WINTER: Please note temperate plants are dormant and will not look the same as pictured. Do not forget a heatpack if your temps are low! Especially for tropicals!



Amorphophallus (Voodoo Lily) Care

Posted by Vincent Green on

Water:

Water with regular water when soil is dry. I recommend daily in my dry climate. If using a nice chunky, airy soil it will dry out within a day or 2 during warm months (which are the only months you water).

Do not water until a spike shoots out of the soil/corm. If the soil becomes so dry it compacts I will lightly moisten it and shift it, but not regular watering.

Light:

During dormancy, doesn't matter. During growth, I grow these in all day sun under 60% shade cloth. They are a bright indirect light to mostly shade plant.

Temp:

This is a tropical plant, it does not mind heat, tips may crisp during extreme heat when soil dries. During the cold, keep insulated. In most of the US, they can be kept in ground or in a pot, however in the colder states, I recommend pulling the corms (it will create babies) and keeping inside the house until a spike shoots up. It does not even need to be in soil, but do not let it dry out completely as it will lose moisture if it is in open air. If it is below freezing, take it inside or make sure its deep in the ground.

Media:

I prefer a mix you would use for tropical houseplants, which can be anything chunky. I personally use a little peat moss, sometimes coco coir, perlite, pumice, coco chips, and/or clay pebbles. Any mixture of these works as long as you have a good ratio of the large pieces. Some species I will use long fiber sphagnum, it is good but also easy to overwater them as it will hold onto the water.

 

You can repot them during growth carefully, a soft repot is all I can suggest. If properly fed, the corm will bulge and break a pot if it grows too large. When repotting try to use a pot at least 2x the diameter of the corm, and bury the corm 2x it's height down.

 

Fertilizer:

Early on, I would fertilize with a high phosphorous, water soluble fertilizer and water every other water with that. Currently I am taking a more lazy approach as the number of plants increases, and just using Osmocote 16-16-16 pellets (no specific amount, I would say about 10 for small plants, 20 for large plants) every 3 months. These plants need fertilizer or they will kill off the leaf and waste all the corms energy replacing it causing the plant to slowly die off instead of grow larger.

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