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hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL> Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
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From: Gord Vokey <GORDVOKEY at HOME.COM>
Subject: Hello from Winterpeg
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The following is a copy of my original Email to George R Stilwell, Jr
(Ray) that I'm lazily using to introduce myself.  Most of the questions
have been kindly answered by him already with exception of the light
intensities.

I'm not certain if I could be absolutely categorized as an AEGer as  I'm
excited about growing just about anything.  My wife (Sandy)   and I have
both gotten the gardening "bug" about five years ago,  and have
transformed  our cottage garden and our lives into our  own little
paradise.

We live in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada although our gardens are in  the
Whiteshell Provincial Park.  This is typically a zone 3 area (-40  F or C=),
however, with a little luck and care we manage to raise  many zone 4 to
maybe 5 plants in the micro ecosystems we  create.  Sandy is a teacher
which gives her the satisfaction of  providing me a grocery list from the
lake faithfully each Friday from  June to September.  We seldom miss a
weekend from April to  October and pretty much devote much of this time t=o
growing  plants.

This winter, two species on my wish list to add to my cottage collection
are  A.triphyllum and A.amurense. I ordered these from  Gardens North (my
favourite seed place).  I noticed from lurking  around the AEG that Krist=l
Walek is part of your group.  Anyhow,  if I have success with these two
species, I was hoping to try out  sikokianum and dracontium next fall
and  "push"  their growing  seasons.

I have a biological incubator and several lamp canopies in the  basement
with light photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) capabilities  to 700 or 800
umol  m-2s-1. Some questions I'm finding difficult to  get answers to are=:
What is  the ideal light intensity for growing  arisema? Will too much
cause  damage? I'm currently using  around 250 umol m-2s-1.  Is the red
spectrum  important  (incandescent) as I'm currently only using 32 watt T=8
Sylvania   F841 fluorescent fixtures. (Yeah I know I have some
nice "toys",  but years  of heading the IS department at Controlled
Environments  has its benefits - Check out www.conviron.com). Also, how
much  water and fertilizer are required for the first few months from
germination? What would be the  ideal growing temperature (lights  on and
lights off)?  If this type of data isn't  available, would
you be interested in me collecting it using different  parameter  sets?

0 days:
I germinated 10 triphyllum and 8 amurense seeds on January 21,  2001. I
used Bell's mica starter mix and soaked the seeds  overnight. I have been
using 10-52-17 fertilizer and an organic  marine seaweed 2-5-2 which
includes a good range of the micro  nutrients. Fertilizing has been done
every 14 days.

30 days:
One triphyllum germinated first followed by 100% of the amurense  followe=d
by 100% of the triphyllum.  All germination occurred  within 30 days.


50 days:
2 of the 10 triphyllum do not look happy with a tiny and stunted  leaf
(1/16"  x 1/8")  The triphyllum leafs are generally larger 1" x 1  1/2" o=n
2" to 3"  stems compared to the amurense which are 1/2"  by 1/2" on 2"
stems.  The  species are easily distinguished from  each other with the
triphyllum leaf  being light green and pointed  (cordate to deltoid) vs.
the  amurense leaf being darker green and  more heart-shaped (cordate  to
reniform).

Day 51+ ???
I'm not sure what to expect next.  Is the single leaf all that happens  i=n
their  first season?  When does dormancy start?  Would I be  better off
wintering the corms indoors the first year?

On a side note, one of my concerns with raising the A.tryphyllum  is its
susceptibility to rust.  We have a large "contained" patch of
Aegopodium  podagraria (goutweed) that will be within meters of  the
intended planting  area of the Arisema triphyllum.  My concern  is that t=he
goutweed is very  susceptible to rust and although I  keep it under contr=ol
with sulpher, it  might be the same rust  fungus that could infect the
Arisaema. Surfing for  an answer to this  question is how I found your
Arisaema Enthusiasts Group  and I  still don't know the exact answer,
however, I believe that they are  two different but similar species of
fungus with one not affecting the  other's  hosts. Regardless, I'm planti=ng
the Arisaema anyway, and  if they get  infected, at least I might get the=m
to flower earlier  according to Katy Kampf  and Andrew Jarosz at Michigan
State  University. I'm not sure if you know  of this research so here it
is.

www.plantbio.ohiou.edu/meec/abstract.html#kampf

The following is from the above mentioned URL location:
REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES IN ARISAEMA TRIPHYLLUM:  THE  INFLUENCE OF THE
SYSTEMIC RUST PATHOGEN,  UROMYCES ARI- TRIPHYLLI
Katy Kampf and Andrew Jarosz
Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State  University,
East Lansing, Michigan 48824
A forest perennial, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum,  reproduces
both  asexually and sexually, as either a male or a  female. Each
individual
possesses the ability to change gender multiple times throughout  its
lifetime. Gender is correlated with size:small plants do not  flower and
reproduce
clonally only, medium sized plants are males, and large plants   are
females. Size and gender for a given growing season are  predetermined  b=y
the
amount of photosynthate stored over the previous growing season  in  an
underground corm. Infection by the systemic rust, Uromyces  Ari-triphylli=,
has the potential to alter this reproductive strategy by affecting the
size,  gender and persistence of infected plants. Disease is  transmitted
horizontally
and to clonal offspring, but not vertically to sexually produced
offspring. Although sexual reproduction is costly for an already  disease=d-
stressed plant,
seed derived offspring are more fit because they escape  disease.  The
other reproduction option=97asexual=97is not advantageous   since off=spring
will be
diseased. As part of an ongoing demographic study  investigating  the
effects of infection on both individuals and populations, we   censused s=ix
natural
populations of Jack-in-the-Pulpit, three healthy and  three  diseased.
Preliminary results reveal infected flowering individuals  are  smaller
than their healthy
counterparts and diseased individuals are more  likely to flower  than
healthy individuals of the same size. In addition,  diseased  populations
have a higher
proportion of flowering individuals than  healthy populations. These  dat=a
suggest that disease may cause a plant to  invest in sexual  reproduction
and to do
so at a smaller size than healthy  individuals.