The USDA has this to say about preparing taro for storage:

Postharvest Pathology: Pythium root rot can be a major problem in wetland taro. Corm rots can also be
associated with a complex of microorganisms, including Fusarium, Sclerotinia, Erwinia, Botryodiplodia
and Ceratocystis. These decay organisms are associated with field infection through wounds. After
washing roots to remove soil and then cutting corms to remove diseased tissue, corms should be dried
(cured) so that wound healing can occur. Curing is best done at 20 to 30 °C (68 to 86 °F), followed by
cooling to control further disease development (Snowdon, 1992).

Here is a link that might be useful: Taro

I assume that there is no difference between black magic and regular elephant ear plants. I am in zone 7b. I can usually keep some of mine growing directly in the ground (usually only goes down to 10 degrees F, but went to 3 degrees this year and most finally reappeared), and I also have some sitting in pots in a couple inches of pond water. I often have some impatiens in those pots. I have had good success taking a pot in for the winter as a house plant. I usually also put the rest of any pond sited pots in the garage after they have dried out for a month in the late fall. I drag them out in mid or late April, divide and re-pot.

taro is pretty resilient. We were looking at cars in December, and I noticed a buncha taro coming up through the gravel parking lot. Made it through grading, cars driving over it, gravel delivery...granted, it doesn't get cold here!

Sandy,
i have black elephant ears too. I am in South Carolina, so I will tell you what I did,
I took them and brought them in the house.
I don't have a cool dry garage.
Cool and dry is the key.
Not cold, above freezing.
You have a water EE, which is different from regular Taro.
Cool, dry, mabey in plain potting mix in a pot and wrap it up with burlap to keep it above freezing in garage.
Then when there is no threat of frost next spring, just take them out and put back in pond. Or pot with a water tray underneath to keep them wet.
Congrats on your new black EE.

Thanks Butterfly. I knew someone would come along that actually had these water EE and would know what I needed to do with them for the winter.. Thanks

I think you will observe that my experience and that of butterfly4u are essentially identical. However, both of us may be, or are, in warmer zones than you. It turns out that you may be sitting on the cutoff for some of these techniques. I stumbled into a detailed site that should be helpful. This site also indicates that the common EEs that we all have AND the edible taro are All the water type plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: EE site

I have basic elephant ears from Walmart and am bringing them in for the winter. I am wondering do their bulbs grow bigger and make bigger leaves or do I need to buy a different kind of bulb?

hi
have grown the so called "black magic EE ,colocasia antiquorum for many years . Only as a water plant though
they can't tolerate being dry .
Wife brought one home and label said "black magic" so put it into my marsh garden. have never seen a plant go down so fast!!lol On closer inspection it turned out to be
Alocasia infernalis "Black magic" Entirely different culture .
Odd they would name two closely related plants with the same name .??
Of course they generally call both families " elephant ears" and they have widely varying culture
Oh well the wonders of common names ?? gary

Doodles, I would expect you have the regular large leaved, large bulb plants. If you are now down here and not in zone 5, I would expect that they should grow six or more feet high. They don't have to be in water but they certainly shouldn't be left to dry out completely.

Doodles, I would expect you have the regular large leaved, large bulb plants. If you are now in zone 5, I would expect that they would not grow six or more feet high like mine in zone 7. I suppose they might not grow well in zone 5. They don't have to be in water but they certainly shouldn't be left to dry out completely. I had to edit this immediately because I mistakenly assumed I was in my Carolina' forum and not ponds.

I took my two Black Magic plants out of the pond a couple weeks ago to let them start drying out before winter. I cut the largest leaves off and trimmed the plants up a lot. When I pulled them out of the pond in their pots there were many leaf stems that had grown outside the pot and the part of the plant that was outside the pot had what looked to be large leaf nodes that had spouted small roots. I cut those off and put them in a large glass container of rain water. I hope to have baby Black Magic Elephant Ear by Spring. I will keep the root cuttings in the house all winter and change out the water every couple weeks with fresh rain water and hope for the best. I have about 10 cuttings in the gal size glass container and they have grown a lot in the two weeks.

I took my two Black Magic plants out of the pond a couple weeks ago to let them start drying out before winter. I cut the largest leaves off and trimmed the plants up a lot. When I pulled them out of the pond in their pots there were many leaf stems that had grown outside the pot and the part of the plant that was outside the pot had what looked to be large leaf nodes that had spouted small roots. I cut those off and put them in a large glass container of rain water. I hope to have baby Black Magic Elephant Ear by Spring. I will keep the root cuttings in the house all winter and change out the water every couple weeks with fresh rain water and hope for the best. I have about 10 cuttings in the gal size glass container and they have grown a lot in the two weeks.

Sandy, I would bet that you could just pot them up in some nice soil and it might be less trouble. I suspect you could have just left the whole mess in a heap in the back of your garage and deal with everything in late spring, but again I am really just experienced with the green ones and I see yours are slightly more fussy.

I have had mine since 2007 and put extra mulch on top of them after they die back and put an old throw carpet on top of that for winter .I live in VA near the NC border

I've overwintered my Black Magic in my living room. I did make the mistake of watering too much and it resulted in root rot.

I've since read that they require much less water in the winter because of their "semi-dormancy".

Hope that helps!

Just wanted to post this photo of one dropplet of water left on my EE from the morning dew.

Growing slow but sure in a pot.