What now?

[George R Stilwell, Jr.]

Judy lives in zone 7a, for those who will answer her question.

My main suggestion is to be sure A. sikokianum stays relatively dry.
They'll sure bite
the dust if they're wet when dormant.

I also live in zone 7a and I keep the seedling tubers in pots which are
plunged top-deep in
a raised bed surrounded by a dry-laid brick wall and filled with fine
pine-bark mulch
(called aged base here in NC). The top of the brick wall is capped with a
wood frame
covered with hardware cloth to keep the squirrels out. They'll not eat
the tubers, just
dig them out of the pots and throw them aside to die. Even if you rescue
them, they'll
have lost their identity.

After the second or third season, I plant them out. Note that the pots I
use are actually
plant sleeves with open bottoms and sit upon a 9" depth of aged base. So,
the roots grow
down into the base during the summer. In normal pots, 2 - 3 year old
plants usually throw
pups like crazy and delay blooming.

The first winter is critical so you might want to use a cover of leaves
or other mulch. I
don't bother any more because we never have frost heaving here.

An alternative is to bring the tuberlets in and force them as is
described in the Arisaema-L
archives. One can easily get 2 and sometimes 3 years growth in one year
reducing
the time to bloom from 4-5 years to 2-3 years.

Ray
<GRSJr at Juno.com>

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