This looks nothing like the Alocasia seed pods. Are these undeveloped or something? The pod has been on the plant for weeks and finally burst today. Several other pods are still fat and on their stems (even though the leaf they grew out of the base from is gone for most of them).
I picked one (what normally is a berry) and squished it... lots of little "seeds" came out. That really confused me more. Normally I'm used to one big hard seed.
Help!
larianne would probably know. If she doesn't see this, send her a d-mail. I can't wait to find out. The first pic looks like frog eggs. Too weird.
These are Colocasia seeds. Gigantea can commonly self pollinate. It seems to not breed with others such like Fallax and Affinis as far as I can tell. The seeds can be stored in a dry cool place for sometime. If sprouted they are prone to rot easily sense it seems a fungas is commonly associated with the berry plants usually get a few inches tall and rot quickly. Their is a great article on this in the aroideana books on how to prevent these fungal attacks.
So do I just take those really tiny (ant size) seeds and put them all in a mix of vermiculite/dirt like I would my Alocasia seeds? They are so tiny I wasn't sure how to treat them. And my Gigantea never put up any pups like my Alocasias do so I'd really like to try and grow some new ones.
I did try and pollinate one of my gigantea with the other - but it may have been the second or third pod (not this first one). So I guess I could wait. Will it look different if I was successful?
Those are normal seeds and berries for Colocasia. Nothing unusual there. You just got spoiled by the large seeds that Alocasia produces!
Thanks LariAnn, Can I plant them like I would an alocasia seed?
After squeezing them out of the berries, I would soak them overnight in water (I use distilled water), then have your seed tray ready with fine mix. Spread them out on the surface, and don't cover them with any soil. You will need to mist them or keep them moist. If your tray or container has a clear or translucent top, that will work, but you need to check them frequently to be sure they don't dry out.
They should germinate pretty quickly.
Thanks - I appreciate it, will give that a try. I have a electric plant heat pad too, which is what I grow the Alocasia seeds on with humidity hoods, so this should work for the Colocasia too. Any harm to putting multiple seeds to a pot? Or should I try and keep em separate?
Well that was interesting. Can you post when they start to grow? How did they go to seed? Just naturally or did you do something? Nancy
No problem putting multiple seeds in a pot, especially because of the huge quantity of seeds you will be working with. Plus, some may die off and if you put one per pot, you might end up with a lot of empty soil pots!
I was able to pick up some of the black trays from my brother that have about 140 small seed pockets in them. So I'm going to use that to put 1-2 seeds per pocket. I also picked up a soil less seed starter that should be a nice growing medium to get them started. If they all grow (doubtful) I'll have close to 100+ Gigantea, LOL
I'm not counting on big results since this is my first try at Colocasia. On the other hand, my Alocasia seeds from last week have already started sprouting it appears - I was worried they were premature since their berries didn't quite look like my seed berries from last year (which were deep red on the outside). These were more pinkish - but they seem fine so far.
I'm guessing once the seed pod bursts open - they're ready to be planted.
Thought I'd do a photo diary as we progress. So here we go harvesting and planting. Look at all the seeds, and this is only half of two pods.
Seeds, seeds, and oh yeah - more seeds.
Close up - I'd say they are about the size of tomato seeds, give or take.
Slow task of putting them in the tray. Lord help me if I had to do this all the time. My wife is already grumbling for having to help, LOL
I'm excited for you but no way would I use those trays personally, those are hard to get little babies out of and are much easier for cuttings than seeds.....when you finish up that tray you'll probably go for pots the next round...lol. can't wait to see how many come up for you, I can never seem to catch/find (?) any pollen on my taros
If I had enough small pots I'd try it, but space is an issue at the moment - plus I'd have so many small pots that'd be a nightmare. I was putting 2-3 seeds per pocket, but after the third row I just started sprinkling them in from 2-5 seeds. So it may be obvious where I got tired sowing seeds, lol.
I think the large hole in the bottom of these will make pushing them out with a pencil or something pretty easy. I had one tray that had even smaller pockets (probably over 250 of them) - now those were reaaal tiny.
Will definitely post photos once they sprout.
My thiland giant has bloomed are you all saying it will have seed pods?
Should I be looking for seeds?
Lavina
Beneath the spath you should see the pod. In fact, mine had 5 or so spath flowers, each with a pod beneath it, all from a single leaf node. It took several weeks for the pod to ripen and burst - but when it bursts open it's ready. I cut another pod that hadn't burst, and it wasn't developed yet) - so I definitely wait for them to burst - it'll look almost like it exploded.
On a side note, I was surprised how the inside of each ripened pod smelled like muscodines. Very odd.
OK I will look tomorrow for this.
Lavina
I just did the seed pod from my peace lily. It didn't look like much until I smooshed it open and squeezed out like a hundred seeds. I put them in one bowl of wet peatmoss and covered lightly with perlite. Think they'll take? How the heck do they get fertilized?
11 days have passed since planting, and almost literally overnight they have finally started sprouting. I went in this morning and was shocked to see them all - I could swear they were not there yesterday.
From the looks of it, almost all of the 100+ containers have 1-4 sprouts each.
This message was edited Oct 9, 2008 8:55 PM
It's been about two weeks maybe since I harvested the Alocasia Odora pod, but here's one of the sprouts on it too. I'll try and find the exact date. They sprouted remarkably fast too.
What's really incredible about seeds is how small I figured the plants would mature and grow. But check this photo out with the circles in red. Both of these A. x Calidoras were seeds last year (harvested around July). They are already quite large considering - I'm impressed with how fast they grow now and will gladly harvest seeds when they are available.
This message was edited Oct 9, 2008 9:00 PM
Very impressive good luck with them. You will need a lot of room for all of them once they mature.
keonikale, are you going to have to nurture 400 baby EE's in your house over winter?
Looks like it. Along with the other 200 plants, LOL
OK why has my EE not done this? It still has bloom pods but none of the seed .
Lavina
Of the dozen or so pods, only two produced seeds throughout the entire pod. Another two were partially filled and none of the others did anything. I did try and pollinate a few of the pods myself using another Gigantea. Though I have no idea if what I was doing even worked. Best left to the bees I'm afraid.
OK I finally have these on my EEs can they dry out and then be planted or do I need to plant them now?
Lavina
I took mine off the plant right when they burst and immediate soaked them in water and planted them in the tray.
By the way (and I'll post a photo), the babies are starting to get big (relatively speaking). Most are growing their third leaf now and are well on their way to their own pots. I figure another month or two and they'll be ready to move up.
I dumped all the remaining seeds I had (probably close to a thousand or more after splitting all those internal pouches open) into a bowl with dirt, and most of them are growing too - must be several hundred in there, it's a free for all. No idea how I'll split those - I'll just let them fight it out for now.
I didn't realize it'd been so long since I harvested these - a month and a half or so, close to two.
But they are coming along well. Soon as I see roots at the bottom of the containers, I'll push them out into their own pots. Since each square has 3-4 plants, will just separate the 3-4 per pot once they are larger.
Great pic - Seems to me that you better hope they don't grow too fast - They'll take over your house before the summer gets here!
LOL, I really have no idea what I'm going to do with this many. I thought I had a lot of bananas, but I think these guys take the cake now in sheer numbers. If they keep growing strong, I may try and sell a few next spring. They are a beautiful Elephant Ear - big too (before blooming anyway). Definitely one of my new favorites.
Here's the parent plant.
I finally got mine off the mommy plant and am gonna try to sprout some of these also. Hope I do as good as your are doing.
Lavina
Another photo-update on the babies. Some were 'upgraded' to larger pots tonight. Amazing what tiny but long roots these already have - just as fast as their parents. Removing them from the tray is easy enough, but boy this is going to take some time. I'm probably gonna let them all get a little bigger before I take out any more; I think they could go a little longer in the trays (even with roots coming out the bottom). Some are getting quite big already too... all things considered anyway. They're only 2 and a half - months :)
Lots of babies...
Closeup - sorry so fuzzy, bad light this time of night in that humidity container.
And the hodge-podge container - everything that was left when I got tired of sowing by tweezers. These guys are just going to have to fight it out.
