The one time I tried planting caladium directly in my flower beds (usually I plant them in pots), they did fabulously. But when I went to dig them up in the fall to overwinter them indoors, the tubers were so soft that I damaged them horribly even though I was trying to be very careful in digging them up. Does anyone have suggestions as to how to accomplish that? Or should I just stick to pots?
How do you dig up caladium tubers in the fall?
Mine are grown in pots. I lift them in late August/early September and dry them out in a shaded area protected from rain. Then I place them in a container with some peat moss in it and bring them inside and put them somewhere until spring planting time.
Last year I just stuck the pots in the closet without doing anything else, and it worked fine. But I was so pleased with how the caladium grew that I planted in the ground, that I'd love to save those tubers. But they are really delicate.
Happy,
I have an idea for you. If you take hardware cloth (any kind of fine wire mesh will work) and form it into a pot shape, then plant your tubers inside the wire, in the ground, you should be able to pry the 'pot' out of the ground with a spade, with the tubers intact. If you make a modest size wire pot for them (and only have a few) you can let them dry out in the wire and store them that way. Storing them in brown paper bags is better than plastic, less likely to rot.
Also, if your tuber are soft or mushy you may have waited to long to pull them. I start drying them out when they have lost 70-80% of their leaves. Don't wait until they have lost all their leaves.
Hope this helps.
The ones that I don't sell get the pot turned on it's side, are allowed to dry out and stored in their pot when dormant>
Dale: Those are stunning! I suppose I could use hardware cloth, but I'm usually not that organized -- plus I'm a bit of a cottage gardener, so everything is planted very close. I was hoping there was a technique I had missed for how to do this!
I don't think I waited to late -- the plants and tubers were very healthy. They were just not that much harder than my clay soil, so it was hard not to pierce the tubers when digging them up.
You grow them to sell? Wow! Is it the Florida climate the promotes the growth? Do you fertilize a lot?