Amorphophallus konjack

[Eric Williams]

Hi all, I have been growing these plants for a few years from tubers /corms/bulbs. The largest one was about seven inches in diameter at the beginning of the season. Sorry to say not a sign of a flower. They are well watered and fed to try to enlarge the tuber every year. Apparently when the time arises for a flower to show itself, the flower is the first thing to appear before the foliage. Has any one any tips to get it to flower ? Thanks

[ralphrmartin]

Well, I've had one flower once, but I dont have any special tips, and I haven't repeated my success. I let them go completely dry once the leaf dies off. I start watering again in April, and as you say, if you get a flower, it comes before the leaf, which typically does not appear until July. However, it does not appear that early watering encourages it to flower.

[Aiko]

This remains a mystery to me to. So you are not alone. I only once had a Amorphophallus konjac in flower, which was years ago. I don't really repot them.

[Eric Williams]

Thanks both for your interest. I have done some further reading, and it seems flowering is a hit or miss affair. One web site said tubers should be over eight inches in diameter before flowering, another shows tubers around three inches dia. in flower and not even potted up. Another states the plants flower annually, but another said there may be years in between flowers. What they agree on is this. Heat, semi shade, copious watering, and lots of feeding to get the tuber big enough to have the energy to flower. Cheers

[Aiko]

Mine go outside starting from late April. So they do get some heat in the greenhouse from early spring, later in spring they go out and have less warm temperatures. It saves on space in the greenhouse for other plants, if I put them outside (before that, they are under the staging in the dark which is not a problem as they are still under ground anyway).

But they do get a lot of water when outside. But I don't repot them often nor give them fertiliser. So I guess I have some options to go to grow these a bit better.

[purzo]

I had 2 flower this year after many years of waiting. The largest tuber is probably about 12cm in diameter. I rarely fertilise them and water only when I remember. I usually put them outside after the last chance of frost so the large leaves don't get in the way in the greenhouse. This year as they were going to flower I left them in the greenhouse and never got round to moving them out after the flowers died back. What I can say is that the leaves seem much smaller than usual this year, whether that's due to having flowered or not I couldn't say.