How to start off Elephant ears?

[Tom2006]

I was walking round my local (soon to be closing Focus store today) and saw a LOAD of elephant ear bulbs. Two for a fiver so I got two.

They both have a pink bulge at one end, and the instructions say to plant them deep in wet soil and in a few weeks they should come up.

Firstly, a very daft question, but having never seen one before which way round should I plant? Is the pinkish bulge the root stock or the growing tip?
Secondly, should I pot them and put them in my poly house to get the temperature up for them?

[kata]

http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_4428141_pla ... bulbs.html

Did you get very big bulbs Tom?

[Tom2006]

Thanks Kata! Yes two huge bulbs, like large oranges!

[SteveW]

Hi Tom
The pink bulge is the growing point and yes put it in the polytunnel.
Have you got a heatmat you can put them on?
That allways speeds them up.

[kata]

Thats great Tom,

Lets hope they do ok for you.

[Dave Brown]

Kata, the whole point this and other forums started, is you cannot rely on single websites to tell facts that are necessarily relevant to us. We rely on group experience here, finding out what works best in the UK. If you have no experience of a plant, best leave advice to those who have, rather than point members to a single American website.

Tom, Elephant Ears in America are both Alocasia and Colocasia, but UK DIY Sheds do not seem to sell Alocasia so the chances are this is a Colocasia, and if pinkish may be Mammoth. I wonder if the term 'Elephant Ears' led to the Wilko Colocasia being labeled Alocasia

I started my original Mammoth by sticking it in a propagator at 30C with 95% or so humidity, and it grew away in under 2 weeks..... however, on a later attempt, and many others reported the same thing.... hot and wet = rot, and also any wet = rot. The roots form from the base of the shoot not from the rhizome itself. I'd go along with SteveW's advice of heat mat, but just bearly moist compost, and leave the top open to stop fungal attack once a shoot emerges.

[Tom2006]

Thanks for advice I will give them a go. Fingers crossed.

[SteveW]

Just had a thought,you do know they're mammoth that focus are selling?

[Tom2006]

The two I got seem to be different. One had the pink tip and was more oval, the other was rounder and had a greener tip.

I feel a bit daft as watered them in well (prior to reading Dave's great reply). Would it be wise to lift them out and replant in drier compost?

[Dave Brown]

My experience and the consensus on growing eddoes which you have a huge one of, is, you are better off with a less wet compost until the plant is growing well.

Scott Radford has a different technique to start these off. It is radically different form anything I have done in the past, but I think it is just water on a heat mat, and you are far less likely to get rot infections from water than you are from soggy compost

[grub]

Tom you could always go with the 'sprout them in a warm place technique', that's what I always do

[kata]

Kata, the whole point this and other forums started, is you cannot rely on single websites to tell facts that are necessarily relevant to us.

Whats wrong with a darn video link.

I feel I am dogged here lately, alsways something not acceptable.

[Dave Brown]

Whats wrong with a darn video link.

Nothing if you live in the US and have 30C heat from May to October.

All it says is which way up to plant them and they need hot, hot shade.

[Conifers]

How to start off Elephant ears?

On a baby Elephant. Newly started ear arrowed in red.

[grub]

Interesting Conifers ,any idea of the germination time using this method?