I never had any luck, they would rot on me. Don't usually have too much trouble with geraniums, though. Sorry I'm no help. Just buy new ones next year.

I have EEs in pots in my little koi pond. For winter I yank them out of the pond, set on the porch for a few days to dry out, and then put in my attached, unheated garage. I set the pot in a 5 gal bucket and periodically give them a tiny sip of water. I‘ve done this for years, occasionally lose one but usually it works. I’m curious to hear how others manage them!

I don't grow them any more but when I did I grew them in pots, pulled them out (major chore and one of the reasons I no longer grow them!) in the fall, cleaned off soil and stored them in the basement for the winter.

Recently I came across an article referenced in an episode of Fine Gardening’s Let’s Argue About Plants podcast. I think it was episode 117 - Tender Plants Worth Saving. The article is “Bring It In” by Irvin Etienne. Here’s the link https://www.finegardening.com/article/bring-it-in. It’s a subscription site, but you can access at least one free article. The main principles for dealing with various plants are described in the podcast episode as well.

For reasons that now escape me, I decided that I needed elephant ears this year. I can barely handle dealing with cannas so I don’t know what I was thinking, but the article gave me hope that I can overwinter the elephant ears (and a bunch of lantana) without too much effort or space. Basically, according to the article, those two plants and others can be stored all winter as bareroots in plastic bags. There are slightly different techniques depending on the plant. Fortunately I grew the EEs in containers and they are now in the basement drying out prior to being bagged up for the winter. The cannas didn’t make it out of the basement this year. Good luck!

We leave them in the ground. However, for caladiums, we take them out before the first freeze (usually already defoliated by then), dry them and store in sawdust (in an area that does not freeze) until Mother's day. The elephant ears come back smaller and smaller every year if you do not take them out. However, those grown in the bank of Bachman Lake don't get smaller, but die back in the winter.

bkay

I yank them out of the pot in early October, chop off the stems, blast them with a hose, cut off all the roots, let them dry in the basement and then throw them in a paper bag. They’ve sat in a paper bag for 2 years at a time and still survive when I plant them. (Ontario, zone 4b). My laziness is brilliant -lol

I store them in only one single layer in soil in a cardboard box in my unheated, but doesn't freeze basement at camp. Same with the sweet potato tubulars.

i wonder if they REQUIRE dormancy???

ken

No they don’t require dormancy. I grow them in a big pot outdoors all summer, then bring them inside and let them grow indoors all winter.

Well, I found this thread interesting. Great to hear everyone's ways to deal with them.

I once had a Coffee Cups. Beautiful plant. I didn't know how to deal with it after the season was over and threw it out! Haven't seen one since.

Now covid has made supply difficult. If I do find some, they are ridiculously priced or in poor condition.

So what I have is colocasia esculenta. I've been growing them each season for about 4 years. Usually in a pot, but I did try a couple in ground this year.

So this is what I do for overwintering:

(1) when the weather starts changing---getting colder and rainy (here September)---I move the pot to a location where it does not get anymore rain.

(2) I soon remove it from the pot before it dies down because the weather isn't getting any better and these plants aren't happy when it gets colder. This helps to eliminate bulb rot.

(3) Cut the top off. Leave about 4 inches above the bulb. Remove the roots.

(4) Clean off the dirt. Clean off any mushy spots.

(5) Dust with sulphur or cinnamon. Let dry outside (if not really cold) for several days.

(6) I put each one in separate paper bags. Then in a cardboard box. No plastic. I cover with a larger paper bag. Best if reasonably dark.

(7) Storing temperature good at around 60. The room I have them in is usually around 65F.

I still struggle with rot at times. The two I had planted in the ground this year had some rot. These bulbs love the heat and water but seem to hate it when it's cold. I also find it amazing how you can have a small sized bulb grow quite a large plant!

Gargamel, good to hear that the bulbs can last two years. There was one I didn't plant this year so now I am hopeful that it will survive.

Gave my neighbor one plant this year. She was thrilled. She wants another one next year.

One more thing, I don't overwinter this plant indoors because they are susceptible to spider mites. I had a different, smaller variety that I did bring indoors one year and it got the spider mites. Unless you have a place to keep this plant separate from the others, I wouldn't advise keeping it indoors. I learned my lesson!

if they are already yellowing due to cold.. but not freeze.. can i still grow it indoors.. i do happen to have a spot ...

ken

I don't know whether they NEED a dormancy. I like to get them dormant because mine are too big to overwinter in the house and the risk of spider mites.

Hard to say whether the bulb is OK or not. That's another reason I like to unpot them and put them away. So many times I have had a beautiful large plant and then was very surprised when unpotting to find that the bulb was rotting away! There had been no indication of that from the plant!

So for you Ken, since you have a spot, I'd give it a try. What's the worst that can happen?

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 I often like what robert pavlis has to say...

https://youtu.be/NPBrZs9Q2CU

(5) Dust with sulphur or cinnamon.

@newhostalady Z6 ON, Canada, I don't think I have read using cinnamon in place of Sulphur. I have C and not S...i will give it a try.

great vid..

he said to use sulfur only if there was rot he cut off ...

it snowed yesterday here.. very odd... mine came in the house ...

ken

There is at least one Colocasia hybrid ("Pink China") that is reliably hardy to zone 6a and would be worth trying in zone 5 with heavy mulching. I've had it come back reliably for many years in central Ohio and now in central Kentucky (zone 6b). It's a very attractive plant with pink stems. My only problem, if you can call it that, is it's somewhat of a runner and I have to chop it back a few tiimes during the growing season.

How about this....

Or these....ken

We decided they looked like turkey

I don't grow EE, but grow lots of caladiums. I dig them up, cut off the stems, give them a good spray with hose to get off the dirt. Let them dry for a day or so. Place them in carboard boxes and fill the boxes with pearlite. Put the boxes in my basement where it's always like 60-65F. I lose maybe 20% every year. Some are too small to bother with. A few survive my zone 7 winter outside in the ground. Maybe 5-10% survive outside. If boxed, you need cardboard. Something a little breathable. Otherwise they'll rot.

Here's a cat abused turkey feather

And the other leaf pic

That's the shadow of a leaf behind

rouge, I checked out the video. Robert Pavlis addressed our horticultural society a few years ago. He has a lot of good youtube videos.

In regards to his video, he says he lets the corms dry in his basement and puts them in his cold cellar uncovered. One should note that his basement and cold cellar would be dark. If one is going to put the corms where there is going to be daylight, then a cardboard box, paper bags, peat moss etc. are needed to keep the bulb in the darkness. At first I used peat moss, but found it messy. I learned that the peat moss wasn't necessary.

Robert Pavlis also says he peels off the dried leaves. I found that as long as you clean the bulb well and let it dry before putting it away, all should be fine.

In early spring, I do peel away the dried leaves. I usually find that the bulb has begun to grow. So do peel off the dried leaves carefully as I have broken the tip of the growing corm. But it grew fine just as well.

This year I took this picture:

and this one:

dont see your pix newhostalady ...

That's really weird---about the pictures. When I posted, I could see they were not there. When I try to edit and put them in again, I see them! But when I post, they disappear again. I'll will try again.

Pictures:

and

Wow pretty impressive nhl! The same thing happened with a post of mine a few days ago. It was very odd and I knew it was a houzz glitch. Happy you were able to post those pics separately.

Wow - beautiful newhostalady!

so far its an epic fail ..

its etoliating wildly ..

i got lazy and didnt treat it prior to bringing in the house.. so it has spider mites.. and spread them to my other plants ...

and i cant keep the pot moist enough ...

i would say the leaves are 1/3 the size they were outside .. and the stalk twice as long ..

ken

Sorry to hear that Ken. Perhaps had you treated them prior to bringing them into the house, you may have had the same result. They are prone to spider mites. They don't like the dry air. They love heat! Why not make them dormant and rest and start again in spring?

and how would i make them dormant??? .. going beck outside is not an option ..ken

@ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 wrote "hi"

??

Hey ken, I notice it isn't unusual to see your cryptic post of "hi" appear in your threadS. Maybe I am missing something...can you explain?

I just pull them out of the ground, chop off their leaves, and roots, rinse them off, let them dry and put them in a paper bag until next year. This works for me (zone 4b, Ontario)

i cant see replies since my last post yesterday.. so i post a HI ... and i am supposed to delete it.. once i sign in.. apparently i dont all the time ...

i try to do it on my own posts.. so i dont send HI emails to peeps ..

ken

do you think lesser of me.. now that some of the mystery is gone.. you going to dump me like last nights garbage.. lol ... ken

you going to dump me like last nights garbage.

Yup

;)

For spider mites, I take them to the sink and give them a shower and a once over with soap/detergent. It is not too much work with just a couple of leaves to work on. Repeat a few weeks later (whenever). The mites seem to give up after the second soap treatment.

When I have my elephant ears outside, I don't wait for them to go dormant before I behead them. I do stop watering them, but they never go dormant. So, as Gargamel said, just cut them off now. I never rinse mine though. I figure it's not good to put moisture on them, especially now since you're not drying them outside in the warm air and wind. Let them dry. Put in paper bag. I overwinter mine by putting them in a box in a slightly cooler location in the house.

You could do what getgoing suggests, but you will have to repeat giving them a shower multiple times. That would be a pain especially if you have do that with other plants as well.

Ken, have you tried mulching your EE? I’m overwintering an alocosia EE pup indoors. The 3 leaves it had originally have fallen off, but new larger ones emerged. I don’t know if the plant would be considered etiolated. It’s definitely taller than it was when I got it, but it seems healthy. I’ve been mulching my houseplants with chicken grit to thwart fungus gnats. The mulch has definitely helped with the gnats, but I’ve had to be very careful about watering because the mulch holds in too much moisture for some of my house plants - but not the EE. I think I water it every 10 days or so, perhaps even longer. I check for pests and periodically mist it. Right now it’s in the process of losing a leaf and growing a new leaf. It doesn’t get a tremendous amount of light- NE exposure and about 6’ away from the windows.

Maybe at this point the best thing would be to store your EE as a bare root in the basement (or get rid of it).

i declared this an epic fail ... i have two choices.. wait until there is 3 feet of snow..and then chuck it out the back door into a snow drift . ... some level of happiness in disposing of a problem this way ... lol ...

the alternative.. is to bare root it.. shave off all the roots as noted above.. and storing it in a paper bag in my cold closet [where i store my taters].... who told this method.. and do you really do it when the plant is active.. in other words.. force it into dormancy????

my total investment is one buck as i got it in the bargain bin in mid summer ... so whatever happens isnt going to break my heart of budget ..

ken

I chopped mine down when it was still beautiful, chopped all the roots and leaves and left a 1” stem, dried it for a few weeks, then into a paper bag in basement. I’ve done this for 6 years with the same EE and once planted outside in a planter in the Spring, it always comes back up. I’ve even left it in the paper bag for a year (never got around to planting it) and it still came up once planted the next year, albeit not as big.

where did you dry it.. just in sun .. like where i have the pot right now??

I dried it on top of one of these things, in the basement

the alternative.. is to bare root it.. shave off all the roots as noted above.. and storing it in a paper bag in my cold closet

I am doing something different this time. I dug up my one or two EE in the fall (after cutting back the foliage of course) and right away I plant them into a pot(s). And then I place the pots in a dark, cooler (not cold) location inside our home.

and what red??... they stay dormant????

For sure as the foliage has been completely cut back, it (or they) never receive water and get minimal light.

(This is how I overwinter my one or two dahlias (although I keep my dahlias in a cooler location))