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Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 1:09 pm
by rickw
It's normal they won't die. Here's my Portadora:Image

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 1:22 pm
by needmore
Really nice! Good to know, I'm used to having bananas & bamboo flower and die off or at least be set back quite a bit, the flower on mine is coming with only 3 leaves up right now but I guess the plant know what it is doing.

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 2:05 pm
by canadianplant
Dude in Iowa has one thats flowered twice in 3 years. You should be fine for a while.

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:27 pm
by needmore
It's pushing a 2nd flower and just getting started with leaves this year

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Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 8:30 pm
by Alan_L
Brad, how much sun do your Colocasia and Alocasia get? I have mine in various conditions, and I wonder if full sun is too much for them. I know full shade isn't ideal, as they're always leaning for more light.

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 8:41 pm
by needmore
I have around a dozen in ground in mostly full all day sun, the one above gets shaded by parvifolia quite a bit. Last summer I grew them in pots on the deck in full sun and they seemed quite happy but I always kept water in the tray and watered every morning last year.

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:07 pm
by JWH
johnw wrote:"I dont have much luck overwintering other tropical tubers like ..........callas in-ground."

JWH - Try the Calla called 'Crowborough', I saw it growing out of a compost heap in St. John's, Newfoundland so it must tolerate winter wet, and cold too. Said to be the hardiest one back in good old cold days.

john
It was such a mild winter that potted callas I left out to die, survived and are even bigger this year. Even a piece of canna 'tropicanna' overwintered in the same pot.
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My elephant ears are growing nicely with all the warm weather, but nowhere near the sizes of Needmore & rickw's. I have them up on my deck in big pots with trays of water underneath. I'll have to get photos later.

Just passed 30 days without rain & none in the forecast. Getting a good workout dragging hose & sprinkler around to everything that needs water in the summer. :P

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:29 pm
by canadianplant
JWH - are those Schwartswalder calla?

My EEs have done sweet eff all.... theyve stopped doing anything :(

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:54 pm
by JWH
Canadianplant,

Sorry, I have no idea what kind of calla they are. Gotta love those big box store labels "assorted color calla lily" I have some that are dark pink, white, and that purple-black color.

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:30 pm
by JWH
Most of these were tissue cultured 2-inch plugs back in late may. Set on top of a 5 gallon bucket for a sense of scale.

Colocasia:

Plain green Esculenta (baseball sized tuber from Lowes) took forever to sprout.
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Black Ruffles
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Jack's Giant
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Thai Giant
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Pink china, black beauty, bikini-tini, and noble gigante had/have spider mites and currently look terrible. Hopefully Bayer tree and shrub (Imidacloprid systemic) will kill the little buggers!

Alocasia:

Odora (big tuber from Lowes)
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Calidora
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Portadora
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Boa
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Macrorrhiza
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Gagaena 'California'
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Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2013 12:23 pm
by rickw
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My Portadora is about 7' tall now that the leaves have come out good.

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 7:16 am
by kreos123
C. esculenta

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C. 'Jack's Giant'
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C. 'Black Magic'

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Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 5:56 pm
by JWH
One of my plain green C. Esculenta is starting to put up some big leaves.

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Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 9:28 pm
by pokenei
This is remnant of what was a massive Thai Giant last year. That main plant was overwintered indoor and got really weak, and was subsequently abused by my dad when it was taken outside in the spring. That plant died, but I was able to salvage this pub and another one ( 1 inch tall) from the dirt left behind by the dead plant. This year, I plan on over wintering it in the garage, unless it gets really cold.

Re: Elephant Ears

Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 1:55 pm
by needmore
Food, water, sun, heat they grow well...

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