Tubers and Winter Wet

[Louise Parsons]

At 12:15 PM 8/29/97 -0400, Jim wrote:
>Frisk
>
>The failure of your A. sikokianum to survive the winter is more likely to be
>due to wetness and rot than to temperature. It's generally pretty cold hardy,
>but more sensitive than most to wet conditions while dormant.
>Jim McClements
>

Greetings  Arisaema Enthusiasts!
I had this identical problem with A. sikokianum youngsters and those that I
removed and stored in a mesh bag with peat in the veggie drawer of my
fridge in their childhood from late October to late January did fine.  Now,
several years later I notice that the more mature plants seem to be more
tolerant of our winter wet than the younger ones.  I have left some of them
in the ground for the last couple of years and in spite of our floods they
did fine.  The drainage is improved in the area where they are planted, so
this is likely a factor.  My question is twofold:  Do arisaema have
contractile roots which would pull them naturally deeper in the ground over
time and is my observation correct that larger, more mature, tubers are
less prone to rot ?

Cheers, Louise


Louise Parsons, <parsont at peak.org>
Co-Listowner, Alpine-L  <Alpine-L-Request at Hearn.nic.surfnet.NL>
Emerald Chapter NARGS (Editor, "Emerald Chapter News")
1915 SE Stone Street
Corvallis, OR 97333-1832
(541) 758-1340
fax: (541) 752-7515
"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming
gardeners who make our souls blossom."  Marcel Proust
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&