Tropicals & Tender Perennials: C.Thai Giant - What I learned thus far, 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
Well you may have a few choices of what to do. First off I should add that the more common form of Gigantea is very hardy and can handle my zone6 winters with mulch. So you could chop off all the leaves used hard wood mulch or chopped up leaves and pile it on top of them for winter. Adding a black piece of plastic over the mulch will help keep out moisture from heavy rains and also heats up fast in the sun. Now if its not in the ground I am not sure if you should really down size it. I would suggest then to just remove all the leaves besides the newest one and put it in your storage area. I have had great luck keeping many colocasias in smaller size pots during the winter with rich dirt rather than larger pots were they tend to rot more. If it comes down to it dig up the plant remove many of the roots remove all the leaves and put it in the smallest pot you can put it in and water it. It will go into shock and may take sometime but should recover from this. The main killer is wet cold or very dry rot usually dry rot happens when nothing is around the roots or tuber to hold in the moisture.