A newly planted bulb when the soil is cold and wet will rot easily, but a plant with roots established will not rot in the same condition. As mentioned above the original bulb will be gone but the plant will survive. I have some over ten years old, still doing well, although the foliage is frosted back yearly. We only get light frosts here. Al

Thanks for posting this question, dsacco85. I hope you don't mind me adding to this thread but since it's the same subject I thought it would be better to keep these questions together for others who might be looking for the same answers later. I also bought one of the giant elephant ear bulbs from Home Depot, it's very different from Colocasia. Mine grew from a grapefruit sized bulb to 2 grapefruit sized bulbs stacked one atop the other when I dug it last fall. The bottom bulb has shriveled badly over the winter but there are several smaller bulbs embedded into it. I'm very glad to read I can remove the lower section and plant the upper section seperate, should I dig out the smaller bulbs from the mother bulb or should I plant the whole thing and plan to seperate the bulbs this fall? Some could be easily detatched, but others are firmly embedded. BTW, one of side bulbs broke off as I was loosening soil on Monday, by Wednesday it appears to have calloused over nicely. I was thinking of dusting them with old rooting hormone but cinnamon seems like a much better idea. Also, I would agree with Evan that perhaps you should leave more top when you cut back next fall. I left about a foot of stem on mine and it dried quite well over the winter. On the other hand, my mother bulb did shrivel over the winter, I wonder if that would have a difference? Fun thread. Jeanne Here is a link that might be useful: Old FB profile pic with giant EE

thanks for the replies :) and an update for anyone reading this old post, I read through this forum till I found a solution! Into the kitchen I went to get my dried seasonings garlic, red pepper, and black pepper poured generously into a bowl further mashed into powder and applied (ONCE- even though everyone says to do it after each rain) to the exposed soil covering my precious (eaten) bulb, mixed slightly so the wind wouldn't blow it all away - and - no further attacks. The EE did very well grew to at least 4 foot and sprouted lots of new "bulbs" for the next year. Now EVERY bulb in my garden gets treated the same way - No problem so far :) good luck to all my squirrel fighting garden loving friends!

The soil sounds like it is heavy and I agree with seticoni, how is the drainage? If the soil doesnt have enough drainage & the bulbs dont get some bit of air they will rot. I use alot of perlite in my soil and my ee's do well..