Alocasia and Calocasia

Byron Amerson byron.amerson@gmail.com
Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:10:37 PST
>From what I've read, these genera are more or less amphibious.  I've seen
them grown in pots or in water gardens.  A local nursery here in the SF Bay
Area has them growing to stupendous size in a pond in a covered area open to
the air that has maybe 50% shade.  They are in a heavy medium (clayey sand)
in pots that are then submerged.  The heavy medium stays put when
submerged.  Evidently they are heavy feeders and do well in a rich medium -
not sure how to reconcile that with aquatic culture and the need for heavy
medium, unless the pond is pretty eutrophic.  I've also seen Colocasia
growing well in large, glazed ceramic pots (in potting mix) on the north
side of a building nearby my place.  Last winter the leaves were burned off
by frost.  They re-grew and they made it through this year's cold snap.

I'm looking forward to trying Colocasia outdoors in a large, glazed pot
bunged and filled with water.  I intend to submerge a tuber in pot of heavy
medium as described above.

Plant Delights website has some pretty nice cultural information, plus many
cultivars for sale.

~Byron


More information about the pbs mailing list