Vigna caracala question

The link below shows a tuber that was dug up. My question is.. If seperated, will each of the tubers grow a new plant??

http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/99437/

Hey! I recognize that picture! LOLOL
Seriously, I wondered the same thing, but I did not test it out. I was in "work" mode & the thought did not even occur to me until later. I am of 2 minds on it, first, if they WOULD produce another plant, why don't I get multiple stems on my vines (I have several of these and much older).
Second, I HAVE seen pictures of single tubers that places sell, so they probably do!
I am gonna watch and see if this gets answered. All mine are in the ground except one, and you can bet when & if I ever dig it out, I will test it myself. But hopefully we won't have to wait that long for an answer. :~)
Donna

Hey Donna.... Yep.. I snatched the url fromt he plant data file.. thanks for posting it.

Hope someone comes along and answers our questions..

In my experience, no. I think the only viable tuber is the one the stalk grows out of.

In the fall of '04, I potted up several of the things and kept them in the gh over winter, took them out last spring and kept them watered all through the heat of last summer and they never sent up any shoots. Last Sept. I unpotted them and found the same solid (no rotting at all) tuber I had planted months earlier and as they showed no sign of roots or sprouts, I tossed them.

Others may have had success with theirs...hope they will weigh in here if they did.

Mary

So do you suppose they are just food storage for the plant?

Yes, that is what I'm thinking....I've noticed that a mandaville and an asparagus fern also had (though not the same) similar tuberous growths when I repotted them. I'm guessing they all use them for food and water storage.

Hope someone who knows for sure will come along soon. :-)

Mary

Mary... I was going to say that the same thing occurred when I dug up my Mandaville.. I had all these tubers so I detached them and planted them.. nothing.. zip.. zilch for two years.. so I pitched them. It would stand to reason then that they are food storage for the plant.. thanks for replying.

You're welcome....enjoyed trying to help. (smile)

I've read somewhere( don't remember where) that some plants do form these little bulb-looking things for food storage. I think mine was on curcuma alismatifolia.

I'm in Zone 6 and want to grow this as an annual. How many days until it blooms? 130?

I grow mine from tubers I store in paper bags over the worst of winter most years but I have never tried dividing the tuber for multiple plants because all of those nodules appear to feed the same stem. However, my tubers don't look quite like those in the photo. Mine are longer and are shaped more like a carrot or slim sweet potato. I have been tempted to cut them into pieces and see if the individual pieces sprout...maybe next spring.