grinflask

Hi PR,

I am glad you do not have problems to propagate them. I am just trying to understand why are they difficult to propagate and have a quiet discussion on this topic.

I understand it might be difficult for variegated and impossible for albinos. Variegated plants (in general) are less competitive than their green counterparts. They are simply less efficient in capturing the energy from the sun light. If I define this efficiency in terms of percentage, albinos are then 100% deficient so they cannot survive alone. In fact, there are not albino plants in nature besides some parasitic ones (Monotropa uniflora, to mention one). Variegated plants can be 10, 20, ... 80, 90% deficient depending on their relative amount between white and green cells.

I normally listen to everyone's point of view. According to me, thats the best way to get the full picture of anything.

Simply starvation. While still attached to the mother plant, they receive what they need to survive, grow, and even to store some food in their tissues, specially in the corm or rhizome, which is a specialized organ for such reserve storage. Once separated they can still survive by using these reserves. Once there is no more food in the "fridge", they die. How long can they stay alive? That will depend on the size of the fridge.

That is the point.

Impossible, I would say.



So lets break them down ...