California Elephant Ear is a stunning plant with their bold leafage make excellent houseplant but you will need to get both the watering and temperature right to keep them face at their best .
Once you have mastered those two conditions the reward will be one of the most breathless plants in your aggregation .
California Elephant Ear care bright , indirect igniter and temperature ranging from 64 – 77 ° F ( 18 to 25 ° C ) . Keep it in a well - run out potting admixture and water as soon as the top inch of soil becomes dry , or once about every two weeks . keep a relative humidness of great than 50 % and feed twice a year . It is susceptible to spider mites and thripid and will go dormant if the temperature drops or there is very low light availability .
Almost all issues touch to growing these plants indoors are relate to watering and temperature . After reading this article you should have no problems grow this industrial plant in your place .
Contents
What does California Elephant Ear Look Like?
Once you have meet this plant you will have no difficulty name it in the future . It is notable for its very declamatory leaves which are rounded at the top and channelise at the bottom . As a solvent of the leaf shape , it is often referred to as the Africa shield plant .
California Elephant Ear Care Details
First Steps After Purchase
As before long as you have buy your plant life , the first matter you should do is check to see if it is in a large enough container and that there is sufficient drain capacity . check the container will drain is easy . All you take to do is ensure that there is a hole in the base of the pot large enough to stay put the tip of your finger into .
If the pot is bulge or there are root clambering over the top or out of the drain yap then you may require to repot it immediately . If you have bought your plant from a reliable provider , neither of these should be an issue .
presume all is well , all you want to do now is assure the top of the soil is moist to the touch and find a suitable placement to domiciliate your plant in .
A position near a south - face windowpane where there is plenty of ignitor but not too much unmediated sunlight would be perfect . You want to avoid draft and remember that this plant vex braggart so tolerate way for it to expand into as it grows .
How to Care for California Elephant Ear Plant
Water Requirements
Watering is the most crucial matter to get right with a California Elephant Ear . These plant are from the tropics and are customary to moist conditions . You desire to keep the top of the soil moist to the touching but not wet .
In a house , during the grow season , this might entail watering every daytime or two . You will instruct to measure this by feeling the top stratum of soil .
water supply directly onto the top of the soil and then allow that pee to drain completely . supererogatory water will flow into the saucer beneath the stack .
You may need to empty this after drain has finish to ensure the plant does not get pie-eyed feet and that the water at the foundation does not impede total drainage .
I use appropriate body of water rather than municipal water which contains chemicals . This really makes a difference to all of my firm plants .
Those chemicals will not cause an clamant problem but over time they build up in the soil and become prejudicial to the plant ’s health .
In the cool months of fall and winter , you will be able to irrigate far less but you still want to keep that soil slimly moist to the touch .
Light Requirements
Many varieties of Alocasia are maturate alfresco in warmer neighborhood so they can be quite light-headed tolerant .
To get the beneficial out of your California Elephant Ear indoors , however , you desire to place your industrial plant in a bright position that gets good deal of light but no direct sun . I obtain that near to a south - facing windowpane work perfectly well .
Temperature
Being from the subtropics , the last affair California Elephant Ear wants is to be exposed to the frigidity .
In an indoor environs , this is not ordinarily an issue but a changeless room temperature of 64 – 77 ° F ( 18 – 25 ° ascorbic acid ) is ideal .
Most houses fall into this temperature range so this should not be too difficult to achieve .
Sudden changes when using temperature control devices are what you want to watch out for .
Humidity
Humidity is important with almost all tropical house plant and with its large foliation , this is by all odds the case with the California Elephant Ear .
It is unconvincing that the humidity in the house will be too in high spirits but it could easy become too low , peculiarly in cases where you are using air - conditioning or central heating .
If you distrust that humidness is too down in the mouth you’re able to purchase a humidity meter and brook it nearly to your plant . The idealistic range should be in the 60 to 70 percentage region . If the reading is below that , you will need to await at ways of raising that story .
you could purchase a humidifier that will regulate the humidity in its neighbourhood but here are a few trick you might like to strain before make that purchase .
First of all , surround your works with other plant as their combined transpiration create a microclimate that increase the humidness in the vicinity of that cluster of plant .
A group of plant can search very attractive in the home but with something as big as California Elephant Ear this may not always be a practical arrangement .
The next choice is to fill the plant saucer with pebbles and then with water . This means that the pot will be resist above the water but its infantry will not be wet .
As the water evaporates , the humidness will rise and this is normally sufficient to keep your California Elephant Ear felicitous .
Misting and Spraying
Another vernacular thaumaturgy with flora that are suffering from humbled humidity is to spray their leave-taking with a fine mist of water using a squeegee bottle . This cools the parting and raises the humidity .
There is some debate in the horticultural universe about this , with some agriculturist propose the effect is temporary and increases the risk of fungous diseases while others depose it is the answer to low humidity problems .
Personally , I obscure my large - leave plants with untreated water and do n’t have any problem , but you will need to experiment and then settle what works easily for you .
If you do go down the misting way of life then do this in the good morning so that excess moisture can disappear during the daylight , thus assure the leaf are not soaked overnight .
Soil Type for California Elephant Ear.
Because these plant like to stay damp you need to apply a potting mix that is rich in organic issue and therefore keep great deal of moisture .
you may purchase Alocasia pot soil in some garden heart and soul , but you may also enrich ordinary potting soil by adding some retentive material such as coconut husk , bark , or folio mold .
Fertilizer
As soon as you see a plant with so much leaf textile , you could be passably certain that it is conk to call for hatful of solid food and that is certainly the case with the California Elephant Ear .
This is very easy to accomplish by simply using a liquified plant food . You want one that is high-pitched in Nitrogen as that is what is needed for the growing of unripened flora stuff .
Look for a mixture that reads 20 - 10 - 20 on the bottleful and expects to tip every three to four week during the strong month .
Once the cooler weather arrives the growth will stop and you could stop feed until the following outpouring .
California Elephant Ear Propagation
In hypothesis , it is possible to broadcast these plants from come , but unless you are be after on living to be 200 year older , I would n’t bother going down that path . What you need is a genus Tuber which you may then pot so as to grow your plant from that .
The genus Tuber will have a pointed end and when you plant it you require the pointed end face up .
You need a large pot and you then site the genus Tuber in the potting dirt and plow it to a depth of five column inch ( 12 cms ) .
I use the same potting premix in which I will be grow my plant and but grow it in that .
When purchasing tuber , check that they are firm and strong and not damp or torpid . The ideal meter to plant them is ripe at the end of wintertime so they get the full benefit of the leap growth period .
Some growers aim to plant them eight calendar week or so before the last rime have passed . Keep the soil slightly dampish but do n’t let it get soggy .
Repotting
I repot my California Elephant Ear far more often than I do any of my other sign plant life , for the simple reason that they grow so fast that they get too boastful for their containers and they use up all of the nutrients .
I prefer to do this in the spring but it can hold back until as late as mid - summertime if I am too busy .
Repotting is quite easy but you need to take precaution not to break off any of the leaf stem in the physical process . This is made easier by ensuring the plant does not become too root - bound .
Tip the plant out of its pot and repot into a new or sterile container that is two size bigger than the preceding one .
Use the same type of potting mixture and plant so that the depth of the plant is not deeper than it was in the original container . Water in after repotting but check that any redundant piss can drain off .
Trimming and Pruning
There is not really much pruning to do with these plant . Any folio that start to front shabby or damaged I reduce off at soil level from where they are promptly replaced .
California Elephant Ear Problems and How to Fix Them
Pests
A healthy California Elephant Ear should be fairly insubordinate to pest attack . The three most common culprits are wanderer mites , aphids , and mealybugs .
All three are fragile small creatures that take in sap . Their secret to success is to obliterate so that they go unnoticed and breed speedily .
To counter this , you need to observe your plant nearly so that you’re able to take activity at the first sign of infestation and before any real damage can be done .
When they are make it is much harder to solve the problem . Spider - mites are almost invisible to the naked eye .
They lean to dwell the lower sections of the plant where they make small entanglement - alike structures which are often the first sign you will have that they are there . They favor dry conditions and can be easily savage off with a jet of urine .
mealybug search like a clean dusting of flour and they like to advert out in the foliage axles where they are hard to see .
aphid are a short less discerning about the position but incline to favour soft new growth .
Both of these gadfly can be wiped away with neem oil or an insecticidal soap which you may bribe at garden centers and nurseries .
To forbid all three of these pest in the first seat , and to keep my Californian Elephant Ear depend pristine , I pass over down the leave every calendar week or so with a soft cloth dip in veggie soap .
This destroy any pests , gets disembarrass of rubble buildup , and pull me to observe my industrial plant close so it may be a practice you need to adopt .
Diseases
tooth root putrefaction and fungous leafage spot are the two most common disease and they both stem from overwatering .
The fungal disease takes the form of black or dark-brown bruise - like mar on the leaf and root bunkum is revealed through give and quaggy leaves and stems .
In both case , the first line of answer should be to dry out the root ball . If the plant demo no sign of recovery absent it from its pot and bear it on a sheet of paper .
When the dirt is ironic , analyse the radical and cut away any indulgent or mushy beginning matter . Dust with a fungal powder and repot . Keep the plant isolated from others during the convalescence process .
California Elephant Ear Drooping
If you have the tearing correct and your plant life ’s leafage droop , it is likely that the plant life is get too small or too much light . Assess the situation and then move the flora to a more suitable position .
California Elephant Ear Turning Yellow
This may be because your works is not being run correctly . Adapt the method of fertilizing to the one I have devote .
If this occur in fall , it could be that the plant life could be going sleeping for the winter . Cut back the yellow parting and new sound shoots should appear in the bound .
California Elephant Ear Leaves Curling
This tend to be the first sign of overwatering and left unaddressed the base and leaves will flop . Stop watering and ensure that there is adequate drainage .
Brown Spots on California Elephant Ear
This is commonly a polarity of low humidness . This can occur more often over the winter menses when the wet carry mental ability of the air is lower .
If you are standing your plant on a pebble tray then ensure there is plenty of pee in it . I would also set out haze over the works every aurora .
Brown Leaf Margins
This is very dissimilar from spots on the interior of the leaf . If themargins go brown and crispit is likely that the plant is getting too much sun and in effect becoming sunburned .
Moving it to a shadier position and ensuring there is enough moisture in the soil should overcome this trouble .
Toxicity
Varieties of this plant are eaten widely in various parts of the Torrid Zone but they need to be correctly fix first .
The plant contain Oxalic superman which when squander raw can be poisonous . This could be harmful to wiener , cats , or humans . The good intelligence is they would need to crunch a lot of leaves to get sick .
General Care Tips
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