Elephant ears - What did I do wrong?

Last spring 2006, I purchased elephant ear bulbs from Walmart. They were amazing. They took off and were stunning throughout the summer right next to my front door. Then fall came. After they died back, I cut the stems down to maybe 18 inches and pulled them from the ground. I decided to leave them out for a few weeks to dry out before I stored them for the winter.

Well, they never really dried! The stems remained moist after weeks and even became mushy and "bubbled." This made it impossible to cut them further. If you touched them, you would just get "slimed." Of course I discarded them.

Any advice? Thanks!!

Advice on discarded bulbs? Forget them, I suppose. It's too late to work with them now.......

If you had asked for advice while you still had them, I would say, just let them continue to dry in a warm, airy place. Some people have them bulb end up, so that any liquid drains out (down). They will eventually dry off enough to be stored and will continue to dry during storage. When they are completely dried, the old leaf bases can be pulled off, but you can wait til planting time for that.

Next time, you can prepare your bulbs for dormancy by letting them dry out completely as the season winds down. Foliage will start to yellow and dry off. This helps in the curing of the bulb and can cut down on the moisture content in the leaf bases helping your bulbs dry sooner.

Yes, I did in fact let the foliage yellow and dry. By the time it happened though, the weather was fairly cool. (Nov.) But I never considered drying them bulb end up. That sounds like it just may work.

Thanks!

you can put them in a paper bag too,to finish drying and storing,that is how i do it and make sure they arent in a warm enough place to stay too moist or they will rot and not to cold either because they will rot

p.s. i dont take the foliage off until spring

Moretz,
Did you ever encounter my problem of leaf bases that seem really wet or even bubbly? How dry are they when you store them in bags? And how long do you find it takes for them to dry?

Mine always stay slimy like that for quite some time, but I just make sure to give them good air circulation and eventually they finally dry. Some of mine are still drying.

i put them in the bag and dont water unless i think they are too dry and if i do water not much at all it reallt depends on where you are storing them too

Thanks everyone.

I tried saving one. Layed it in some newspaper but it dried out and turn to powder. Tossed it. I'm keeping a smaller one growing in a west window though.

Tom

I've never had that happen to mine but I let the foliage die all the way and dry out on it's own before I cut it off, sometimes it does take quite a while. I just lay mine on several layers of newspapers, (never put any thought to laying them any particular direction but I just went out and looked at them and they all kinda naturally laid on their side -- since they still have some foliage on them). The place you should put them is anywhere pretty dry. I put them on a corner of my sun porch, that may be the real key, (example...not a basement) and the concrete under the newspaper probably pulls out even more of the moisture.

I think the slime issue comes along with growing them in colder zones. Mine always store better if I allow frost to nip them all the way down. Those big stems release lots of water after that, so I cut them off to speed the drying process.

What zone are you in, Sandy? If in 7 you might be able to get away with just leaving them in the ground, especially if you mulch heavily. I see them around here all the time in people's yards and they seem to come back in the exact same places. We're in 7b/8a, but winters do get into teens here.

A SJ suburb of Philadelphia, Turnersville falls right in between zones 6 and 7. It can get quite cold in the winter, although usually not for very extended periods. I think leaving them would be pushing my luck. I tried it last year with cannas and lost them.

It's a tricky situation. They don't totally die back until well into November, which is maybe too cool for them to continue drying out in the sun. After 3 weeks, they were wet, slimy, and bubbly. Maybe, as someone mentioned, if I cut off almost the entire leaf base, the bulbs would dry better.