plantladylin said:jfried286: to All Things Plants!
I'm not real familiar with Elephant Ears but your plant may be Elephant Ear (Colocasia esculenta). I know that over-watering can cause yellowing but the leaves in your photo don't look like the result of over watering. At first I thought it might be over fertilization but I wonder if it could be a virus of some sort? There's a virus called Dasheen Mosaic Virus that affects some Aroids, scroll down this page for photo comparisons http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc...
We have a few folks here who are very knowledgeable with Aroids so hopefully someone will pop in soon and be able to offer suggestions.
eclayne said:Hi jf,
Can you give us an idea of your location? My mid-day sun is a lot different than plantladylin's. I'd guess you have an Alocasia but whichever genus @LariAnn or other members may be able to help.
dyzzypyxxy said:Or just give it a drink of Epsom Salts, about a tablespoon to a gallon and see if that helps. Can't hurt. I do give all my Ee's a dose of Epsom Salts at least once a month along with regular fert.
Most soil tests just give you pH and general levels of soluble salts, which may or may not indicate Magnesium. You'd have to send your soil sample to UF plant lab and pay $25 for the in-depth test if you want specific salts identified. Unless you know a chemist personally. In the rainy season here in FL, you seldom get much soluble salts showing up in a soil test. They've all washed away with the first deluge.
Jf, you definitely need to give that plant a little more sun protection, morning sun is ok but from about 11am, it's pretty intense at this time of year for Alocasias.
flaflwrgrl said:A note on the Epsom salts use. This is from my experience with coconut & other palms in Fl. We had to regularly treat coconut palms with Epsom salts. Don't expect the Epsom salts to work on the leaves that already have the yellowing --- at least that's the way it worked with coconut palms. But the new growth should not show the yellowing problem when you've treated with Epsom salts. On coconut palms, it doesn't show up as yellowing on the fronds but more as spots on them.
jfried, in Fl., rarely does anything truly withstand full sun. I second what others said about giving it more shade. Our sun is just plain TOO intense & 99% of plants do well here with some shade from it.