Texas Gardening: Guess what kind of plant I just acquired!?, 0 by stevesivek

stevesivek wrote:
faden, I just got my A. titanum baby from Dr. Licht, Director of Horticulture at UC - Berkley, 3 days ago. A really nice 3", 1/2 pound tuber just coming out of dormancy. Really enjoyed speaking with him. Tell him I said "HI" next time you see him. I've attached a picture of the tuber I got.

Tater, that's one the difficulties of growing A. titanum. Most amorphs growth & dormancy cycles coincide with the warm & cold seasons and go dormant when the weather cools down. Titanum differs in that it goes dormant when it feels the need to. Young tubers actively growing during the winter can be maintained indoors with adequate warmth, light and humidity provided. But when it gets big and decides to grow through winter a tall greenhouse is needed.

Since you must have two blooming to pollinate them (female flowers close before the male flowers release their pollen) maybe one day Brandon & I can hand pollinate a bloom. Properly handled, pollen can be stored for up to one year. That could be a long time from now though. First bloom is, at a minimum, on a 6 year old tuber. Could be much longer. Brandon's tuber is one year old and mine is two. With their first bloom the tuber is usually too small to provide enough energy to developing fruit. It can starve the tuber to death.