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Thanks Spence.

The Mexicana popped a new vine from the long existing vine. It just keeps on going without opening leaves. The Larger Elephantipes has latched on to the Mexicana from growth support. The small vine on the Sylvatica has not grown much but leaves are opening. The smaller elephantipes and hemicrypta are growing nicely.

The Sylvatica just keeps growing. The vines keep multiplying. It has made the North/East corner of the greenhouse its own. I am constantly unwrapping vines from other plants.

Two elephantipes and one hemicrypta have decided to share stakes and vines as they explore the area.

This elephantipes was my first and may not be the oldest but has been around for 3 years now. Amazingly of all the dioscorea I have it has never really gone dormant. One vine dies and within weeks to days another vine starts. 6ft long vines with beautiful full foliage. I walked into the greenhouse this morning to see how all was and was surprised to see flower buds, not leaf buds all along the vines. This will be a first.

Flower buds

Hello Fellow Dioscorea elephantipes Lovers-

Just stumbled upon this forum doing some research on my wife's newly acquired DE that I got for her birthday about a month ago.

The reason that im posting is to ask if this is normal. (I haven't read ALL 31 pages yet, but i will) 3 weeks ago, my wife's DE started pushing out it's vine and as of this writing/texting, it's main vine is about 20" long (sorry, didn't have a ruler nearby by when I took the pic, so i placed a 12oz. pop can next to it), but look how long it's side branches are one of them is 12" long, is this OK?

It resides in Portland, Oregon where it is currently receiving nice morning sun and afternoon shade, light weekly watering around its perimeter and a slight bit of a current heatwave.

Any info, comments, wisdom will be greatly appreciated regarding it's branches gone wild.

Thank you for reading and MASS THANKS for replying.

Good Growing Everyone
OWgave

Ps. Love this thread and replies that has been received. Good job MTCG

Hi OWgave.
could you post another picture this time not distorted?

Current state of the Sylvatica. It took quit the beating from the Evap Cooler incident. It has shrunk back considerably.

mikethecactusguy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:39 pm Hi OWgave.
could you post another picture this time not distorted?

I'll try. That pic had to "resized" to be accepted here.

OWgave

Good Morning All.
Out here in Indio Ca. the average temp has been 107°f to 109°f with 10% or less humidity. This has been a difficult environment for all the Dioscorea plants. When temps soared to 119°f I should have done a few thing differently. 6 months ago I was dealing with 85° to 95°f temps. Watering the Dioscorea was what one would consider as normal. Water, wait for the soil to just dry and water again. I watered in the evening and watered top down, so I broke all the rules and got the caudex' wet at the same time and they grew. The past postings show the growth.
When it heated up to 119°f and I introduced the evaporative cooler to the greenhouse out of fear to the heat I should have been more careful. I've realized and learned that its not the heat that can hurt the plants, its direct sun exposure and more important stagnant air. Good air movement around all the plants is what should be #1 followed by a very detailed watering schedule based on plant types.
These Dioscorea are sheltered. The 10mm double UV coated walls and the shade cloth protect the caudex's so well that the vine and leaf growth is different than a plant outside under shaded sun exposure.
The Sylvatica was/is protected only by the 10mm walls. And the vine growth before the cold damage was dense with leaves and many secondary vines. The other plants are exposed to the double filtered sun light. The large Mexicana and the large Elephantipes grew long vines. When the temps rose to 119°f I should altered the watering schedule on all the plants. Instead of letting the soil dry out and then water I should have watered when it was just about dry. The blooms of the larger elephantipes would have matured and opened and I would not have lost most of the other leaf buds on the 3 plants. I just went back to the water more idea and the larger Mexicana has pushed out some new secondary vines and the existing leaves are starting to open up. Lesson learned. Water more and water the caudex since it dried very fast in 10% humidity.
You can see from the pictures all the other Dioscorea went dormant. The small Mexicana never grew roots and has been shrinking in size. Its sheading its scales in the process. No rot yet, but I suspect it will like all my last Mexicana's.
I will move all of these out of the greenhouse and put them on shelves outside under the shade cloth in September when the sun is less intense. When I first move here in Sept 2020. they started out under shade cloth on shelves before moving them into the greenhouse.

Showing the burn/dry damage in a few more current pictures.

Hello Dioscorea elephantipes Lovers-

After going through about 10 pages so far, I've gathered that my wife's De loonnng side branches is a normal thing. With it receiving morning sunlight and having the size caudex it has, it's just trying to protect itself from the sunlight when it produces it's leaves to provide shade. But the branches are still streeetching waaay beyond the edge of the caudex and no leaves in sight!!

Here is todays morning pic. Notice how far it's side branches are. Also included is a pic of another De with long side branches.

Good Growing Everyone,
OWgave

Ps. Love your updates MTCG, keep it up