Eddo (Elephants Ears, Colocasia ?)

I am delighted with this - bought just 9 days ago. Potted up the next day and put in my heated propagator. The two others that I bought the same day I soaked in water, then a quick soak in a copper solution. I didn't have any hydrogen peroxide, but copper should do as we use it for other things. I then put them in polybags in the same propagator at an even higher temperature (at times) as they were sitting on the floor of the propagator right by the heating wires. I put the one with the best bud in the pot, so I am not surprised its been the first to sprout. The others are doing well and have several buds but haven't actually sprouted yet.

I have been having a little Google, and found several points of interest.

First there are several very similar plants, all given the common name of Elephants Ears viz - Colocasia, Alocasia, Xanthosma, Caladium, Monstera and others. Alocasia are very similar but one site said that they should be overwintered as plants, because if they revert to tubers they can take a long time to recover - up to a year.

Colocasia seems to be as popular if not more so than the others. There are several species, but esculentos is by far the most common. Esculentos simply means edible, and it seems to be a name given to a very wide range of different naturally occuring plants as well as named cultivars. So its no surprise when Sal said that each time he bought Eddoes they turned into different plants. The name Eddoe doesn't help either. There are a large number of other common names such as Tarro, Arbi (hindi word), Cocoyam, Dasheen etc, all meaning the same thing.

One site summed it up very well. They like to be :-

Very hot - very wet
Hot - wet
Warm - moist
Cool - dry

WikiHow said :- Growing showy, tropical "Elephant Ear" (Colocasia) plants is possible even in cold weather zones. These plants make a great showing as a backdrop or a center of interest in any garden. If temperatures average below about 40-45ºF (roughly 4-7ºC) for any extended period of time, the root system - tuber(s) - must be dug up and stored in a cool, dry place until replanted the following warm season.

So it seems that they are easy to overwinter, and in many ways should be treated like Canna rhizomes. They like rich organic soil, and plenty of water. In the tropics they like to be shaded, but in this country it was suggested that they would prefer full sun - unless it was very hot.

You can divide the tubers up into several pieces, in spring, and as long as each piece has a growth point they will all grow. But then they are so cheap, and I think that part of the fun will be in buying them from different places and hopefully getting different plants.

 

PeterS,

How long do you plan on keeping the sprouted one in the propagator?

 

Sirius - I took it out yesterday - at the same time as I took the picture.

I think it was ready to come out - but I also wanted the space, I had just bought another 10 Eddoes from Morrisons. I am now looking forward to going to Bradford and finding some different ones.

 

this is the lot I bough in March , is an Indian eddoes (?) , strange wax leaves , with black and purple stem

this one is taro , but not idea , has actually multi stem but no leaves yet.

and this one is start to make more offset , really big leaves but strangly short plant.

to notice the little palm coming out , is just a date pip left in the soil and on the right , one more indian colocasia coming out from soil planting in March .

 

Sal, looks good :patpat:

 

anyway in case someone would love to got a bit far , from the shop bough colocasia , this one is called pink china colocasia , coming from the mountains of china and frost hardy to -23 , this mean no need of overwintering as will die down in winter and comeback in spring , up to 6 feet high .

 

Thats gorgeous Sal.

I think a lot of them are pretty close to hardy - ie will withstand temperatures to minus 10C or below. However I suspect that the winter wet might be a problem and cause some to rot. So I am happy with the idea of lifting them, especially as they seem to be fairly easy to coax into growth with heat.

What's the biggest one you have bought from a food shop?

 

the one in the second picture it`s actually the biggest root I`ve ever bough , no a joke but must be the size of a melon , got 2 of them , but no idea of what it will come out , it was called Pueak or similar and it look like this

 

One assumes that the bigger the tuber is the bigger the plant will be. Do keep us posted on this.

 

Wow!
That is a fantastic looking one!

 

I think I have now over Eddoed myself.

I went to Bradford today to see if there were different types of Eddoes as Sal had found. I bought several of each type from different shops. Top left I am told came from Pakistan. Top middle came from West Indian. Top right came from a chinese shop, but the lady said it didn't come from China - she didn't know where. The two centre ones I am told came from S Africa. They clearly seem to be different varieties from their shape and size. The left one was almost the size of a small melon. And the bottom two were my initial purchases from Morrisons. The left one was called Eddoe and the right one was called Arbi. Eddoe and Arbi mean the same thing, but Arbi is a Hindi word so the bottom right one might come from India. That or Milton Keynes.

 

PeterS,

Yup, you have quite a few now.

 

PeterS I hope that you bough at least 5/8 of each or you will end up like me , 1 odd of all variety , none of the one you got actually look like mine at all .
Did you get any other strange fruit or veg from the asian supplyer?
I`m still tempted to get breadfruit , as was reading on an Italian gardening site they can reach 4/5 feet in one season and used as annual just for them leaves along with papaya.

 

Thats good Sal - it means there are more varieties out there.

I walked round several shops/stall. I was really only looking at the tubers/roots, but apart from the variation in Eddoes I don't think I saw any other varieties of root that aren't on sale in Morrisons - which surprised me. I did see a lot of different fruit - but that's a different subject. I bought about three of each variety that I saw - but I now have more Eddoes that I can handle, and certainly more than can fit in my heated propagator.

The one that stood out most was the Eddoes being sold by a lovely West Indian lady, who had seen them growing in the West Indies and had no idea that they could be grown here. Hers were absolutely covered in growing points and small roots. The growing points and roots were evenly spaced over the tuber and not, as I thought they would be, with growing points at one end and roots at the other.

 

look at those 2 , how big they are and how they look .

really none of them are like any of yours , even got some really small eddoes , that actually looked like green potatoes called something completely different.
I`m really looking forward to see what you gone get , btw one of my giant eddoes has grown about 5 inches in about 4 days.