Florida is home to the largest caladium production in the world, supplying essentially all the global caladium tuber demand. These plants are famous for their vibrant leaf colors and patterns and are asexually propagated through tubers. Following plant development, tubers are harvested and stored for a few months before being forced from March to September for potted plant production and direct landscape planting. During extended postharvest storage, caladium tubers risk severe weight loss, tissue decay, and Fusarium tuber rot. The current storage practices under ambient conditions with high temperatures and high relative humidity exacerbate weight loss and tuber rot. The challenges of long-term tuber storage make it difficult to produce pot caladium plants for winter holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. These challenges also affect the commercialization of tubers in the Southern Hemisphere during the summer. Opening these marketing opportunities can allow growers to extend and increase their production. Additionally, identifying caladium tubers suitable for late-season production will give Florida growers a competitive advantage. To identify caladium varieties with long-term tuber storage potential and late-season production, 12 varieties were evaluated to target Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. No.1-sized tubers were potted in 5-inch containers and grown in a greenhouse. For each variety, 10 tubers were monitored for sprouting and leaf expansion and later evaluated for plant quality using a rating scale from 1 to 5. Potted tubers from all cultivars achieved suitable market quality standards when targeting Thanksgiving, with the higher ratings obtained by cultivars ‘Splash of Wine’, ‘Classic Pink’, and ‘Lemon Blush’. The higher number of leaves and height were obtained by cultivars ‘Classic Pink’, ‘Desert Sunset’, and ‘White Wonder’, and ‘Party Punch’, ‘Ballet Slipper’, and ‘Classic Pink’, respectively. For Valentine’s Day, despite sprouting decreasing, cultivars ‘Splash of Wine’, ‘Hot 2 Trot’, ‘Desert Sunset’, ‘Party Punch’, ‘Classic Pink’, ‘White Wonder’, and ‘Lemon Blush’ reached suitable market quality standards. Overall, the number of leaves and height decreased compared to plants targeting Thanksgiving, however, cultivars with a more desirable number of leaves were ‘Classic Pink’ and ‘Lemon Blush’ whereas cultivars with higher height were ‘Party Punch’ and ‘Ballet Slipper’. Identifying cultivars suitable for late-season production will allow growers to expand their commercialization window for major holidays and to supply tuber demand to the Southern Hemisphere.
