Could a Alocasia macrorrhizos be grown in a pot?

Hi! I have a Alocasia macrorrhizos here in Varna, Bulgaria zone 8a. We have had a cold snap of 23 F. Its leaves curled up and fell. Will it come back when the temperatures rise? This is a picture of it.

Привет sasha10,

Sure you could grow that in a pot. May have to be a large one.
I don't know about that specific kind of Alocasia, but most should come back in a zone 8a.

They do die back in the winter (at least in zone 9a and colder).
Is your plant mulched? If not, hurry up and put a heavy mulch on it.

Good luck
Пока

"germinater"

Thank you very much. I will mulch it. I thought it was dead.

sasha10, I just enlarged your picture.
Did you leave that plant outside in a pot?

It will be significantly less hardy if it is in a pot.
Did/can you bring it inside for the cold?

Was the Russian a problem?
I know that most Bulgarians are not Russian, but
it was worth a shot. :)

хороший удача

I am afraid that i cannot bring this indoors. It is just too big. I will protect it with a couple of bags as well as mulching it. Here is some Bulgarian: Здравейте (hello), Благодаря (thank you) and Довиждане is goodbye. Those are the most important words here. My father is English and my mother is Russian. It is very hot here in Varna and i grow palm trees

Hi there Sasha, good to hear from someone in Europe, I dont think you will be able to leave your plant outside all winter as you will get some really severe weather conditions, some years not as bad as other years, but if I were you, I would wrap your plant and pot with straw held inside a wire mesh frame, you can make this using chicken wire, I would also have this wrapped around the growing foliage of the plant also, before you do this, cut back the dead or dying foliage as you dont want rot to set in, if memory serves me, your plant is either a tuber or bulb at the root end and this is what you need to protect, it is a lovely plant and well worth trying to save over the harsh winters you get. good luck. WeeNel. Scotland UK.

sasha10, what kind of palm trees do you grow?

Are you growing them in the ground or in pots?

WeeNel is right about the wire and hay set up.
If you can do that and then cover it with plastic that would
be pretty good. Just remove the plastic as often as you can (when
it's warm) to let fresh air in.

If you could get a non-hazardous/non-flammable heating element around
the base of your plant it may be worth a try. I don't know of anything that I would trust enough to do this though. (FIRE!!!)
I'm trying something like this with heating cables this year, but I don't have hay anywhere near the cables.

быть теплый

I have a Canary Island Date palm. It is still in a pot, but I heard that it has survived happily in a pot in Plovdiv covered with some Christmas lights. What i do is bring it in when it gets very cold. It survived 19 degrees with no damages.

Спосибо! Досвидание! :)

Alright! That I can understand. :)
You ever wonder why goodbye sounds so much prettier than
hello? Always struck me as odd.

Canary Island Date Palms should be good to around 17 degrees F without any real protection.

You should try Butia capitata. A lot hardier than CIDP and has "edible"
fruit.
How cold can it get in Varna?

Улыбка всегда

Our record is 0 degrees, but global warming has kept the winters with an average of about 50. In summer it is dry and hot and reaches 115.

"An average of about 50"?
That can't be a average low of 50????

What latitude are you at?

It really depends. Some years it is very mild some are quite cold. Otherwise the lows are about 30. The latitude here is 43.2. One winter is a cold Siberian one and the next is a mild Mediterranean one.

Latitude doesn't necessarily matter--many places in Europe are warmer than you would expect based on latitude because of warm ocean currents and things like that. Here's a map showing where Bulgaria is, I would think especially the parts that border Greece or the Black Sea would have mild winters most of the time. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~lindsh/europe.gif

Varna does border the sea. Otherwise, inland it is much colder

ecrane3,

I'm not your usual немой American :) .
I know where Bulgaria is. Just too lazy to get a map out
for the latitude.

Maybe I am average after all. :)))

Спасибо то же самое

Hi,

I have felt so sorry for my poor Alocasia, that I put it in my study. I cut all the leaves off. Is that correct?

sasha10,
That was probably the best thing you could have done. :)
If the leaves were frost damaged they were doing the plant no good.

Hope it wasn't too late.

I so much hope it will grow back. I have seen how beautiful it is. I have been watering it with lukewarm water. Will the bulb sprout from the ground or the stem?

Leave all of the stem that is still firm (not damaged).
If it is alive in Spring it should start putting up new leaves from the stem.

The ones here are starting to look pretty bad, but they will come back. :)

I hope yours does also.

Sasha10,
If the picture at the top of this thread is as bad as your plant got
I would be very surprised if it does not come back.

Just don't over water it.

Hello,

It's leaves snapped off at 23 degrees. Then I understood that I was going to have to bring it indoors. According to the forecast, the temperatures are going to rise to the early 50s. That should be a relief for my gardening and me.

Hello,

I water my plants when the soil just starts to go dry. Or should I let it go stone dry? All I need now is for it to start rotting

I would keep it just SLIGHTLY moist unless you are heating it.
If it's not getting a lot of light or heat it will not want a lot of water.

I'm no expert on watering. I use tons of perlite to help reduce
my chances of over-watering.

Hello,

In the summer could I leave it outside or will it suffer? This summer I kept forgetting to water it. My Alocasia was not happy with me.

That is not surprising. I'm thinking that the soil in Varna drains a lot better
than here. I don't think it would be possible to accidentally over-water
an Alocasia.

You should leave it outside in the summer, but water it often.
Keep it moist. :)

Hello,

In the summer can I keep it on the terrace that gets morning sun? I had it facing south last summer. Maybe that was the problem.

Hello Sasha,

It looks like we have this thread all to ourselves. :)

I'm pretty sure you can give that plant all the sun that is available.
Just don't neglect to water it (a lot if it is hot and dry).
That must have been the problem you had last summer. :)

Hello,

I have come back to find it had been -13C in Varna. We had a snow thunderstorm. The snow accumilated 1.5 metres again. I was a really glad to find out that the cleaner had brought CIDP in. I will take it back out soon. My alocasia has a damaged leaf coming out of a rotting leaf stem. Whew!

Welcome home Sasha.

We went down to 17F/ -8C about a week ago.
No snow with that and it was only for a short time.
The "Elephant Ears" over here look pretty bad.

It got into the low 80sF just a few days after that 17F.

The plants don't know which end is up, but at least I will get some new plant hardiness information out of this.

Hello,

I had some Petunias blossoming all the way untill the cold snap. They lost all their flowers and have wilted. I think they have froze.

hello,

My Alocasia is beginning to recover really quickly now. I have started watering it normally again. It was a shock to me to find out it had started growing so quickly so early! I thought they go dormant! I have been doubting if it was an Alocasia as there was no label. It has a trunk and blossom with white or yellow spathes. I like spathes a lot. I love the blossom on the Zamioculcas. Peace lilys don't like me because they blossom only once a year with only one flower! I will ask why on the houseplants forum.

Hello,

I have had a look at my Alocasia pot and there is this white shoot coming out. What is this? Should I get rid of it?

Hello,

I have understood over the time that this is a pup. Can I leave it in the pot with the mother plant?