Storage

End of 2023 (no pictures): divided, placed in peat moss in plastic shoe boxes in insulated, unheated room attached to house. Result: Worked ok.

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End of 2024:

First in! 12/5/2024

Second in! 12/7/2024
(Remember Pearl Harbor.)

On the wash table. 12/9/2024

Cleaned up 12/9/2024
Crazy stalk. Maybe I will pinch off lanky sprouts.

Work in progress. 12/9/2024

  

Beginning to rush. 12/16/2024

Short days and impeding freeze means working in the dark
1/11/2025 (Yes! January!)

1/11/2025 7:47 PM

1/11/2025 8:28 PM

DONE! 1/14/2025

Process: Began by washing, dividing, placed in peat moss in plastic shoe boxes in insulated box truck with space heater to keep from freezing. Time was limited so switched to putting whole clumps in pine shavings in plastic garbage bags with slits inside banana boxes. Time was more limited so switched to leaving washed clumps on wooden pallets. Time was even more limited so the last clumps remained unwashed and left in their cardboard boxes I used to carry them in from the field. This box truck has a couple slow leaks so the humidity stays pretty high, although I haven't measure it to say how high. 

Result: Mixed. The last ones went in the ground the first week of June. It was a hot, dry spring. There were occasional rotten tubers in the plastic boxes, and a couple moldy clumps in the banana boxes. The tubers on cardboard sheets on the pallets were slightly shriveled if I remember correctly, but none were so dry as to be unviable. There was enough mold on the cardboard that I decided to not use it the next year. The unwashed clumps did great.

After this storage experience, I decided that I was not going to try to divide in the fall/winter again. Just get them out of the field. So...after seeing that Floret packs their clumps in black crates, stacks them on pallets, then plastic wraps them until they divide them, I invested in black crates. I chose not to plastic wrap them since I don't seem to have a problem with my storage space drying out. I was willing to take a chance on this method since the tubers I fussed with the least at the end of 2024 seemed to fair the best.

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End of 2025:

Stacked for storage!
(the social media view)

In reality, I "need" more crates!

April 2026

April 2026

April 2026

Process: Trim the stalk, dig the clump, knock off as much dirt as I can, place clump in crate, hose down clumps in crates, put crates in storage. Done. This was incredibly time saving! 

Result: Many of the stalks that were not cut down to the clump have mold on them. Upon initial inspection, there is a rotten tuber here and there, and no shriveling. Overall I am ecstatic about how well this worked! I can hardly wait to get them in the ground!