Can someone help me with caladiums? I planted 10 over a mo. ago---nothing. Planted 12 more abt 2 wks ago --nothing. The firsr were ones I tried to Keep over winter. The last 12 were new corms.Can anyone tell me how to get them started? I had them under lights. I do think the first ones might of rotted. Thanks Dixie
starting caladium
Hello Dixie! I don't know where you planted them, but I do know that the ground has to be warm enough for them to grow. I plan to put mine out in a week or so. Hope this helps.
Give them a little time and they should come up if they didnt freeze - mine are not up yet but they always get up when it warms up.
thanks.. I had them potted in cool greenhouse under lights.
I put mine out in the greenhouse about a month ago. The temps were fluctuating between 40-50 lowes and 70-80 highs. Mine are just now coming up with my high temps hitting 90-105 on a daily basis. I have the same thing going on with my elepant ears.
Im with Badseed, they seem to take a while to come out of dormancy but when they do, wow. I only have a few,so far, heehee, I dug them up and stuck em in my laundry room for the winter. Potted them up about 2 weeks ago and I still dont see anything. The bulbs were still firm so Im not worried about them. They are tougher than you think.
You all are going to think I am crazy, but I ordered some from Parks and have not received them yet, but I am sure I read on their ad that you plant them upside down.
Even then I don't think they would just rot. Don't know. Maybe they will come out the hole in the bottom of the planter. LOL
Jeanette
FYI -- to all of you northerners trying to get those caladiums going: The ground temp must be consistently 65 degrees or higher to get the caladiums to come up. That means, your soil temp. Even in Florida, sometimes the bulbs overwintered outside in the ground don't make it back up again the next year.
It's sort of a crap shoot at best.
Jnette,
It does sound crazy planting bulbs upside down. Whenever in doubt, lay them on their side.
I am one of the lucky ones whose soil temp remains warm all year. Even still it took about a month after planting the caladiums foir them to come up. But they are determined. I had set a couple pots of cuttings of plants in the flower bed to keep them out of the sun. When I saw caladiums peeping up, I moved these pots away and found caladiums were trying to grow upder the pots.
Yep, they are determined plants.
Molly
:^))))
Now I am truly embarrassed. I got my bulbs from Parks today with planting instructions for a lot of bulbs, and none of them said to plant them upside down. What they did say was plant them with the knobby side up. Whatever.
I am glad that you told me not to be impatient though because they might be up for Christmas?
Jeanette
You can always start them inside under lights to get them up quicker then move them out. That is what I normally do. This year I have been very dedicated to keeping all the dirt and seed mess out of the house. LOL
I just planted 15 caladium bulbs today in plastic pots to start indoors. I have never done this before and after opening the bag of bulbs, decided the written description of "up" didn't exactly explain what to do if there were knobs all over so I found an actual picture on a website of a bulb with big arrows pointing to what was what. Very good for people like me who are new to gardening and sometimes need pictures with big words pointing to things and saying "This End Up" :)
It has been cold and windy all week and after having read that these bulbs do NOT like cold weather, decided to bring potting soil, peat moss, garden gloves and a spade into the kitchen to plant. Actually, I'm sure they would have been fine for a short length of time outside while I potted them but I really didn't want to be cold and used the excuse of "bulbs can't get cold" just to bring more mess into the kitchen. There are now 15 6" plastic pots sitting on the counter between the kitchen and dining area. It's the only warm place that gets so-so light left in the house. I don't really think it's enough light for them but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I haven't started mine yet but I have racks of plants I started from seed and are going to have to go outside soon so I should have room to start them under lights. I am thinking of starting them in flats like I did the Begojias.
I will look at that site on the net . What is the link?
Jeanette
Hi Jeanette:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/19043/113323
I hope this helps. It also explains what to do if you really can't tell which is up and which is down. The picture is about half way down on the page. Good luck, it sounds like you'll have a great setup. My racks of seeds (also in the kitchen) can't go out for a few weeks yet.
I have not had good luck trying to start caladiums in the ground. I start them in 4" pots indoors. Once they start to grow the first leaf you can put them in the ground. They need warm soil temperatures - about 65 to 70F. If you plant them when it's too cool they will just rot.
Tom, about how long for the first leaf to appear if started in the house? The reason I ask is that the soil in the garden probably won't warm up until mid June.
Jeanette
Arachide, that is a great link. Very helpful. Thank you so much. I would have done a lot of those things wrong. LOL
Jeanette
Glad I could help, Jeanette.
Tom, I am also curious about the length of time before a leaf appears as I can't plant outside until June either.
It takes anywhere from two to four weeks to see the first signs of growth - depends on the variety of caladium, how warm the room is, and how "ready" they are to sprout. (Sorry for the vague answer but that's just the way it is!) If you have grow-lights or a sunny windowsill you can keep them indoors longer until the ground has a chance to warm up. Really, once they start the first leaf and form a good root system, they should be OK even if the ground is a little cooler than optimal - they may get off to a slow start but they will catch up once it warms up. The real key is not to plant them in cold soil when they're completely dormant.
Thanks all. Good info. I did move mine to the house,still nothing. I think I can give up..
Dixie
Dixie, have you pulled one out of the dirt and checked to see if it is still firm? Sometimes if they are too cold and too wet, they will rot. If they are still firm, you are fine, just need a little more heat. I hope you did not lose them. They are such pretty little plants. I have seen them at all the DIY stores in both named and mixed bags. They should be marking them down soon and you have plenty of time to start again.
Dixie that is good advice you got from Badseed. Always check bulbs, tubers etc to see if they are still firm before you throw them out. Could be they just need something you haven't tried.
Jeanette
I planted mine in 6" pots under lights and put them on a food warming tray as the seed mat wasn't warm enough.Just kept them barely moist and they started sprouting in about 2 weeks.The soil was really warm.
Suggested planting time for my Zone is June .
I don't think I'll be growing a lot of these at that rate
*/;'(
Arachide, what do you think about putting the tubers in super hot, not boiling, water for 15 minutes? That is what I do with my begonias. They are huge. I don't know if it has anything to do with that or not.
Jeanette
Jeanette, I wonder if that would help. When I planted mine I poured really hot water on the soil after putting them in the pot. That was my own crazy idea because I was so fixated on them not being cold - I'm afraid to recommend it for anyone else because it might not do any good. Your idea of soaking them in warm water sounds like a good idea. Wish I had some left to experiment on. I'll be interested to hear how yours turn out.
Ok, you talked me into it. I am not quite ready to plant them yet because I am hoping to get the rest of my plants out of the house this weekend. Then I will have room to start them.
So, probably by the first of the week I will be ready to plant them. Will post my results.
Jeanette
Golgi,
So the seed warming mats aren't warm enough to jump start these guys? My soil temp is not warm enough to plant outdoors yet and the inside temp stays around 66 - 68, which seems too low for caladium. I have at least 20 tubers that I need to plant so wondering when I should start. Our daytime highs are only in the low 60's with nighttime lows in the low 50's.
Emilyrasmus,
Mine were in the basement where it was cooler,so I had to keep them warm!It was still winter outside.So a seedstarting mat would probably be fine for you!
Arachide, bet you thought I forgot about my experiment. Well, I didn't but it sure has been a while since May 6th when I said I was going to get them going.
TODAY I only did it to 3 of them 'cause I didn't want to ruin all of my tubers. So, I brought the water to a boil and then took it off the stove. I put 3 of the tubers in the water and set the timer for 15 minutes. I planted them in an Azalea pot. I don't know why they call them that, but it is. It is a pot 10", don't know if that is around or across. and about 5 inches deep. I used ProMix and wet it with hot water only because I find the peat in the mix absorbes the water faster if it is hot. And I planted them an inch under, put Gladwrap on it
So, we will see. I put my HVAC tape on it with all of the information that I wrote here and will keep an eye on them and report back when there is any news.
How long do you think I should wait before I dump them out??? LOL
Jeanette
Hi Jeanette, I did not forgot you! I have been watching this thread and was going to give it another week or so before I asked you how it went :)
Last week I dug up about six of them just to see what was going on. Probably not the best idea but I couldn't stand it anymore. I was really surprised to see that all of them except one had new growth, it just hadn't reached the surface yet. I think one rotted. Don't know what's going on with the other nine and don't want to press my luck.
I love your experiment and keep the updates coming. Based on what I'm seeing with these it can take a long time for the growth to show.
Whee!! I brought mine back in the house and set them directly on heat. Been running furnace pretty regular its been damp and cold. I have all 12 sprouted. Too slow for me --wont do it next year. I promise Dixie
Congratulations, oriole! Glad they made it. I may or may not do these next year depending on how they actually look in my garden. Being the impatient person that I am, these will have to look spectacular for me to try them again. Or else by the time next year rolls around, I'll have convinced myself they'll grow quicker this time and order more. LOL.