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Looking for advice on growing Colocasia in water?

3 months ago

Since the dawn of time I have killed alocasias and colocasias with reckless abandon, because I apparently suck at maintaining them in soil. In a last ditch effort to preserve my most recent victim, I placed my sad scrappy colocasia 'mojito' bulb in a whiskey glass full of water and set it by the window. Lo and behold, she is all about that. I did the same with a few other equally depressed elephant ear bulbs and they all seem to be thriving. However, I have no idea how to keep them happy in water in the long term. Has anyone had any success with long term colocasia care in exclusevly water? Should I put some aquarium pebbles in there to give it something to anchor to? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

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Comments (4)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 months ago
your a card.. lol...

not sure i would waste a whiskey glass on the project... might interfere with my whiskey use ..

any chance at a pic or two.. or how your system stands right now ...

not sure pebbles would add anything beyond aesthetics.... look pretty ...

id be wondering more about how to add a little fert to the sterile water ... hopefully someone will chime in and tell us that part ...

ken

btw: water roots do not necessarily translate into media roots .. and if you let them get exceptionally long.. you will have trouble transplanting them back into a pot ... should you find that the water system is not a long term solution.. but i suppose.. that is the base of your posting this issue. ...
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
3 months ago
Are these permanently indoor plants, or outside for summer and just wintering inside?
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How could I have forgotten! A more suitable choice for that climate may well be some of the new hybrids released by briansbotanicals! Noble gigante Dragon heart And... Future releases! I don't know how these handle the lower humidity, I do know these 2 can handle much more sun than the Thai giant, and can still achieve massive size! As one parent is Thai giant, under differnt light the leaves may be green purple black in varies shades and hues, some bright, others dusty, usually combinations of all those, and the future releases he's got under trial look great! There's also jacks giant, it's a super sized regular colocasia esculenta, it still wants some shade but may do very well for you I'd order directly from his site. I'm sure he can help answer how to best grow them there too Best of luck, whatever you chose u can't go wrong, amazing plants!
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What a beast! you must have treated it well. Lucky you, I wonder what pollenated them around here! what area do you live, its frigid here today... : ( My understanding of how to over winter them is to dig them, clean the roots of most or all soil, remove all but the newest 1-3 leaves and place in a few inches of water. These guys are notorious for NOT producing a tuber, thats why over wintering them is such a challenge. Mine did produce a tuber this year, as well as several bulbils, so it can happen, i havent chopped away all of the plant yet to determine exactly how large the tuber is, I plant on either leaving in the bucket of water, which scares me a bit, or planting in in a small pot and hoping it squeaks by. My goal is also to have a decent sized plant come april, maybe a few if these bulbils make, i planted them straight away. With the end goal being gettin the plant as big as possible, hopefully 7'+ leaves. my giant also felt the wrath of all this recent wind it got its 2 largest leaves shredded about a month ago... It was sad...this early cold cut the season short about 3 weeks too...it was throwing a new leaf every 3-5 days before that, that would be atleast 5 more leaves i would have gotten this year too... oh well
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Zena S.
Original Author
3 months ago
Excellent point Ken, pictures would probably be helpful. Thankfully I have several wisky glasses on stand by, so I can sacrifice just this one. Depicted in a cylindrical vase I dug out of the closet is my colocasia mojito, and in the whisky glass is a colocasia 'heart of the jungle'. Regarding fertilizer, I was thinking add a splash of super diluted liquid fert? Jury is still out on that one though.

@Nicholsworth, I've definitely accepted that water will probably be higher maintenance, as I've seen several sites say that water should be changed every 2 or 3 days... might have to set a reminder for these lol

@Tiffany these are permanently indoors, as I do not trust the local wildlife to not jack around with my plants. The deer can fight me.
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
3 months ago
OK, I don't have anything to add if always inside. I had so much trouble with spider mites when I brought those inside in OH for a few winters, I would not choose those plants as houseplants. I wish you the best though!

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