has anyone germinated colocasia seeds?

[canadianplant]

The internet has let me down again. There is usualy some information on germinating seeds, but I have found very very little on how to germinate colocasia seeds.

Im assuming the medium should be fairly organic, seeing as colocasia grow on the forrest floor, near streams. And seeing as they are near water, im assuming they should be soaked fer a minimum of 24 hours. Im also assuming they need decen soil temps, but little light. Like i said these are assumptions based on what i can figure out, based on their habitat. Any insight would be appreciated.

[ROBRETI]

Hi Canadianplant,

I would say you could be an excellent investigator. Honestly, your approach seems the best to me!!!! Colocasias (and Phyllodendrons) used to be indoor office plants in Hungary and were all coming from the same, government owned greenhouse complex. Not that I remember what size their seeds were but we had an initiation period (soaking) and then seeds were sown into wet, warm soil beds. The whole greenhouse was shaded by a screen on top of the greenhouse (btw this method is wrong because although it gives shade, it does not prevent the heat accumulation; it would be better to put the screen outside...).

Anyway, I would try to put a pastic bag over the pot, in order to increase humidity and would from time to time let some fresh air inside...

Wishing you good luck and can I pleeease ask you for your results? Let us all learn the techniques.

Regards,
Rob

[Knnn]

I never tried these from seed, but here is some info;

Colocasia

Cleaning

Colocasia seed is small (average 1 mm x 1.5 mm) and tricky to handle. The main problem with cleaning is that inside each berry there are numerous seeds embedded in very viscous gel which is difficult to remove. The easiest method is to put the berries into a plastic beake r full of water, macerate them with the fingers and then leave the beaker and its contents in a warm, shaded place for a week to ferment (it will smell pretty bad at the end of the time but the seed will come to no harm). After fermentation it will be found that the gel is very easily washed off by placing the entire beaker contents into a fine nylon sieve under gently running water and working the seed/gel/pulp mass with the fingers. The gel will dissolve and the larger pieces of berry, etc. may be removed by hand.

Sowing

The cleaned seed is most easily sown by filling the beaker of seed with fresh water, vigorously stirring with a finger and then pouring the suspended seed and water onto the surface of the compost in a pre-prepared pot or tray; keep to beaker moving to ensure an even distribution of seed.

Sow onto either:

1:1 ground sphagnum: Perlite, or
1:1 sieved coconut peat (coir): washed river sand, or
1:1 sieved coconut peat (coir): Perlite, or
1:1 propriety soil-less compost: Perlite


Plastic pots or trays are better then clay (terracotta). The seed should not be covered and must be kept damp and moderately shaded.

Germination takes 1 - 2 weeks at a minimum of 21C (70F) and a max. of 29C (84F).

http://www.aroid.org/horticulture/arace ... sowing.php

[canadianplant]

I got the seeds a few weeks ago, and there as small as ficus seeds. The species is Colocasia Fallax, which is a dwarf species but I never expected them to be this small. SO i dusted the seeds on top of already wet seed starting mix, covered it with plastic, and am trying to keep it warm.

[Knnn]

Good luck with them!



Steve

[canadianplant]

So, I have 3 sprouts. I know thier colocasia, cause there little repicas of the common taro i have growing:D

Their in a pot, where i sprinkled the sand like seeds. So the question is... how to i seperate them? They remind me of my ficus seedlings. Small in that respect. What i did with them, is i took the whole soil mass out of the pot
and carefuly crumbled it, and separed the seedlings, and potted em up one by one.....