What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Amorphophallus konjac

Hey everyone -

My Amorphophallus konjac flowered today! I posted some pictures a few replies down.

It has to be one of the weirdest alien-like things I have ever grown. Like a Jack-In -The-Pulpit gone horribly wrong. It doesn't stink too bad...yet.

I was fortunate in winning a bulb at a silent auction at a New England Carnivorous Plant Society meeting last spring. Thanks to Matt Opel of The University of Connecticut for the donation.

Over the summer, it grew into a huge bushlike thing - the stem was 4 inches in diameter and looked like rubbery tan salamander skin with green spots. I had been watering it with compost tea and I think it really liked the brew. In the fall, when I dug up the bulb, it was as big as a basketball. The large bulb has been sitting on my drafting table, not in soil or anything, and about 2 weeks ago started sending up a stalk that seemed to just keep growing. I had to move it to a lower shelf and then the floor because it was bending against the cieling. The height from the top of the bulb to the tip of the flower's long 2 foot purple point is 6 feet 3 inches. The texture of the bottom part of the flower looks like a magnified version of the skin on the back of your hand - it's a purply-pink color.

Here's a link I found with more information.

http://www.augsburg.edu/biology/photoofmonth/amorphophallus.html

The top of my flower is much much darker - almost black, and the wrap is lighter - like badly surnburned skin.

WildBill
 
Magnificent! Looks like your konjac is an early bird. Please do take some photos. I can't wait till mine flowers
smile.gif
 
I am looking to purchase a couple bulbs from this family.
 
Hey , Copper , i have some extra small bulbs that yuo might be interested in this species and others , pm me if you want some or to trade them for something .
 
Fantastic Bill! I have yet to see my D. vulgaris and S. venosum flower! I am a big fan now of Aroids! I LOOVE Jack in the pulpits and Skunk Cabbage.
 
Dustin, after seeing how large your S. venosum grew, I'd be surprised if it didn't flower this year!
biggrin.gif
 
Well I did anticipate flowering this year.
smile.gif
The one tuber that's 4 inches across (10cm) should be a doozy this year. I am going to plant them in March so when it flowers it can go outside the greenhouse
wink.gif
 
Well, it was a roasty 45 degrees here today so we borrowed a digital camera and brought the amorphophallus outside for some fresh air. It smells sort of like a big pile of raw hamburger meat that has been left out for a few hours.

AmorKonj1.jpg


AmorKonj2.jpg


AmorKonj3.jpg




Our dog, Gypsy, came into the plant room/ studio and started growling & barking at it a short while ago. Then she ran outside the window that has a big fan blowing out the fumes and stood there barking and barking. It's too funny.

I hope some of you can make it to this month's NECPS meeting on Saturday. Nathan is giving a presentation on growing plants under lights & different kinds of lighting. I'm donating some nice plants to the silent auction too: 2 nice flytraps, a young Ceph, and this month's "Mystery Plant".

WildBill
 
Hooraay! Today it doesn't stink anymore. It released the pollen and the part that was yellowish white is now purple.

WildBill
 
  • #12
Very nice! I'm growing this plant but it has not reached flowering size yet. Has your plant produced offsets? Mine produced three last year which I seperated from the mother plant and planted up seperately. And then there were four.

How bad does it smell? My wife already thinks my plant collection is a little over the edge. She will think I've lost it if I stink up the house.

Happy Growing
Glenn
 
  • #13
Hey Glenn -

Most people who know me think my collection is already over the edge! I love sharing it with kids.

The Amorphophallus didn't stink as bad I thought it might. I must say I was a bit worried and expected total gagging sharp putrid rankness. The way I can I best describe it was like a giant mound of warm hamburger meat. It was only bad for about one day. Today it hardly smells at all.

The plant did make some babies - garlic sized bulbs. They are already spoken for. If I have some left over I will post on the Trading Forum. I don't know how long until they would grow to flowering size. This plant really liked the compost tea - I think that's how the bulb grew so large in one year. I had watered with it and also sprayed the foliage.

I made the tea by putting a trowel full of compost into some nylon pantyhose and knotted it. I put this into a 5 gallon bucket, filled it with water, and put an airhose hooked up to an aquarium pump into it to provide aeration. After a few days I added about a 1/4 cup of molasses to the brew and used it a few days later. It's supposed to provide all kinds of beneficial nutrients & microbes that help growth & fight disease. It worked wonders on our tomatos. I tried an experiment - misting it on S. flava and it seemed to have a stunting effect while on VFT it seemed to help. It wasn't any kind of controlled experiment - just 2 equal sized plants of each. The funniest thing was that the brew seemed to evaporate quickly - then I found out that the dogs loved to drink the compost tea instead of their water!

WildBill
 
  • #14
Bill, impressive!

About your tea, just regular compost??? If so, I might do a little treatment of it on my Jack in the pulpits and my S. venosums this year just for kicks.
 
  • #15
Yep -

Just regular old compost from the compost pile. To mist the plants, I strained it into one of those 2 liter plastic pump sprayers. They are like 10 bucks at Home Depot or Lowes.

WildBill
 
  • #16
Last night, the tall purple cone on the Amorphophallus flopped in half. I'm still going to bring it to the NECPS meeting today, however, so the members can see it. Good thing it doesn't stink anymore!

Rumor has it that someone has donated some nice tuberous sundews that are just starting to sprout. Sounds like another silent auction frenzy - I wish more of you guys lived closer to share the loot!! Keep an eye out for updates and photos from the meeting.

WildBill
 
  • #17
Dang that is so cool isn`t that the genus that the largest flower in the world comes from? I just love aroids!
 
  • #18
Wonderful Bill!

Pond Boy, that is the Amorphophallus titanum you mention and yep, it is one of the largest Inflorescences in the world (up to 3.3 meters in height!). The largest true single bloom flower is Rafflesia arnoldii (up to 1.5 m in diameter), Rafflesia in generally considered "uncultivatable" since it is an endophytic parasite of the Tetrastigma vines.
 
Back
Top