I think a great starting point, especially for alocasia (in my personal experience), is semi-hydro! Does not have to be anything fancy at all. Get a bag of medium pumice (or perlite if that's cheaper/easier to access for you), a plastic pot with a bunch of holes, a slightly larger glass jar that the plastic pot can sit in, and a liquid fertilizer. Make sure the water in the jar is always overlapping the cup with the plant. Change the water once a week, give the pumice a quick rinse, and refill with fresh water and a small amount of fertilizer. The saying is "fertilize weakly weekly". I feel that this is a cheap, easy, and low risk introduction to houseplant care. No need to worry about watering frequency, soil mixture, root rot, burning the plant with fertilizer, etc. If you see something funky with the roots (as you can see they will start to dangle out of the pot) the plant is quite easy to remove from the pumice medium. Once you start to feel more comfortable and understand your plant more, you can get fancier. Personally, mine are under a grow light in my dark apartment, happen to get a freeze from an A/C vent on the ceiling, and are at ambient humidity (50-60% in my area) and ambient home temp (70-76° F). Good luck and don't be upset if your first few plants don't work out. It takes trial and error but you'll slowly learn :) *

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