Re: tillers

From: Lester Kallus <lkallus at earthlink.net> on 1997.05.06 at 01:59:44(718) Actually, there's very little fear of bits of corms being mixed in when the winter air temperature drops to 0-5 degrees and the soil freezes solid. I'm still waiting to see if my experiment to see just how zone 7'ish my colocasias truly are. We had a 7b-8a winter yet I don't see a hint of growth where last year's colocasias used to be. > +More >You may want to forego the tiller entirely. On the Pacific atolls where some >of the varieties you mentione are grown as food crops, they also have a >sandy soil. They dig a pit and throw in organic matter, then plant. The >compost is concentrated in the planting hole, where the plant needs it. >Tilling would disperse it. Another problem with tilling (here, anyway, where >the winter does not kill off cormlets), is that tilling spreads bits of >corms and other remnant bits of the last crop, which then sprout. That mixes >varieties in the bed. > >Then again, I cannot expect everybody to do their gardening with a stick. > >Aloha, >Maurice (Stone-age, no, Wood-age Gardener) ><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >Maurice Major mmajor@bishop.bishop.hawaii.org >Department of Anthropology Phone: (808) 847-8282 >Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum FAX: (808) 842-1914 >1525 Bernice Street >Honolulu, HI 96817-0196 > > > >

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