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mbfirey
09-26-2009, 07:18 AM
I got a small "starter plant" Black Ruffles Elephant ear off ebay. It seems to be surviving but it has 3 leaves and every time it puts out a new leaf, one of the other leaves curls up and dies. Is this normal when they're small? Could it be too much water, or light, or something like that?

damaclese
09-26-2009, 07:45 AM
they grow off a corm some times it has to age a bit to get enough strength to be able to support more leafs and it also sounds like it need fed they are fairly heavy feeders they do well on a ones a moth regiment of some ordinary household plant food 8-6-6 or any thing there not that picky

LilRaverBoi
09-26-2009, 11:22 AM
Mine is kinda the same way. It only has two leaves right now and is putting out a third. Same deal....every time it puts out a new one, it loses one (for the most part). Like Paulo said, make sure you're fertilizing, but it doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong.

mbfirey
09-26-2009, 05:33 PM
I'll try a bit more fertilizer- I had just used a potting soil with fertilizer when I put it in a bigger pot but maybe the roots haven't extended into the "new" soil yet.

damaclese
09-26-2009, 10:03 PM
iv grown them for year its just the way they are every ones in a wile you will get one that leafs out nice the best thing is to grow several in one planter that way you have a fuller look but as i said before as they age they will grow more leafs i have one thats about 7 years old it now gets 6 leafs at a time Hehehe kinda makes me laugh i don't know why its just funny so you see its not your fault

damaclese
09-26-2009, 10:21 PM
I'll try a bit more fertilizer- I had just used a potting soil with fertilizer when I put it in a bigger pot but maybe the roots haven't extended into the "new" soil yet.

be careful you don't want to over fertilize most of thouse soils have about 3 months of power in them?

mbfirey
09-27-2009, 08:06 AM
What would be a symptom that I'm over-Fertilizing?

mbfirey
10-02-2009, 06:54 AM
I am not suspecting that the EE has some sort of fungis or disease-
I bought it together with an: Acolacia Portadora, Musa Basjoo, and and Ensete- all as "starter plants" the basjoo had a couple brown spots when I got it. Now after about a month all 4 have some problems-
The EE's leaves keep shriveling and dying (right now it has none)
The Portadora keeps getting whitish spots in the leaves.
The Basjoo has larger brown spots and "eaten" Looking leaves
The Ensete also has some browing also.
I've been spraying with a Neem based fungicide but I'm not sure it's helping.


Any Ideas?