Last year was the first year I ever grew Caladiums. Then not knowing what I was doing, I yanked them up for the winter just before first frost. Last week while cleaning the old vegetation off of the roots, I noticed some of the roots had turned white and they're almost chalky & hard. Has anyone ever seen this? Is this a storage issue, a harvest issue, disease issue, handling issue?

I'm not sure what the white stuff is, but as long as the tubers are firm, I wouldn't worry about it. (hey, I live in Florida where fungus rules the world) I kept some tubers that I won in the photo contest from last fall until just a few weeks ago. Was not at all sure they'd do anything, since they had lumps and spots all over but they were dry and firm, so went ahead. They've jumped up and are gorgeous now.

We had 3 variants. Whitish, like those shown by you above, a reddish one, and an almost salmon-pink variant. We planted them a little over a week ago. The white ones seem to be sprouting well. Another (not sure which) is sprouting. The last hasn't done much yet. I planted them all under a side landing. We'll see what happens.

Cool, I'll bet all that rain you got from the tropical storm passing by will have them jumping up nicely. They do love lots of water.

The white you are seeing is from the bulb being cut. When a caladium bulb gets cut, the cut part will callus over and as it drys it turn white. The inside of a caladium bulb is generally a yellowish color, Those bulbs should have been OK
Sorry, I didn't see this earlier

biLL

caladiums4less said:The white you are seeing is from the bulb being cut. When a caladium bulb gets cut, the cut part will callus over and as it drys it turn white. The inside of a caladium bulb is generally a yellowish color, Those bulbs should have been OK
Sorry, I didn't see this earlier
biLL

Those were roots I broke open. They were lighter in weight so I broke a few open and inside they were chalky and dryish. Are you saying they would have been ok to plant?

If they were chalky and dry than they probably weren't any good.
When harvesting occurs the machinery will knick the bulbs sometimes resulting in the whitish color when that cut drys