🌱 My Alocasia Corm Journey — What I’ve Tried & What’s Working for Me
If you’ve ever grown Alocasias, you’ve probably discovered the little treasures hiding underneath the soil — corms!
Those tiny little bulbs can eventually turn into beautiful new Alocasia plants, but getting them from a tiny corm to a healthy little plant can definitely be a process of trial and error.
I’ve been experimenting with different ways of growing my Alocasia corms, and I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing, what happened with my first attempt, and the method I’m currently having better results with.
This isn't a “this is the only way to grow Alocasia corms” guide — it’s simply what I’ve tried and what seems to be working best for me so far. 🌿
🌱 Starting with the corms
The process starts with finding those little corms attached to the roots of the mother plant.
When I’m repotting my Alocasias, I’ll gently look through the roots for any corms that are ready to be separated.
Once I’ve removed them from the mother plant, I give them a gentle clean-up so I can see what I’m working with.
Some corms are bigger and more developed, while others are absolutely tiny. And, of course, they don't all decide to cooperate! 😂
🪴 My first attempt — growing them in perlite
For my first lot of corms, I decided to try growing them in perlite.
I placed the corms into perlite and kept them in my growing setup, waiting patiently for them to start developing.
And when I say patiently… I mean months of waiting!
Eventually, I started seeing progress, but unfortunately, the results weren't as successful as I had hoped.
Around half of my corms ended up becoming mushy and didn't make it.
The other half were still looking healthy, so rather than giving up on them, I decided to try something different.
Trying something different
For the remaining healthy corms, I changed my setup.
I placed a small plastic sauce container with a little bit of water in the bottom. The corms aren't sitting submerged in the water — the idea is to create a nice humid environment while allowing them access to moisture.
I then placed them into my homemade corm raisers.
And this is where things started getting interesting…
🌿 My homemade corm raisers
I made these little corm raisers because I wanted something that would allow me to keep the corms in a humid environment while keeping them up and away from sitting directly in the water.
And honestly, I've been really enjoying watching the difference.
The corms are still kept inside my grow tent, where they get consistent warmth, humidity and light.
🌱 And now… we're getting somewhere!
The biggest thing I've noticed with this method is that I'm getting better results than I was with my first batch in perlite.
The corms seem to be developing nicely, and I'm enjoying being able to keep a close eye on their progress.
There's something strangely exciting about checking on a tiny Alocasia corm and discovering that it has finally started producing roots or pushing out a little shoot.
It's definitely one of those plant-growing things where patience pays off!
What I've learnt so far
My biggest takeaway from this experiment is that sometimes you have to try a few different methods to find what works best for you and your growing environment.
The perlite method didn't work particularly well for me with that first batch, with roughly half of the corms becoming mushy.
Rather than assuming that growing Alocasia corms wasn't going to work, I decided to experiment with the remaining healthy corms.
So far, the little water-and-humidity setup with my corm raisers is giving me much better results.
I'm definitely not saying this is the “best” method or that it will work for everyone — everyone's temperatures, humidity, light and growing conditions are different.
But for me, this is the method I'm currently really enjoying and having success with. 🌱
🌿 From tiny corm to baby Alocasia
One of my favourite things about growing Alocasias from corms is seeing the entire process.
You start with something that looks like a tiny little brown seed or bulb…
Then comes the first little root.
Then the shoot.
Then suddenly you've got a tiny baby Alocasia!
And watching that transformation is honestly pretty addictive.
I'll be adding photos throughout this blog showing the different stages of my corms, from when I first removed them from the mother plant, through to the different growing methods and their progress.
🪴 More to come…
I'm still experimenting with my Alocasia corms, so this is very much an ongoing experiment.
I'll keep updating this post as my little corms continue to grow and develop, including how they progress once they start producing their first leaves.
And because I’ve had such a good time experimenting with these, I've also been making my own Alocasia corm raisers, which I'll soon be adding to the Little Leafy Treasures website.
So if you're interested in giving Alocasia corm propagation a go yourself, keep an eye out — I'll be sharing more about the corm raisers and how I've been using them too. 🌿💚
Sometimes the best plant-growing lessons come from the things that don't quite work the first time.
And that's exactly what this little experiment has taught me. 🌱
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