OK Here we go.
Alocasia odora in full (well not full but better than last year! lol) seed.
Now what?
Wait till they dry up?
Planting techniques?
Ric
Alocasia Sowing tips?
Kyle told me a ways back,to let them act as if they were in their nat enviro,so as if they were dropping to the ground.sow them.Kyle?
Root
OK here we go. Alocasia seeds and other similar aroid seeds like to be fresh. What happens in nature is beetles flies and other insect get pollen on the female portion of the plant. Some plants self pollinate others do not. Mac odora and a few others will. In most cases if the pollen falls the female area is no longer fertile. But in Macrorrhiza and a few others the female section is still active for a bit longer thus the self pollination. Now to the good part. In nature the berries are usually eaten by birds bats or other animals. They usually swallow them whole and in the stomach it removes the sweet sugary berry part and leaves the seed in the stool miles from were the mother plant was growing. Now the berry part is just to lure animals to the seed. If kept on the seed it will cause rot or fungus. I wait till the berries are about to fall off and squeeze the seeds out into a warm bowl of water. Your seeds in the pic look about ready. When they are bright orange or red usually and can easily fall off. Now wash the seeds off drain the water. Take your seeds and place them in a plastic container with no holes. Feel the bottom with a nice nice soil miracle grow or pro mix is what I use. Wet it down not soaking wet but damp. Place the container in a warm bright area not full sun and not to hot or they will cool. But some place were the greenhouse effect will take place in the container. After a few weeks you should see life sprout out. I use to use pots with dirt and saran wrap on top to start seeds. After they start remove them and repot.
henry, I just picked the ripe(red) seeds, squeezed them between my fingers to get the pulp off the seeds, then towel dried them till they were clean and then planted the seeds about 1/2" deep in sterilized soil.Keep in a warm bright place and keep the soil moist not wet , mine came up in about a week.
plant em.That is going by the the above advice!
Thanks everyone!
I'd better get them this morning.
Last year the birds got em!
Ric
Well they're planted.
I squished them in a bowl of warm water and drained off the pulp.
I react to some plants so had on vinyl gloves which actually helped me hold on to them.
I ended up w/ 17 seeds about pepper corn size.
16 were round and full, one kind of oval.
I planted them in moist promix about a 1/4" deep.
The pots then went into a ziplock.
They're now in the plantroom in a bright area that stays about 75 degrees.
Fingers crossed! lol
Thanks for all the help!!
Ric
Oh, man - I've got to try that. I love starting things from seeds.
I see lots of familiar 'faces' here.
Hey there Root! I'm so glad to see you post. I missed you.
I was just poking around trying to find where Brian mentioned about bulbils and I found you. Please keep posting.
OK, off to find out about the bulbils.....
I've seen flowers on some of mine, but never noticed any berries. Where would one get some seeds?
You can get them on-line pretty easily BUT from what I understand....the fresher the better.
Seeds that have been shipped out of the berry rarely germinate,
In berry and dried some, not many, etc.
I wanted hands on experienced knowledge.
The advice I got above is dead-on what I'd read.
The best hands-on Aroiders I know all agreed so........
Now it's all on me. lol
Ric
Ric, I have lots of blooming ears, do I need to get out a little artist's brush and pollinate? Do you offer pollination 101 classes?
That would be Brian.
And as I understand it a closely guarded secret.
I do know of a site but don't have it here.
Google (I think it was): Pollination aroid manual
Several REALLY neat sites come up.
I wrapped the odora spathe stem in newspaper and kept it damp.
The increased humidity is supposed help seed setting %.
I had 9 seeds last year w/o.
17 w/ this technique.
I don't know if the humidity actually helped but........
Ric
roflmao.
Ric, I'm gonna use that newspaper technique on some gessies. I'd have to downsize some, but it would beat having to put everything under a humidity dome.