The lovely Alocasia species is also known as elephant ear plants, African mask plants, or kris plants. Due to their very enormous, heart-shaped leaves and occasional blooming, they have become highly attractive home plants, however, this is more prevalent when they are grown outdoors in warmer climates.
Do you have questions regarding caring for Australian native plants? To get all the best hints and strategies, continue reading our article.
Caring Guide For Elephant Ear Plant
1. Location And Lighting:
The elephant ear plant is a bright to medium-light plant that thrives in direct light. The elephant ear plant is less happy in bright light. It’s good to have full sun in the morning or the evening but pick a spot where the light is mostly filtered. Perfect locations include anything with frosted glass, sheer net curtains, or just slightly behind an east-facing window. You might observe that the foliage becomes burnt or even bleached from the sun’s rays if it is exposed to direct sunlight.
2. Soil:
Elephant ear plants require efficient soil drainage so that the soil doesn’t remain wet. When planting, you can use ordinary potting soil mix, but if you believe the soil could still be too dense, you can aerate it by adding more organic ingredients like perlite or wood chips. Always check to see if the container you are planting in has enough drainage holes; if not, you may want to consider adding some more to the base of the container. Adding a layer of pebbles to the base before planting is another approach to improve drainage because it makes it simple for extra water to easily drain away from the soil.
3. Repotting:
Elephant ear plants don’t require frequent repotting and thrive when they are only minimally pot-bound. When a plant grows too big for its pot, the plastic has been known to shatter, signalling that it’s time for a new one. The greatest season for repotting is spring since your plant is just emerging from hibernation and is ready to begin producing a lot of new growth. If you need to boost drainage, add additional organic elements to the regular house plant potting mix while repotting.
4. Watering:
Elephant ear plants like constant moisture during the active growing season, but never soggy soil, as this can cause the dreaded root rot. Additionally, they dislike having their roots let dry out, so just let the top layer of soil dry out before giving them fresh water. We discover that the alocasia plants’ watering regimen and the adage “small but often” go hand in hand. Small top-ups every so often are preferable to letting the soil dry and then deeply watering.
5. Temperature And Humidity:
Dry air and low temperatures are the two main problems that can occur when caring for your aloe vera plants.
Elephant ears are tropical plants, therefore they are accustomed to extremely hot and muggy weather. Since it can be challenging to reproduce these items in our houses, we’ve come up with some expert advice to assist you:
Your plant will benefit from medium-high humidity; you can perform the following every day to assist raise humidity:
- Underneath the plant, place a tray of pebbles containing water to evaporate
- daily mist your plant
- Put close to a humidifier
Elephant ear plants want a warm, temperate climate next. They prefer temperatures above 16 °C (61 °F) all year long, including the winter. Your plant may go into dormancy if the temperature falls below this for an extended period.
6. Fertilising And Feeding:
You can start applying the first batch of liquid fertiliser as soon as your plant begins to put out new growth for the spring. To ensure good growth during the upcoming season, choose a half-strength indoor plant feed once a month.
Applying the final feed a few weeks before the beginning of autumn will give your elephant ear plant time to slow down in preparation for winter.
