Plant in pots, keep above 60F inside. Soil should be only slightly moist. Plant outside in part sun when min temps at night are above 45F. They want plenty of water and fertilizer while in growth. Lift when foliage wilts in fall and keep in a cool room above freezing in dry medium until ready to repeat the cycle. RJ

Here is a link that might be useful: Culture Sheet

I grow all my taro by cutting off the top inch of a taro bulb (the part you eat!!) and here we just plant them outside in the garden - they love moist rich soil in part shade. Let me know if you want some recipes for the bulb and for the leaves - we eat both parts!! Kiwilad.

Hello Winterpeg, Toronto here. I grow Taro (or edo) but I don't bother starting them until May. I buy bulbs with sprouts and start them under lights, this happens quickly. Planting them out in early June is plenty early ... give lots of water. I have found the best results in shade. I don't bother to try to over winter the bulbs because I find the bulbs I end up with at the end of the growing season are smaller than when I started out...and they are dirt cheap...Robb

Robb in TO:

What sort of plant does the taro grow into? Is it big / small, fronds or leaves?

Susie, also in Winnipeg

Hello strachan13..Robb here, the plants grow to about 1 metre, the leaves are heart shaped and reach about .5 metres in length...the effect is very tropical and lush for a bulb cost of about 50c. a lb. Robb

I picked up a few taro the other day that have eyes but am confused on which way to plant these--can someone help me please?

The larger one has several eyes, all sprouting from the long-side and the smaller bulbs have an eye coming out the end that has the fine hair. Are the "eyes" the sprouting leaves? How would you suggest I plant these? I'm gathering from what I've read that they can be planted in soil or water to get them started.

Thanks!

I purchased 3 grocery store "taro" tubers and all rotted without sprouting. They may have been treated with a chemical growth inhibitor to prevent sprouting (as are many "root" vegetables).

Strachan 13, they are an 'elephant ear' plant, though not giant.

I am in Southern California. I made a little bed of good soil, planted the store-bought tubers in Feb, watered them and they were already coming up in March. Not full-grown yet but looking good. I placed a couple potted plants next to them to give them partial shade for part of the day. That would probably not be necessary in northerly latitudes.

Regards,

Rick Clark

Here are my finds at a Vietnamese store in Houston Texas.
I need help with the "Which end is up" and how deep to bury each of the three tuber types - ID if you happen to know.
The second picture on the page is an unknown alocasia a neighbor donated to me...Any ID?
Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: My unknown alocasias

Here is the correct link....sorry!

http://home.swbell.net/rbranum/tmp_index.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Correct link!

Hello rbranum...I don't know what the things in the pot are. The others look like, long root from the top of photo= horseradish... which you don't want in your garden. The root below it looks like yucca; even if you can grow it from the root it would be like watching paint dry. The last are edo=taro=elephant ear, easy to grow and rewarding...Robb

I agree that the big roots look like "yucca" or "yuca" but the edible roots sold under this name come from cassava, Manihot esculenta. I'm not sure if you can grow it from grocery stores roots (they may not have any growing points on them) but this is a very fast-growing tropical plant.

Each of these were listed in the store as "taro"
Yucca roots, while similar, were also avail.
Which end of each goes down?
Thanks!

Hi! I have a silly question - does the taro plant produce additional taro's that you can harvest?
Thanks! :-)

Peach, they should produce suckers after they grow a bit. You just seperate these from the big bulb and you've got more.

Rbranum, two of them are probably malanga. There are different varieties of malanga; some have a white or cream flesh & some are pink or purple. Malanga (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) is not taro (Colocasia esculenta) but is referred to as taro

http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/328Fall98/328VegLab/malanga.jpg

It looks like the one at the top left is the pink malanga, & the lower left is some sort of cream malanga. The one on the right is taro. The pink stub on the top left one is where the leaves will come out. The one on the bottom left probably sends out leaves on the wider end. Make sure the cut ends have healed as they can rot.

I live in Northern California and I just bought a small tarro today. At 2.58 per pound I was only aloud to get a limited amount. Mine looks like a bulb and all I did was put the flat part up and about three inches in the dirt. Will this work, I'll update in a while.