Dioscorea rupicola - watering

[MikeT]

I had one (elephantipes) next to the greenhouse door, on the floor, for some years, when the greenhouse was unheated and the door kept open all day for ventilation. It would get some rain and snow on it. Seemed perfectly content with this treatment, so doesn't need lots of cosseting. Currently they're under a Velux window in the loft, so plenty of light. They're usually in leaf now, but not this year - still waiting.

[ralphrmartin]

Just in case you folks want some pictures of my D. elephantipes

:

[Nick_G]

Nice plant Ralph. Do you have any trouble with greenfly? I grew. D.elephantipes from a seedling to maybe 10 inches across in about 20 years but it used to get covered in greenfly and not being one for spraying too much I sold it to a nice man in Norfolk. Regret it now mind you, its the only plant I've ever sold that now I wish I'd kept. If I remember rightly D.sylvatica and D.paniculata also used to suffer so they went as well but D.hemicrypta seemed to be less tasty to them and stayed uninfected so I kept that. I grew the D.elephantipes in my unheated greenhouse. Temperatures get down to -3 most winters.

[JaneO]

Wow Ralph that's a beauty. Stunning markings. How many years young is the specimen please?

[Mike]

Lovely plant Ralph.
But what's all that stuff around it in your greenhouse? My ID skills are limited but it looks like it could be that rarest of things in a greenhouse. Space.
And delighted to say that my No.2 D.elephantipes showed its first sign of growth yesterday, 2 months after its brother or sister. I was getting worried.
Cheers
Mike

[FaeLLe]

Just in case you folks want some pictures of my D. elephantipes

:

2018-02-08 08.56.17.jpg

2018-02-08 08.56.06.jpg

What a beautiful specimen Ralph, I would love to own a specimen like.... Even now when mine (4cm wide) comes into leaf I look at it daily and admire the explosive stem growth!

If you know any sources for a large specimen like this please let me know.

[iann]

You can be pretty generous with these when they're in growth, especially if it's in the summer. No point leaving them dry for any length of time. I haven't grown D. rupicola but yours looks tiny for its age.

[ralphrmartin]

Nice plant Ralph. Do you have any trouble with greenfly?

No, although I've had to spray some whitefly on my Pelargoniums this winter.

[ralphrmartin]

Wow Ralph that's a beauty. Stunning markings. How many years young is the specimen please?

I reckon each of those bands on the tubercules is an annual growth ring. I got it as a small plant from David Neville in 2011, when I reckon it would have perhaps been 3 years old. So perhaps 10 years old now? I have kept moving it on into bigger pots quite regularly.

Incidentally, a lot of the plants for sale dont seem to have anything like this kind of tubercules. I wonder if some less desirable species are getting passed off as this species. Or is it just very variable?

D. rupicola is much slower, I find.

[ralphrmartin]

Lovely plant Ralph.
But what's all that stuff around it in your greenhouse? My ID skills are limited but it looks like it could be that rarest of things in a greenhouse. Space.

You must have missed the thread about my new greenhouse!

There's over 300 packets of seed waiting to go in, so that stuff won't last for long, I assure you.