one My Thai Giant got knocked back by the frost and rotted halfway down the corm ,so I am hoping that once dry it might kick off again,contrary to it's normal habit of not doing so

Well uless its about luck....mine is growing

nicebutdim wrote: i got my species mixed up, I meant to have posted under Jack's Giant not Thai Giant.If I can find the link again I will post it.I forgot to mention that "Water storage produced the best results as long as it's not freezing!"I find this hard to believe but as I have three pups I can spare one My Thai Giant got knocked back by the frost and rotted halfway down the corm ,so I am hoping that once dry it might kick off again,contrary to it's normal habit of not doing so

Ah, ok I have my Jack's Giant in water this winter, the first time I've tried, and is looking ok at above 6C.

We'll add this to the topic Here http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/v ... 27&p=41629

so your putting a bare/clean root corm in a bucket of water and letting it sit Dave? never tried that one I will have to say.

miketropic wrote:so your putting a bare/clean root corm in a bucket of water and letting it sit Dave? never tried that one I will have to say.

Basically, Yes, and seems to be working so far

Yorkshire Kris wrote:They are really hard to get through winter looking good. But will come back from cormels (or little side shoots?) in spring. I thought mine had died over winter so didn't water. In spring the compost had been bone dry for weeks. With an accidental watering lots of new plants appeared. I have given up on it for now as I couldn't get them to grow into big plants.

Mine died down after being hit by frost down to and into the corm ,I have dried it out but it is shrinking daily,is it worth keeping it damp?

Mine was kept dry until it went on the heat mat, and then took over a month to show any signs of life. Both started to show a leaf, but then I knocked the smaller one and it just fell over, as had no roots The other is rooted solidly and is growing the faster of the 2. I removed the rootless one to a smaller pot with about 60/40 MP/perlite rather than the peat based stock compost it came in.
Here is a pic from Sunday (2 days ago) The larger one opened it's leaf fully yesterday as the conservatory went up to 27.6C

to be honest mine is in my grandmothers basement and I havn't checked on it in at least 2 months. she overwinters all of her plants down there so I would guess its just a corm right now due to low light but it should come along fast once it warms up or I put a bit of water to it.

Mine has a baby I will post a pic when it is still day and I'm home, so this weekend

Don't know how mine is doing. Yet to arrive from Amulree

As promised a pic of my Giant baby, and a leaf of its mama

That's doing well CL, what temperature are you growing them at ?

Here is mine with it's first leaf open

I have no indoors thermometer so I cannot tell but for sure above 20C. I like it warm in my bedroom
The second one I got is not doing so well because I grew it in a pot with coir only but that has been fixed. The big one is planted in 100 liter trough along with a pretty big Musa in pure compost. They seem to love it