What are the most common indoor elephant ear plant problems? Wilting and yellow leaves are the most common you may face once in your lifetime. The primary reason is insufficient water, nutrition, and sunlight.
Except for these, several types of issues might affect your indoor elephant ear plants. So let’s dive deep to know more.
Indication of Indoor Elephant Ear Plant Problems with Remedies
Before we enlighten you regarding those issues, let’s first confirm whether your plant has elephant ears or not!
The elephant ear, a stunning plant with heart-shaped leaves, is a favorite to almost everyone. Admirably, lots of plant-lovers grow the elephant ear for their attraction to the elephant ear plants.
But due to insufficient knowledge, they cannot take care of their plant, and consequently, the plant dies.
Growing an elephant ear plant doesn’t give you a good harvest unless you take proper care of it. Both the house and garden elephant plants might come from Colocasia or Alocasia.
Whether you have an indoor or outdoor elephant plant, it might face some difficulties due to the consequences.
Below, we have enlisted several types of indoor elephant ear plant problems.
| Symptoms of Problems | Reasons the Problem |
| Stunned & pale leaves | Macro-nutrient deficiency |
| Speckled or striped leaves | Spider mite damage |
| Wilting or curling leaves | Insufficient water application. |
| Spots in stems or roots (Small) | Excess water application |
| Yellow leaves | Due to spillover water application |
| Plants drooping | Leaves become large and heavy |
| Brown color leaves and dying | The direct sunlight |
| Holes in the leaves | Due to the attack of insects like squash bugs, slugs, cutworms |
| Lesions on leaf and turning yellow | Fungus attack due to overwatering or insufficient air circulation |
Stunned & Pale Leaves
Stunning or pale leaves in your elephant ear plants indicate that the plants are suffering from a lack of macronutrients.
Therefore, look for the fertilizer with lots of nutrients and apply it to your elephant ears. Afterward, water the elephant plant and also over the leaves.
Speckled or Striped Leaves
If there’s spider mite on your ear plant’s leaves, the leaves become speckled or stripped. To remove the spider mite from the plant’s leaves, wipe the leaves with a clean and soaked paper towel.
Afterward, dip a paper towel into the oil and wipe all the leaves of the plants. To prevent the re-growing of spider mites, oil the leaves every day or at least after each day.
Wilting or Curling Leaves
When your elephant plants don’t get sufficient water, their leaves start to curl and become wilt and dry. If you don’t water the plant before it completely dries, the plant might die. So, spend some time with your plant every day and water them timely.
Spots in Steam and Roots
Watering the plant is good, but not excessively. If you apply excessive water to your elephant plant, the spots on the steam and plant will appear. Hope, you won’t like you, will you?
Changing of Leaf’s Color
Elephant ear leaf problems are its color changing. Both the insufficient and plenty of water – are harmful to elephant plant leaves as they change the leaf’s color. The leaves turn into yellow or purples (It actually depends on the ear elephant’s spices).
So, when you apply the water into the elephant ear plant, consider the plant and your tub size. If the tub isn’t bigger, don’t apply too much water. Because the plants cannot grow longer in the small tub, overflowing water will cause its death.
Besides, don’t forget to water your plant regularly; even when you’re out of home, complete the proper arrangements for the ear plants so that it gets water continuously.
Plants Drooping
There are two reasons for your elephant plant’s drooping – insufficient light and fertilizer and large leaves.
When your elephant ear plants droop due to the large leaves, you should tie the plant with a stick. Check and double-check if the leaves of the elephant ear plant have become large?
If not, then the cause for the plant drooping might occur due to the lack of light and fertilizer. Therefore, adjust the fertilizer and light to your elephant ear plant to prevent the plant’s drooping.
Brown and Dying
The indoor elephant ear plant dies due to insufficient sunlight. Similar to the water and fertilizer, the plant also needs sunlight, not heavy temperature or sunburns.
The direct sunlight will lead your beloved plant to sunburns, brown, drying, and death at the end. So, change the plant’s location if it’s under acute sunlight or inadequate sunlight.
Replace your indoor elephant ear plant tub near the sunlight area when it’s drying due to lack of sunlight. Furthermore, take it to a shadow to protect the plant from the extreme sunlight when the plant is under direct sunlight.
Holes in The Leaves
Apply the multi-purpose garden insect killer when there are holes in your elephant leaves. But before applying the insect killer, make sure the damage occurs due to the insect’s attacks.
Usually, the holes in leaves occur due to attacks of insects; still, you should notice the elephant plant closely and discover the insect before insect killer application.
Lesions and Turning the Leaf to Yellow
Fungus attack occurs due to overwatering and lack of water. You should know when you last watered your plant. Has it been a week?
Then, the plant must be a thirst for water, so you should water it as soon as possible. Contrarily, if the plant tub is full of water, it cannot breathe, so stop watering.
This Video Will Help You Too!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why Is My Indoor Elephant Ear Plant Dying?
Generally, the indoor elephant ear plant dies because of insufficient temperature and humidity. The elephant ear plants need humidity to make the food as they need water and air. So, make sure there’s fair humidity and air indoors where you place the elephant plant.
Why Are My Elephant Ears Turning Brown and Dying?
The brown color is the sign of the green leaves getting scorched. However, when the heat of the sun is spreading to the highest temperature of the day, it won’t take time for the plants to die.
How Do You Take Care of An Elephant Ear Plant Indoor?
The elephant ear plants need water, sunlight, and air to live and remain fresh. Besides these, the plants also need fertilizer full of nitrogen for faster growth. But make sure nothing among these ingredients becomes excessive to kill the plant. Besides, keep the elephant ear plant away from the direct sunlight and don’t apply ample water and fertilizer.
Why Are My Elephant Ears Turning Yellow and Dying?
Elephant ear leaves drooping and turning yellow may cause the plant’s death. Less watering or excessive watering may be the cause for your elephant ears’ leaves turning yellow.
Conclusion
Not necessarily, it’s crucial to spend your whole time behind your indoor elephant ear plant. Instead, find out the indoor elephant ear plant problems and look for solutions.
The solutions are simple and straightforward; just water, fertilize, ensure the air circulation and sunlight for your indoor elephant plant. Hopefully, you won’t face any further problems with your ear elephant plant, its leaves, roots, and so on.
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Often called Jason’s “better half” Shelley excels with her hands in the dirt. Growing up on a homestead in North Carolina gave Shelley a love for work and cultivation. Early in her career she cultivated minds inside a first grade classroom. Organic gardening has long been her passion and the internet age has allowed her to make it a side hustle. Shelley’s joy is made complete by sharing gardening tips with her friends, neighbors, and two grandsons.