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Sender: Craig Smith
Subject: Re: Tuber Storage Question
Dewey Fisk wrote:
>
> I have a question on Tuber Storage... I like to store mine for the winte=
r
> where I can keep an eye on them for potential rot.. [snip]
Does anyone have any experience in this area? Comments appreciated.
> Dewey
>
Mr. Fisk and Others,
I too have experience only with A. Konjac (Rivieri) over the last 20
years. For many years I tried to grow them indoors and was rewarded with=
lots of offshoots but only one “flower”. On the screen porch I got
somewhat larger plants but again not flowers. With the short growing
season, windy summers and cold winters, it took a long time for me to
decide to get a really large pot and try one outside. Wow, what a
difference. First year the result was a much larger tuber - but no
flower. But the next year the tuber was bigger still and I had flowers
on two plants. In the course of all this, I have stored tubers in
several ways.
- Just leave them in the pot and wait for spring when the tip starts to
grow
- I usually dig them up to see what they have done over the summer and
how many offshoots there are. And sometimes I just replant a few in the
pot and wait till spring
- I have buried the tubers in peat moss in the cellar (65 degs) and
moistened them a couple of times
- I have left them out on some newspapers or on top of a bed of peat
The results have been the same. The last couple years I have had bigger
flowers each year in proportion to the size of the tuber. I’ve never had=
one rot and they don’t seem to shrivel up much if at all. I have noticed=
that they grow best / largest if I plant them in individual pots. Even
out in the garden in more sun is not as good. When I used to plant a
large tuber and a few smaller ones in a pot because they look nice as a
little forest, the large tuber doesn’t seem to grow nearly as large.
This last year I put about a 3-4 inch diameter tuber in a 10 inch plastic=
pot in May and by September it split the pot up one side it was so big.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Craig
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