How to's on dividing/snipping EE's?

Have a trader friend that asked for EE's, and I have no idea how to give any.....I mean, can you "divide" them while they're still in season??

Not advisable to do now. And later on only if they have made little 'babies' that you can break off.

bleek,

when you break off the babies, do you need part of the tuber, or will a white stalk with roots do?

Thanks, Leslie

You will see them when you dig them later this year. They mostly will grow on the side of the bulb and break off the one(s) that are barely attached.

I'm leaving mine 'til the season's over.................=) Thanks, Bleek!

Is it Colocasia esculenta aka Taro? If so, then you just need to make sure the portion under the running stalk with pups has some developed roots, before breaking off the pup. Last year when mine was in the ground, I dug up pups quite a few times during the second half of the year when they were moving out into areas I did not want them. Just dig around them and make sure they have some developed roots coming off of the bottom of shoots. Pot it up and keep the soil moist and make sure to mulch them well the first winter.

I dug all mine up this spring for moving, but found some babies of "Illustris" C. esculenta growing in the area just last week. I must have left some root behind. I just carefully pulled them up and put them in a pot and they are happy campers in a pot with my lemon tree for now.

A neat experiment I tried last October was digging up all those runners that had not made pups yet. I chopped them up into about 6 inch long lengths and put them in shallow trays with soil. I kept it moist and many of the runners sent up pups and developed roots. I got busy in December and forgot to bring them in one night when it got below freezing and they all died back. I decided to trash them, because I did not have time for them. I could have probably kept them but they were set back and I did not have time to baby the one's that had developed roots before they died back. I could have easily had lots of babies this spring if I'd had a greenhouse.

Just edited to say, we don't have to dig them up every year in our zone so that is probably accounts for the difference in mine and bleek's replies.


This message was edited Aug 8, 2005 11:01 AM

The time is drawing to consider what I need to do with my EE's. They're growing in containers right now.

What I need to know do I take them 'in' or lift them before we get our first frost? Or do I leave them until after the frost kills off the foliage?

~julie~

Check the tropical forum for all sorts of recent aroid info. :)