Tropicals & Tender Perennials: The dreaded rot of an elephant ear!, 1 by svplantingfool

svplantingfool wrote:
Came home from work today to find that one of the EE's I had gotten a couple of weeks ago had tipped over. Upon closer inspection, one of the plants had broken off below soil level and was suspiciously squishy around the corm (bulb/tuber?? not sure what to call it). I removed a couple of leaves from the base and sure enough, part of the bulb was soft like pudding.
Of course I was pressed for time, so I scraped off the vanilla-pudding-looking stuff and inspected again. There seemed to be a couple of roots starting, so I ran back to the kitchen, got the cinnamon and doused it (remembered that from another thread here). I put the whole shebang in a small pot of sand and set it in a protected spot. I dumped the big pot that I had it planted in and found the other one seems fine and I'm guessing/hoping the little bulbets that were also in there will make new plants? Potted them up too, then off to dinner.

Any suggestions for better treatment next time I run into this icky situation? Is there any hope for the EE with the smooshy stuff? I had a moment of paranoia where I thought I cshould dump all the EE's I've gotten in the last couple weeks at local sales and check for rot, but then I came back to Earth and DH's calls from the house....
Thanks, Cathy