Great pics thanks- looks like yours is on the same spot of your porch as mine!
i noticed yesterday when I checked it that one or 2 of the lower smaller leaves had a tint of yellow on the outside edge? that is what made me think maybe the heat wasn't good. do you know if the leaves will just keep sprouting and the existing stalks/stems will grow taller?

The yellow fringe *might* be heat/light related, but it could also be wind (or other factor)related. Not visible in my picture is that the leafs do have *some* damage and yellowing in the damaged areas occurs. I attribute it to the stiff winds that have blown though (some tearing occured also).

I do not know if leafs will continue to sprout all season. Right now there is no end in sight, but I *suspect* that once a certain number of leaves are present and healthy the plant will likely slow down and remain fairly consistent. This is my first year with EE though so I really don't know, just guessing.

As the plant grows, the older leaves will turn yellow & flop down.
Just cut it off at the base.
In the meantime, the plant will continue to grow.

Hey Justaguy and Wizarama!
I love how you guys keep posting updates. This has been such a fun thread!
I just wanted to share a couple of pics. of mine. I have one in the shade and had one in full sun. The one in the shade was really outperforming the one in the sun. I decided to move that one to a shadier spot and it is going gangbusters now. I was thinking I had read someplace that they prefer shade to sun. My mom lives in HOT and HUMID Houston, TX. and has hers growing in her shaded beds and they are huge.
Maybe sun is fine too though as long as they get their full share of water each day. Yours are obviously not objecting to their sunny locale.
Happy EE growing!

{{gwi:19751}}
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Stephanie

Thanks for the pics!!! yes I have received so much useful info from this posting!!!
I have also read different info- some say better in sun some say better in shade- wo knows what to think>!>!> I figure now i should just let it go and see what happens since it is doing so well so far!!! when I went home after work yesterday I check it and it was a bit dry so maybe it was just thirsty- i gave it a gallon of water to get thru the hot day today and see how it does! :) happy growing!!!
I am going to try to get a picture on but can't promise anything!

Healthy looking EE, Stephanie!

If I had more than one EE I would try a bit more shade to see what happened. Generally living in Wisconsin I try to error on the side of more sun rather than less sun, although I am seeing some strange things this year.

I am growing Jester Millet which is related to Purple Majesty Millet. Jester forms clumps and PM makes single stalks. Anyway last year the PM did great in the full sun and was very drought tolerant.

This year the JM in a northern garden (still gets a good amount of sun) is significantly outpacing the ones with a full sun southern exposure.

Go figure ;-)

I am very pleased so far with the ease of growing EE so next year perhaps I will get more and try them in different areas.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

out of spite, thanks for that info on the leaves. didn't know that.

This is my first year growing EE too. I saw one the other day on the front steps of an art gallery near were I live. It was huge! That one must have been grown over the winter. filix

Is anyone familiar with the Maki variety of Alocasia macrorrhiza? Will it really grow faster and taller than the macrorrhiza and odora I already have?

Second question, how well will my colocasias do which are in gallon containers if I just bring them indoor before the frost? I want to avoid having them going into dormancy or digging them out,drying them, and packing them until spring?

I have always left my Xanthosoma sagittaria in the ground and it survive in the winter with no problem, but the Xanthosoma violaceum had never survived one winter.

Thank you.

More pics..... This is from last summer, but they are on their way to looking the same this year. The two green pots have EE's, the one on the right is a black one. The pot on the very right is Canna. It's never bloomed in the pot, but I still like it.
Mike
{{gwi:19770}}

I really like the black one, I will have to try that next year.

MIke,
I really like your black one too. Pretty arrangement of pots and decorative items.
Stephanie

Is it way too late to start an elephant ear? After reading this post, I'm itching to! They look fantastic!

probably not, yipla. While they can take awhile to emerge, I suspect they will be fairly quick now that the temps are warm. Once they do emerge it doesn't take long for them to fill in.

Just look for the largest bulb you can find.

I received what was labeled as a 'baby elephant ear' in a round robin swap. It's way to hot in phoenix to put it outside, so I have it indoors until fall. It's seems to be doing fine, alive but no growth. I am assuming because it's just not warm enough in my house. Though I don't want to kill it in our 115 degree weather we're having.

Is baby elephant ear just a cute saying for a small seedling (only 1 leaf that's 2") or is it a different type of plant. I haven't been able to Google anything on it except pictures of actual elephants. LOL

In case you thought this thread was dead, here's the tale of my taro and a search for overwintering advice....Bought a hugantic corm at HD in May and threw it in the ground, north side, mostly shade. Watered a LOT. Mulched that puppy down, watered a bunch more. It got hot. Humid. Hot. Too hot to move; sit still, ya mold. Humid AND dry. Greenhouse guy says EE take a long time. Drought. Humid. Gave up hope. Kept watering a LOT anyway. 3 wks ago it finally started to rain around here and didn't stop for about 24" (be careful what you wish for). On the 5th day of rain, I looked out and saw a 3" shoot and 2 1/2 wks later I have (a wet basement and;) a 20" high lovely with 2 huge leaves. 4 months after planting. (Now understand what is meant by "long time" and "they need lot of water.") 'Course, it's now fall in WI so i came here looking to see if i could pot the thing and grow 'er indoors all winter or if she should go dormant. Looks like I'll have diminishing returns if I try to keep it growing? And pictures and descriptions of the roots give me pause as to what I might find when I do take it up. How wide should i dig for a single stalk? And, if the corm should go dormant, do I dig after first frost knocks down the foliage (like dahlias) or before? Probably elementary questions, but it's my first outdoor tropical and i don't want to damage it in its prime. Thanks for an entertaining and informative thread.

I was given a black EE, which had been potted, then dug up for me. I repotted, (in the south, it will spread to a neighbors yard!), and threw it under a live oak. It's marching merrily along! Yes, it does looooove water, LOL.

I leave mine in the pot. It stays in a dark laundry room temps 50-60 all winter. I give it a 1/2 cup of water once a month. I may have one or two small leaves all winter but when I put it outside in May it takes off.

I do this with all my tropicals, canna, gingers, bananas. I keep them just alive enough so I do not have to wait all summer to have a showing in my tropical garden. My summer is too short. So I made a decision to try to give the plants growing onditions as close to semi tropical conditions as possible.

I'm growing my first EE and I live in Minnesota. I was thinking of storing the bulb in my garage over the winter (at 40 degrees). Would I be better off growing it in a container in my house over the winter? It is planted in the ground now but I could move it to a pot to bring indoors.

The 1st time I grew EEs (in a container) I took it out of the pot (There were Lots... I mean LOTS of roots!) and let it dry out.
I removed the dry dirt & most of the roots.
I set it in a plastic basin and left it in my mother's basement over the winter.
The following spring, I spotted new growth. There were a bunch of new corms surrounding the original.
I broke them off. Shared some, planted the others.

If you have room and enough light to grow it indoors, it might work. I have neither - so mine is banished to the basement.

Is it possible to transplant the EE to a pot and keep it indoors for another month or two and then dry it out? I am making concrete casts from the leaves and I would like some more time before I have to store the plant for winter.

You probably could do that.
Just make sure you bring it in before the temps drop & the leaves start to yellow.

is it only the new side corms that produce foliage next year, or does the original bulb still have life?

I had growth from the original - smaller than its first year, though.

Hi all, I am interested in getting some EE's for my garden and would like to keep them in a pot. What kind do you all recommend for my zone and also how large of a pot do I need.

The EE pic above (posted Apr '07) is one in a 16" pot.
It was HUGE!

OoS

What size bulbs are you all planting? Are they ALL big old softballs?

I have 4 grocery-store taro I'm starting (just sprouting now, inside in a warm spot). They were the size of eggs as the market only had small ones available. Does bigger bulb = bigger plant?

There are so many different varieties! You might want to check out this link to see some of them and get an idea of their needs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alocasia at Daves

And here's some more!

Here is a link that might be useful: Colocasia at Daves

Does bigger bulb = bigger plant?

Good question. The common thought is 'yes'. The idea is that the larger the bulb, the more stored food it has to fuel new growth.

I really don't know that the idea is universally true though. For example with garlic cloves that I plant the common advice is to plant the largest cloves (for the largest bulbs) and eat the smaller ones. In my garden though I have not seen any correlation between clove size and eventual bulb size.

So, with EEs I look for the softball sized ones since I figure I can't go wrong this way, but I really don't know if it matters much or not.

Thanks JAG. Interesting, as I know in the dahlia forum there are some who believe a big dahlia tuber actually makes for a "lazy" plant. And when I plant my potatoes I get a great many which are bigger than the seed potato. So, not a onesided question at all it seems.

I'll give my little colocasias lots of food and water and see how they go.

I plant an elephant ear this spring in my apartment at New York. The plant does good, it is 4 feet tall and produced three leaves now(22inch X 15inch), but all of them droop causing the stem to bend in half. The leaf does not die nor does it turn yellow. Does anyone know what causes the stem to bend like that?

If it's still in your aptmt, I'd guess a lack of adequate light is causing the plants inability to support the weight of the foliage - typical legginess (is that a word?).

Al

I don't think so. My room is full of sun light during the day.

I don't think so. My room is full of sun light during the day.

In that case you have a wide variety of house plants you can grow terrifically. Lots of sun indoors though, pales in comparison to direct, outdoor sunlight. Houseplants are all shade plants that in nature live in the shade of something else and therefore do well indoors.

EE is not a shade plant, it is an outdoor, full, blazing sun plant. I would have to say it is probably impossible to grow it in a house even if that house was made of glass. It would undoubtedly survive for a period, but it would clearly be in a state of decline rather than robust health and growth.

It just won't get enough light/warmth. Glass filters light and most house windows filter light too well for a plant suited for outdoor full sun.

Sorry to resurrect an old post but I have a question about pot size. I have a big 18" wide pot I want to put EE's in this year. I ended up buying two Colocasia Esculenta (regular green ones) JUST in case one doesn't work. Can I put TWO bulbs in this 18" wide pot? The bulbs are about 14" all the way around or about 5" wide. Would there be any advantages/disadvantages to this?

Does anyoneknow what to do with this EE seed pods and how you do it? PLEASE ADVISE

Thank you!

ces, I planted 17 EE this spring in nursery pots which are 22" across the top and straight down. I just upended a few to take some babies to grow inside in case I lose the mother plant this winter. The pots are packed full of roots. If you give it room it will use the space!

Can you dog up and store a black elephnAnt ear

. not sure what kind it is. But i dont want to kill it off if it wont store over winter like the big regular ones will

Yes, you can. Allow frost to knock it back, then dig it up or lift it from the pot and remove all soil. Let it dry for a week or two and then put it in a box on a layer of peat moss, then cover with more dry moss. Store it where it's cool/ dark/ dry.

Al

Ok thanks alot Al.. Heres the big one and you can see the little black one beside it...

A d one more

What kind of medium would you all recommend for elephant ears? Would you use 5:1:1 mix, a variation of it or commercial potting soil mix? Where I grew up in Louisiana, these grew invasively in boggy conditions in roadside canals and swamps, so I wonder if a heavier medium than would otherwise be recommended for container growing might be appropriate.

EDIT: I would be digging the tubers up each year for the winter and repotted each spring. I live in NY now.

Many growers mistakenly believe that because a plant naturally occurs in riparian or boggy conditions that it prefers a boggy or wet soil in a container. It doesn't. You can get this plant to perform well using various forms of aquaculture, but when grown in soil it prefers a well-aerated mix you can keep damp or moist instead of wet or soggy.

Al

Thanks, Al, very helpful. Would 5:1:1 work as is or would you adjust it in any way?

That's what I use - same stuff I plant tomatoes, peppers, all my mixed floral display containers in.

Al

Thanks your responses and comments - `very helpful. We planted our elephant ears three years ago in the back yard. Every winter we take them in and I think we wrap the roots and put them in a dark place. We replant them every spring. I was hoping I could bring them in for the winter and continue enjoying them, but I am not convinced from reading here that we have enough sun, so I might have to find a grow light and I"m not sure I can keep up with the water demand. I miss these beautiful leaves all winter!!