Rotting Not Rooting – My Elephant Ear Bulb – Ewwww!
The long wait for my Elephant Ear to sprout is over. I have some “pointy ends” coming up in one of the pots and I am encouraged that these will soon be a large plant. But I examined the other pot out on my Screened Porch and nothing is going on at all. What? All I see is a few (hundred) fungus gnats and I swear I hear them saying “Neener neener neener!” to me.
I could still see the mound of the bulb lying under the surface of the soil, so I pressed it and thought it felt sort of soft. Days later, it still felt that way, even more so. So what we did was an exploratory examination, and as you see in the video, the bulb was turning soft.
My Elephant Ear bulb was rotting not rooting! Not exactly mushy like when I have left them out all winter and they froze, but soft like a balloon feels when it has a pin-prick somewhere in it. Was it history? I have a rotting elephant ear, don’t I?
It seems to me that when I have a rotting Elephant Ear bulb already, that I call “Game Over” early. I have rescued some plants but at least I started with a plant and leaves and something to work with in those cases. But this is my “starting line” and it is already rotting. For me, it’s a goner.
We pulled it out of the soil and wrapped it in a bag , double wrapped it, and threw it away. Whatever rot it had, I didn’t want it to spread to anything else. Was it a fungus? Was is some virus? I don’t know, but it is gone now.
Spraying the area in that pot with my anti-fungal cinnamon spray, I hoped to keep that huge planter full of soil primed and ready for a new occupant. I want another Elephant Ear, but I will just get one that is already growing.
Luckily we were planning a Plant Haul during the Memorial Day weekend and I told myself I should get a head start by purchasing an already-growing Elephant Ear if I could find one that didn’t break my Plant Budget.
So my daughter and I went for a quick drop-in to the garden center and picked up some Elephant Ears…and a few other things that just happened to get in the cart somehow. You know how that is. It is just like when you go grocery shopping just to get that special dressing for some salad tonight, and you come home with two bags of groceries that you didn’t know you needed. Well, garden centers work that way too.
Be sure to check out the Plant Haul video too!
Replacing My Rotting Elephant Ear
As you see in my video, all now is replanted and back to two Elephant Ears growing in pots on my Screened Porch. I love the way the “Coffee Cups” look with their black stems and veined leaves. Now if I can get the gnats under control, I should be great. It seems that the gnats are coming in through the screening so I will need to double up on the Hydrogen Peroxide watering, cinnamon, and sticky traps.
After having this many plants outside on the screened porch, this fall when time arrives to bring these all back inside, I will have my work cut out for me, right?
Where will I ever put all of this? Oh well, like Scarlett O’Hara, I will worry about that tomorrow! Please be sure to Pin an image to one of your House Plant boards, ok?