Calla newbee

Hello Everyone!!
I have some Callas coming up but something looks strange to me.
Is this right? I have green shoots and these.....
Thanks, Kim : )

i am a calla newbie, too. all i know is that mine dont look like that! mine actually looked kinda like elephant ear leaves coming up. i just found two flower stalks, am really excited! i am sure there are many experienced calla growers that can give you more info. good luck!

tracie

Thanks tracie!
The other ones look like ee's...so far it's just one that strange.
Kim

Those look like roots to me. Too weird. I would gently remove one from the soil to see what 's happening. Mine are up in their pot in the greenhouse but not doing aggiegrl's zone 8 thing :) They sorta look like glads when they first start but as aggie' says the leaf will open in a furl. Keep us posted on what's happening cuz I haven't seen that before either. Thanks.

It does look like roots, doesn't it?

Did you get your callas from the co-op here on DG? Mine arrived about 10 days ago and I planted them indoors at 70 degrees. When do you think I'll get some shoots? (I hope I planted mine right side up.)

Thanks. t.

i was sooo excited, just got a few tiny bloom stalks. thought i would share!

tracie

tabasco I got mine from Botanus 3 years ago. They're in a large container that I put downstairs in my cold room over winter. They wake up when I raise the tempurature in the cold room for my grow op in Feb/Mar. Your callas should come pretty quick.

o wow fleurs already Aggie. how very exciting! mine are just starting to uncurl so way behind

as i said, i am a calla newbie, too. i planted about 5 or 7 bulbs. about how many flowers will each bulb produce? i am just wondering about a guesstimate.

tracie

Usually one per bulb but lots get 2. I leave my baby bulblets attached to the mother for the first year so can't really say cuz maybe the baby's are making flowers as well as the mom.

They are roots, which come from the top of the tuber. It's probably planted too shallow, you should try to start them around 4" deep in pots, and as they grow and multiply you should pot them into very deep pots as they will go to the bottom. I usually leave mine for two years before potting up to a larger one, but if you have more than one per pot you might need to do it sooner depending on the size of the pot.

I lost my pics, but have posted some on Daves last year of 8 tubers from one. Most were large to huge, all fitting nicely together at the bottom of a large stone type pot, they had to be about 10" down. I had stones on the bottom which they seem to like, wrapping their roots around them, the stones end up sucked up into the compost.

The amount of new tubers they make depends on the variety, they are all different and it depends on their parentage. Same with flowering, some will make 7 or more flowers on a newly bought tuber, others make very few. You will find after the tubers grow more they will make more flowers,. and possibly because they have increased in tuber number but also because the tuber is bigger.

I read that the big tubers are not as good as small ones, they showed gnarled looking old tubers which had apparently outgrown and become next to useless. In my experience that's not the case, if you keep them in pots and kept wet but not drowned they will just make more, at first smaller ones attached to the parent bulb which will become detached when they are ready. A repot into fresh compost is often a good idea if they need a boost, also an occasional feed of something like liquid tomato food is good with high P&K. I don't bother much with feeding now as I grow in a good organic soil and compost mix, high on compost which they love. Leaf mould or compost made with mostly leaves is good and gives good drainage.