Borneo Giant Elephant Ear! Alocasia Borneo Giant

hey hey what's up Garden friends Jeff here how's everybody doing hope you're doing well I'm great got the aloc Casas out here been wanting to get these in the ground but wanted to talk about them first I planted a couple of these last year and been growing them for like last 15 years great aloc Casas and all last summer I was kicking myself for not doing a video on them so I figured before I get them in the ground talk about them now because it's a plant that I think there's some nuances to looking at the tag here there just a couple of things that I think could use some clarification on here mostly the hardiness being Z 7B to 11 as well as the heighten well even the full sun part there's a good amount of stuff to talk about and overall they're just neat plants so it's a fun one to talk about lots to share so here we go let's let's dive into it these are the Borneo giant upright elfan ears alocasia alocasia don't care how you say it probably one of my favorites of the upright type elephant ears mostly just because they get absolutely huge these things are monsters and there are several types of uprights that get pretty big the serion a pretty cool one has a much more dramatic looking leaf on it it doesn't get as big as a Borneo giant but still pretty impressive that's not don't need to go over all the different types of Elf iners here want to focus on these because they're pretty common often times you'll just see these sold as a tuber at a nursery not necessarily little as bario giant but just as upright elephant ear or just as an alocasia macro haisa however you pronounce it never been able to say that word right upright elephant ear sometimes they will be labeled specifically it's whether or not maybe they're an odora or one of the other types but if you find them labeled as Borneo giant I suggest snatching them up they get huge a massive impact in the garden the veining on the back side of the leaves is very dramatic look at that artwork when you can see the backs set of those leaves which you will because they hold their leaves upright so you'll get to see them from far away usually to get the massive sizes on these you typically need to live some place where they will be ever green or you're going to have to bring them inside during the winter time you can let them go dormant in the winter and store them dormant but you got to keep them going for several years to achieve really big sizes on these plants in a single season these will go to I would say at a minimum 4 ft tall I usually have mine up around 7 to 8T tall by the end of the growing season that's here in 6B 7A St Louis we have pretty warm Summers there are plants that do like it warm it's much easier to get the big growth on them when you have a warmer climate the longer your warm growing season the better you have warm days and cool evenings still not necessarily going to get that kind of growth out of them but I would expect even you can see down here at the bottom of this container right around the corner here got an offshoot right here just a little guy cute little pup springing off the side there that on its own should be 3 to 5T by the end of the growing season right now it's April you can see these only have a couple of leaves on them that's because they came off the truck at the nursery looking pretty rough so I let them flush out with some new foliage and cut off the bad stuff so you can have something a little bit nicer to look at you throw out new leaves left and right as long as they have that warmth they like a well- draining fairly organically rich soil the main thing is that they don't sit in water for a prolonged period of time so it does need to drain freely so that was the thing with the tag saying 7 to 10 ft yeah they will actually get bigger than 7 to 10 ft these can get much larger than 7 to 10 ft a single leaf on its own can easily span 5 six feet when these are fully tour and they've gone multiple Seasons without dying down or going dormant or maybe being moved inside if you're moving them inside you're going to have to wait a lot longer for those things to happen particularly if you're letting them go dormant right makes sense right cuz if you're taking them in and making them go dormant then that's you know what 50% of the year maybe more maybe less depending on where you live where they're not going to be growing okay and 7B to 11 I'm pretty sure that's what's the tag said there or was it 7B to 10 that would be even more ridiculous 7B to 11 yeah they just they don't really like the colds that's all that really comes down to if you're below 8B maybe 8A expect them to die down to the ground during the winter time Roots can survive in the ground into Zone 7B I would mulch them heavily though if you're not in zone 8 or higher cuz they really they rot out very quickly if temperatures aren't warm if you want them to say Evergreen think I just said it maybe I didn't I'll throw it out there again 8B and up probably better form even then between 8B and 9B probably expect maybe some winter damage just depending on your climate there are so many variables that go into cold hardiness right but the main thing is with these once it drops below like 70 Fen they don't do a ton of growing things really slow down which is just the nature of tropical plants in general I have overwintered them in the ground before with minimal success cutting them back all the way to the ground a lot of mulch going on top of them and then they'll come back but what you get out of or what I get out of them the next year is just pathetic and it takes them months to get back to being kind of an okay size I think it's easier to dig in storage cut all the leaves off leave a stump something like this that's about what I do and go ahead dig everything up around the base of the plant cut back the roots as far as you can close to that tuber that's in there knock as much of the dirt out maybe give it a rinse if you need to and let it dry for a few days toss them in a landscaping bag you know a leaf bag those big paper bags just put them some place cool dark and dry down in the basement until they're ready to move back out keep them away from moisture it's a good idea to check on them once a month this is the reason I had to buy new ones this year is because I did not check on mine and the spot where I had them there was some water coming out from a dehumidifier that I had put in last summer I didn't realize it was letting water Trail across the basement floor unfinished part of the basement it was leading to a drain that goes to a stmp pump so that part of it's okay there's no water damage anything like that except paper bag Wicked up moisture it was just barely close enough to that little stream of water was and well they rotted so here we are with new ones it's not the end of the world because these grow so incredibly fast they'll be back to looking like the gigantic Beauties I had last year in just a couple of months and the stature of these plants varies greatly depending on the light that they get they can take full sun if you have a nice warm humid climate doesn't actually even have to be warm but humidity makes a difference you live some placeat really dry then afternoon Shades probably a good idea for them or filtered light in the afternoon but that's a tree those are leaves providing filtered for the light filtration you know leaves breaking up the light that gets down onto them as I was saying before over many many years you can have an absolutely humongous just mind-blowingly cool looking plant with these that starts to develop a trunk it's a pseudo stem we'll call it a trunk this just makes it a lot easier rolls off the tongue better that can be several feet high sometimes with all those big giant fan leaves coming out of them it looks really neat timing to get to that appearance with the plant has a lot to do with the age and the light that the plants are getting so even though they can take full sun they will Scorch if your air is too dry in the afternoon that is if it's a really hot place you know like you're down Arizona something like that if you have them in a place where they're getting indirect light which they can handle indirect light doing that helps keep the leaves looking nicer you're not going to have as many crispy edges or burnt spots on them the leaves may be longer and more stretched out from the main growth making it take longer to get that trunked appearance on them and having that more tight compact growth right around the center they need more light for that needs to be even light too all the way around the plant they are prone to leaning and stretching and moving around you have them in a spot like maybe up against a house in the shade and expect them to lean out and stretch out and get pretty weird looking to try and get to the sun they respond well to fertilizing also that's a big part of getting them to do their thing and really get moving and growing plant these I make sure that that hole that they go into is nice and big because I have a heavy clay soil I break up the edges of those holes as much as I can so I'm not forming a pot in the ground and I make sure to put just a little bit of gypsum down into the bottom of the hole and spread it around somewhat on the side get the plant in there fill it back in and I like to add just a few handfuls of cotton bur compost I like cotton bur compost it will slightly acidify the soil and it also helps break up Clay it's very nutrient dense you don't need very much of it and then after a month or so that's when I start with a liquid fertilizer just an allpurpose something that has a balanced Spectrum with your NPK works fine for them compost teas and all those things are great for them help get those nice green leaves keep them looking good if you're using kelp extracts earthworm castings you name it they seem to appreciate it they're fairly heavy feeders but it's important to keep in mind that if they're freshly planted they can Scorch that can cause some damage if you use a synthetic fertilizer that's really high up there with the nitrogen so that's why I generally start with more organic things for that first month or so they're in the ground and then once I've seen them push out a few leaves and just go at it and really start hammering them with the liquid fertilizers that'll get them throwing out leaves and moving more quickly hey turbs all hate turbo thanks for coming over and making a cameo so nice to see you thanks for stopping by Turbo never water logged that won't go well for them just needs to drain well once they're huge they can go a few days without watering if they're getting afternoon Shade that's not a problem but when you're first getting them planted make sure that they don't dry out for very long at all also typically good idea to avoid messing with the roots as much as possible when you're moving them around or planting them because they just tend to be one of those plants that can be a little bit devish without having their Roots messed with very much kind of like a banana so you can maintain as much of that root mass as possible when planting them that should get them started off and get them moving better that's one of the main reasons I haven't planted these yet partially was also waiting for the ground temperatures to warm up but I wanted to make sure these were rooted out really well in these containers when they first showed up when I first grabbed them I got them right when the nursery got them they had some movement up top right around here in the containers you could see them moving around so I could tell they weren't really established in these containers if you're going to plant something right away that's not really all that big of a deal but since I think it was early April or March when I grabbed these I knew that they were going to be seeing these containers for a while so figured it would be best to just get them to the point where their Roots were starting to do their thing they're starting to move out the side holes on the bottom these are ready to go to the ground as soon as the warm temperatures come back I'm not going to bother planting them until daytime temp tempatures are in the 70s and the lows are at least in the mid to Upper 50s that would be my preference and when I say 70s I mean like close to 80 they want the warmth to get moving I could plant them right now but they're just going to sit there and they're going to be much more prone to rot since they don't have that warmth to get them kicked off and get them moving and have them wanting to pull in water so if you damage a root you damage many roots and the temperatures aren't warm the plant doesn't want to grow and the plant just starts to desiccate and die right best to hold off on planting them until things are nice and Mormon toasty for them that's basically the gist of it and also pretty much everything I said here applies to the majority of upright Elin years the lighting is going to vary because you know we have all the tiny cute little Jewel ones and the fancier ones but of the odoro and the macro haisa macro I can't say the word never it just won't come off my tongue and all of the inbetween and the hybrids typically most of what I said will apply to them only thing that's really going to vary all that much between these and an or Doro and just your regular not Borneo giant going me cold hardiness and if you're in 8B and up you really don't need to worry about the hardiness that much with them between 7B and 8B you need to possibly be cautious and just watch your weather forecast might need to mulch them might need to lift them I don't know there's just so much variability with all of that it' be pretty hard to pinpoint to say exactly what to do with them but you can keep them in 7B with a lot of mulch and expect them to die down in the ground unless you have a nice mild winter when we have Frost icy damage on these there are lots of other plants out here the net Mel eyes the red bananas the baju bananas heck even the sun impatience they can all usually take a light frost and not really show any damage but these no no doesn't take much and the leaves look like garbage also plant him in a fairly exposed area so that could have something to do with it comment down below tips tricks additions always appreciated this is mostly just me Fanning out about a plant I love them and I wanted to be able to talk about them before I get them in the ground and it's harder to film cuz it like backs up to the neighbors proper so I can't really talk about them at length once they're in the ground because it's mostly me filming the back of my neighbor's house it's kind of weird and awkward right it seems like an odd thing to do and I do know that Brian Williams from Brian Botanical has the Borneo King which according to their website basically just says that it's more suited for growing up north because it will achieve the massive sizes in a short amount of time I don't know what to take from that because I have always been able to get these to get very large with no problems and I'm further north than they are so I don't know what they mean by further north I don't know their description could use some tuning to really make it stand out as to why it should be better when I searched the patent I wasn't really able to find much I found some other websites that were claiming that the Borneo King was a cross between a l Kaja and alocasia which that is extremely unlikely that is something that has been done and it's possible but I can't find anything to substantiate that and then other things say that it's a cross between just an odoro and one of the macra heises that maybe has a more ripply texture to it perhaps a little more cold tolerant I don't know the information is not there so I don't really know what makes Borneo King Borneo King because if it's not coming out of Brian's mouth on their website then I don't really know what to believe there right I would expect it to perform like a Borneo giant right maybe with some more texture on the foliage because if it's crossed the nooro then that would make some sense I guess maybe I don't really know what to make of it everything I said here should have apply to both like I said we'll apply to a lot of different alloc Cas here like the ludia back here same thing going to be the same situation as far as how you care for it it's not until you get into some of the more exotic types and really interesting Vivid cultivars that things get more complicated or just some more things to watch out for these pretty cut and dry right which is another thing that's great about them it's just a great big elf iner and you treat it like you do a lot of tropical so what's not to love about that yeah like I said comment down below everybody's doing well a great day a great life and everything is going absolutely beautifully for you and of course as always and most importantly everybody keep on growing bye bye [Music]