Growing Amorphophallus Titanum from Seeds for entires season largest flower in the world

Back in January of 2015 I ordered 60 amorphophallus titanum (arum titan) seeds off eBay, and have since been selling all of them except for one for myself to keep. These are grown in pro-mix HP potting mix with mushroom compost mixed in to hold the soil together better. Once they had leaves completely unfolded, I started fertilizing them with water soluble miracle gro. I also added in some epsom salts, myccorhizae, and azomite to make sure they have the nutrients they need. Almost all of them came up, some sooner than others. It has been an entire year, and now almost all of these plants are in the hands of others.

They took 2-3 weeks to start sprouting roots and nubs.

Tree Peony Blooms 2015

This year is definitely the best year so far for blooms, and they should get better from here on out. Here's a sample of what I have.

Some of them are grown from seed however those all tend to be pretty boring single blooms, nowhere near as impressive as the known cultivars. The do appear to however carry more vigor than the other ones. I will likely dig those out and replace them with more impressive plants. 

Mid summer fruiting vegetables

Here are some of my climbing vegetables producing fruits, most which can be harvested any time.

Fuzzy gourds/wintermelons: The fuzzy gourds tend to be longer, and wintermelons are more round, but both taste about the same. Fuzzy gourds are better adapted to grow on trellises while the wintermelons are better grown on the ground because they are really good at growing roots off their stems, especially when soil is mounded over them.

 

Tree peonies finally making some good growth for 2014

Ever since May, it looks like most of the tree peonies have started to take off, and many of them have flower buds which should start blooming in about 3 weeks.

Some of the Japanese tree peonies with flower buds. They tend to make their vertical growth very quickly, and then leaves increase in size afterwards.

In ground peonies waking up after a warm week 2014

Finally, most of my peonies have broken out of their shells, so here are the photos. We just had 2 days of temperatures over 80F which will make many plants including peonies break their dormancy.

Herbaceous

Taking a look at the results from tree or itoh peonies grafted last fall

One of the things I experimented with is the grafting of some tree and itoh peonies and I'm finding that there has clearly been bud swelling from these grafted plants which is a clear indication that the grafts have taken. I have taken them from scions and nurse roots of all sizes ranging from the 1/4 inch diameter stuff to 3 inch diameter/ 5lb nurse roots attached to a whole tree peony branch. The purpose of this is to see the results and learn from them so I can develop an understanding of the true requirements of getting successful grafts.

Here's one of the massive ones where I take the biggest herbaceous nurse roots I can find, and hook it up with a nice big branch and these seem to be taking very well as expected. The buds are fattening up on the scion meaning that energy from the nurse root is already getting pumped in there.

Removing the tarps for good to let the give tree peonies some air

My peonies have been tarped for 3-4 months now, and I can finally get a sneak peak into the results. Some of them have done a good amount of growth underneath the tarps even though the average outdoor temperatures has lingered only around 32F for the past 2 weeks. It has been colder than average for the entire winter however it looks like the ground will no longer freeze so it should be safe to expose them to the air.

Here are some of the tree peonies that have really sprouted fairly well. The Chinese tree peonies seem to sprout way sooner than the Rockii ones.