The Alocasia Corms Finally Did Something

A quick update on the corms I found when I rescued my Variegated Alocasia back in October. I had about 20 of them sitting in a lidded container with damp sphagnum moss, and for months, absolutely nothing happened.

I'll be honest — I had completely written them off. The container was just sitting on a shelf and I had kind of forgotten about it. Then a few weeks ago I opened the lid to check the moisture level, and to my surprise, several of them had tiny green spikes poking out of the top.

What I Did Next

The ones with visible green spikes and small roots, I carefully potted up individually into small plastic cups with a mix of damp sphagnum moss and a little perlite. I kept the rest in the original container with the lid on to maintain humidity while they catch up.

The key thing I've learned with corms is to not rush them into soil too early. If you pot them up before the roots are established, there is nothing to absorb water and they just rot. I waited until each sprouted corm had at least 2–3 visible roots before moving it.

Current Status

So far, 8 out of the 20 corms have sprouted. A few have even pushed out a tiny first leaf. The rest are still just sitting there looking like small brown pebbles, but I'm leaving them alone. Some corms apparently just take longer than others.

If even half of them make it, I'll have way more Variegated Alocasias than I have shelf space for. I'm already thinking about who to give them to.