Giant Colocasia!!!

Last year, a local shop, Wilkinsons (a sorta buy all sorts of things cheap store for all of my non-UK readers), stocked a very good range of tropical plants and bulbs in Spring, ranging from brugmansias and gingers to tree ferns and palms! Being a person always looking out for a bargain, I had to give some of these things a try!

I bought a couple of tree ferns (I'll save those for another post) plus many other things, but the items I bought that relate to this post are some Colocasia tubers. They were sold as Alocasia and were £2.99 I think, and I bought several as several people had had excellent results from similar tubers purchased from the same shop the previos year, with leaves nearing the 1m mark in length!!! Anyway, these tubers were probably at the most 2" in diameter, which is pretty big compared to normal bulbs! In high hopes for some 'mammoth' sized plants, I potted them up into large pots and set them going on the heat mat mid February;Over the coming weeks it grew at a fabulous rate, definitely living up to the fast growing and living plants that the tubers had produced in previous years. After just a few weeks of growth, the leaves were nearing the 1 foot mark already;
And around, I think, early May, they were transferred to the heated propagator in the greenhouse, where I was hoping they would toughen up a little and harden off;The growth slowed down over the new week or two, although I guess that is understandable as it is still cooler compared to the conditions in the house! In late May, it was planted into a half barrel outside (once again in high hopes for a large plant) and the root system was simply bulging out of the pot, yet another good sign. However, from there on it simply refused to grow, pushing out just another 2 or 3 measley leaves during the entire Summer. This probably had something to do with the weather as last Summer wasn't the best for tropical plants I guess, but the sucess people had the previous year was not to be found with many peoples plants, although many people produced decent plants given the weather!!! It has been 'rumoured' that the variety of these bulbs is Colocasia Esculenta 'Mammoth', which is supposed to be a very vigorous variety, with, as the name suggests, 'mammoth' sized leaves! However, as no proper tests have been done, I guess we'll never find out. If they stock them again I might give another one more a go but we'll have to see.

BUT there is hope on the horizon!!! Whilst doing out whirlwind tour of the local Garden Centres, imagine my shock when I saw some bulbs three times the size of any I'd ever seen before!!! Low and behold, they were of course Colocasias, although the variety/species name was not given. At £4.50 a piece I just had to give one of these ago, so I bought one of these giants home with me, and he has now been named Bobby. He weighs in at a hefty 2kg, and here are some pics;This is the top of the bulb, where I'm hoping it'll shoot from;
And you can see here at the base of the bulb where the offsets have been removed, which I'm guessing will be propagated to produce this years harvest!

It has been suggested that bulb size has in fact nothing to do with the size of the plant produced, and while there is no actual Scientific evidence that there is a link between the two things, one would assume that the larger the storage tuber, the more energy contained thus at least the more vigorous and fast growing the plant will be? Either way, I have a good feeling about Bobby! He'll be potted up ASAP, and I'm hoping to get a bell jar to put over him while he's on the heat mat, just to increase the humidity a little bit! I'll keep you updated!

Has anyone else had any experience with the Wilkinsons or similar Colocasias, or with some of these 'giant' bulbs? If so, please let me know and leave a comment below!