I'm certainly not an expert on elephant ears but the weather was much hotter a couple of weeks ago than it had been all summer. So the heat may be the cause. I have my elephant ears in part shade since I'm in zone 8b here in Tx. I don't think I would feed them for a while and see what happens. Just keep watering them and hopefully they will be ok. Even if they die back to the ground most likely they will come back.

Dancey

Are the new leaves coming up large or are they small? If they are small, then it is most likely not enough water, as Dancey pointed out.

Mine are where the air conditioner drains to and they couldn't be happier at the amount of water. Unless you have them in partial shade, it's almost impossible to overwater them. They'll actually live in a pond, they like water so much. So, sounds like not enough water is your problem.

This is Kay Wanda's youngest daughter. I would like to thank each of you for repling to the forum. I'm repling to the forum for her because well internet just isnt her thing and I was the one that helped with the first post.
I have told her of your responses and she will give the extra watering a try. I have relaid the suggestion of removing the elephant ears from the bed because well roses dont like THAT much water and to make the ears thrive the roses would drown. Lot of work these ears seem to be. :>
You guys were actually more helpful than my friend who owns his own garden center. I will never let him live that down. :>
Thanks again.

I've also heard that adding salt to the soil helps this problem.

Stacy, do you mean table salt? I'd think that would kill any plant. I'm not a chemist just a gardener but I'd sure research this more if I were you before adding salt to my soil.

Kay_Wanda, your Mom might want to look into Webtv (MSNTV now) if she would just want email and surfing the net mostly. It does have photo sending and homepage building, etc. but I use it mostly just for surfing & email. It's about $100 and then $20 monthly and it's SO easy to use. Email me if you have questions. If she likes gardening she would love Gardenweb...josh

Mine did the same. In Houston we had a very rainy spring followed by a sudden cease of rain and a dry spell. My EE would turn brown and when I tried to dig them up to move, instead of having the big Taro root, they just broke off like they were rotten..but it was actually dry. Is this what they do if they don't get enough water? Is the big root still good and will it return when it rains again?

Don't put table salt in your soil. Plants use osmosis to pull the get water/nutrients from the soil.

Plant roots generally take up moisture by a type of osmosis through membranes in root cells. Osmosis is a natural process where water, passing through a semi-permeable membrane, moves from a solution of low levels of dissolved salts to one with a higher salt level.

This process allows water to move from a solution of relatively low concentration (the soil moisture) into a solution of relatively high concentration (in the plant root cells) in an attempt to establish equilibrium in the two solutions. This continues until the plant cells become full, or turgid.

IF you place salt in the soil then the soil has the higher concentration. If the soil moisture is moderately saline, the plant has to work harder to absorb water from the soil.
With lack of water, the plant soon begins to wilt, and growth is slowed, with reduced yields.

In highly saline moisture concentraions, the process of osmosis can become reversed. Where the solution outside the plant roots is higher in salt concentration than that of the root cells, water will move from the roots into the surrounding solution.
The plant loses moisture, and so suffers stress. This is why symptoms of high salt damage are similar to those from high moisture stress:

leaf tip dieback
margins yellowing, scorched and turning brown or black, followed by
leaf fall of dead leaves

Please bear in mind, I'm not speaking about Epson's salt which is magnesium sulfate not table salt (sodium chloride).