Viewing post #308276 by Irrelephant

I noticed one of my many elephant ear plants, (and also my smallest) Colocasia esculenta var. Illustris is what I'm pretty sure it is. It's definitely a colo. It started growing this. This picture was taken yesterday and already today the spathe is open and reflexing. I couldn't find much practical information on pollinating any aroids, especially Colocasia, but I read a lot of technical information, most of which I already knew from the research I made before acquiring these plants a few years ago. That day the picture was taken, I went to every nursery in town and out of six, I found one colocasia plant in bloom. It looks like it will open tomorrow or the next day.

How do I go about cross pollinating these? The newer plant has one larger, nearly open inflorescence, and another one starting to form. Are the two plants blooming to close together in time to pollinate? I know they reach male anthesis and female anthesis at different times to prevent selfing, but I don't even know what comes first (though from pollinating other, less tricky plants I'm guessing male), or how to tell when they reach the times. When do I need to pollinate and how do I do it. If I need to, tomorrow I can take a picture of the second plant. It's a blue, purple color with a yellow inflorescence with a red base, really need looking.

Please help!
Andrew