#brisbaneplants

[the-not-so-good-planter]

ELEPHANT EARS (ALOCASIA & COLOCASIA)

Alocasia’s or more commonly known as “elephant ears” are an extremely popular indoor plant due to their supersized leaves. Before you make the commitment to these guys please read on. I was sucked into the beautiful leaves these guys produce not knowing what exactly I was getting myself into. While I still very much love these plants the constant fight with spidermites is draining and so I’ve made the difficult decision to stop purchasing any more elephant ears. I currently have 2 different species of alocasia, one of which I’m not totally sure of what kind it is but I do know it’s my favourite; mostly due to the leaf size and the fact it was my first ever alocasia purchase. The other type I have is the green shield and the green taro which is a similar species called “colocasia”.

Aside from being biased because she was my first alocasia, I have new found respect for “Elly”. As you all would know from my first post, I do not name my plants unless it’s their turn to die. So just as guessed I tried to kill Elly. Almost from the first week I bought her I have been fighting with spidermites. I didn’t want to give up on her because she was the love of my life (don’t tell my husband), but the months went on and I was getting extremely drained from the losing battle. I got up one morning thinking all was well in world of Elly; that I had finally defeated the spidermites; I was so wrong. She was covered in them and I simply decided to stop fighting. I put her outside in the corner where the plants go to die.

I went to see what was the aftermath after a few weeks of solitude and no water later, only to find the spidermites had completely gone and she had popped out new leaves! How is this even possible you might ask? Let me tell you insider tip! Alocasia’s are more of an outdoor plant anyway. Not for sun all day every day but they do prefer the outdoors. What I didn’t know, however, was that spidermites do not like the wind; or outdoor weather for that matter. I did not spray her at all; I had completely given up on her only for her to not only rid herself of the spidermites, but to show me she was worthy of life. Now, I’m not saying that this will keep the spidermites away but it certainly decreases the frequency that they happen. I have since put my other affected elephant ears outside; I have sprayed them to give them a bit of a boost and it too has worked!

Now I mentioned I didn’t water Elly for weeks, simply because I was trying to kill her. Alocasia’s do need to be watered frequently; I water roughly twice a week in summer and once a week in winter. I’ve recently placed my green taro into our pond (hydro) and it is going crazy! So, they do need to be watered more often than every couple of weeks. You will find in winter, depending on where you live, that elephant ears will go dormant. This means that they stop growing as much or even at all. This doesn’t mean that you should stop watering them, even if they look dead. You may have no leaves at all, but that doesn’t mean you should stop watering. Unless of course you get through winter and it doesn’t grow any leaves. Then it’s actually dead and you can throw it in the bin. Until then though, pretend it’s alive even if it doesn’t look like it is!

Elly is now about a year old and only a month ago popped out a flower! Something totally new and different for me as this was my first flower of any indoor plant. I actually thought it was a new leaf, until the flower popped out! Not long after this I had a brainwave thinking this is how I can grow more plants but from seed instead of from a cutting. Instantly I started googling “can you pollenate an alocasia”.  Now, if you have never watched how to pollenate from a flower Bourke’s backyard style, I highly recommend; if not for the wisdom but for the humour. It did, however, seriously freak my friend out to the point where she can never see a plant flower the same so tread carefully.

Testing out my new-found knowledge of how to pollenate an elephant ear, I gave it a go. Now I would like to make aware I didn’t do it Bourke’s backyard style, I found a separate video that wasn’t so graphic. I started to see another flower popping up so I have 2 in total. I gave the pollenating a go and it not long failed. It shrivelled up and looked like a crusted, saggy dick. Not long after seeing the aftermath I decided it would be nicer to simply look and enjoy the second flower that was due to open soon.

Overall an elephants ear is a great plant for beginners, just be prepared to fight with bugs on them and have your bug spray ready. If anyone has successfully pollenated an alocasia please send me pics and any more wisdom you might have. I’m very interested in how to get some seeds out of the sausage!

-The Not So Good Planter

[the-not-so-good-planter]

Bugs

As your collection grows you will come across many different bugs. I typically refer to all bugs as plant termites because if you catch them early, the plant can be saved; just like termites if you don’t catch them until last minute, it’s highly likely that plant will die. There are 3 different types of bugs that are common with indoor plants. These include the mealy bug (white fluffy dots), the spider mite (tiny black dots that form webs) and gnats (tiny fly’s commonly mistaken for fruit fly’s). Do yourself a favour and invest in some spray early into your plant carer life as you will need it!

The mealy bug can be found on pretty much any plant. I’ve had them on my bird of paradise as well as palms and everything in between. If you don’t get rid of them your plant will die. I have found these guys pretty easy to exterminate as long as you haven’t got yourself an infestation. Spray them with bug spray all over, even the base of the plant. If you’re not sure what to get, simply go to your local nursey and tell them what bug you’ve got and they can offer you the right solution.

Sometimes these sprays will cover the most common bugs you’ll find indoors. I like to spray the plants at night when it’s cooler to stop the spray from potentially burning the plant during the heat of the day. Quite often you will find it says to spray every couple of days, however, if you’re like me you want those little life-sucking bastards dead ASAP, so spray your plants all over every day until you find them gone. It could very well be a complete waste of the bug spray but it gives me comfort taking the lives of those bugs that fancy my plants. Keep in mind you paid for these plants so I refuse to lose money on them because of some bugs that decide my plant is its new meal.

The name “spider mite” is very literal, so if you’re not sure what they are think of what mites look like and think of what spiders do. The spidermites are super hard to see; more often than not they are attracted to your alocasia’s but that’s not to say they don’t get to your other plant species. The only way I’ve managed to spot them is from the tiny webs they weave. You can see the damage by looking at the leaves but if you’ve caught the problem early, hopefully, you won’t have any leaf damage. From my encounters, I personally find these are the worst kind of bug.

They are extremely hard to eradicate and spread like wildfire to your other plants. Coronavirus’ contagiousness can be compared to how these suckers spread to your plants. As soon as you find them on your plants, put those affected plants into a separate room and check if any other plants have spider mites. They can literally be spread from getting on your clothing or in my case, from the carpet. I had successfully exterminated the spider mites I had, only to put the plants back to their original spots, only to find they were still on the carpet and so they came straight back on the plants. If there’s a bug I wouldn’t mind wasting bug spray on, it’s the spidermite, however, I do have a great tip to kill off these guys, particularly if they happen to be on your alocasia’s (stay tuned for my next post).

Finally, the gnats. These guys are super common and can be found on literally any plant you have as long as you frequently water it. Gnats are attracted to moisture and you will find these guys more often in the summer as you will be watering your plants more often in summer than in winter. They’re not particularly known as killers unless you fail to stop the problem. What they actually do is fly around the base of your plant where the plant meets the soil; then they lay their eggs in the soil. This is when the plot thickens. Once they’ve gotten to the stage of laying their eggs there’s not too much you can do as you won’t know what’s going on underneath without pulling out the plant and removing all the soil. The eggs hatch and the gnat babies actually eat the plant roots; you won’t know there’s anything wrong with your plant until it’s too late.

You will read multiple ways of how people try to get rid of gnats. You’ll see things like putting ant sand on top of the soil, putting cups of water/diluted honey around the plant, getting the yellow sticky fly traps from Bunnings and putting them in the soil etc. Honestly, the one true way I’ve found of getting rid of gnats is to simply stop watering your plants as much. Sounds weird right? Some plants like to be watered frequently? While this is true it’s not often you will find a plant has to have the soil wet or damp all the time. If you simply wait for the top layer of soil to dry out you will find the gnats will start to stop flying around your plants. It actually works out to be more beneficial for your plants to do this anyway rather than water frequently and keeping that soil damp. If you’re new and you’re still not sure, grab yourself a moisture meter from Bunnings! These are great while you’re learning but as you start to pick up tricks and tips you’ll find you won’t need one as much, if at all.

- The Not So Good Planter