Mammoth Elephant Ear Bulb Storage

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davelackner Chesapeake, VA Mar 05, 2015

How do you store giant elephant ear bulbs until it's time to plant them. I may have ruined several by keeping them in my cold,dark garden shed. Tempeartures had dropped below freezing and the bulbs are now soft and mushy apparently beginning to rot.

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Mar 05, 2015

They are more tropical, so if they need to be stored I think I would try a cool room in the house (if all outdoor storage gets colder). Here is storage info from a place that specializes in them.

http://www.elephantearsplants.com/elephantearsgrowing.htm

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Mar 09, 2015

The best way to winter these tropical Lush and large plants is to remove all the greenery at seasons end, next tip the bulb encased in the soil out from the pot, Next turn the bulb /soil upside down into a wooden- wire - or other open rack, this allows air to flow. around the soil and lets any moisture run free from any greenery and the bulb.
After a couple of weeks the bulb and soil should be quite dry enough to set the plant back into the pot again, store this in a COOL but NOT Cold place, every couple of weeks, make sure there is NO softening of the bulbs, do this treatment until it's time to get the bulb to sprout again,
IF you find the bulb is becoming over dry while in storage, give just enough water to prevent the bulb dying off, I gave mine a glass of water every other week till I felt over dryness was sorted.
To restart the growth, place the bulb in a slightly warmer place and offer water NOT TOO MUCH, when you see more new shoots appear, give a little more, once you see the plant start to regrow those sturdy new leafs, I gave a feed half strength, then when really growing, use full strength feed every 6-8 weeks.
Once the plant shows first signs of new shoots, this would be a good time to pot up unto a larger pot with some enriched fresh soil / compost, water well and allow to adjust slowly to outdoor situation once the chill is free from night temps.
IF you dont have a place to winter these tropical bulbs in a just cool space, once you have dried to plants off on the open rack, when you place them back into the pots, you can wrap either BUBBLE wrap around the pot to keep the real cold from the soil / bulbs, or use sacking, even straw wrapped and ties round the pot would help if you only have a very cold area, the straw allows air to circulate IF you use it as a mulch on the top of pot, doing this means you have to check the plants even more often though.
Good luck, hope this helps you out.
Good luck and kind regards.
WeeNel.

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