Saturday, December 28, 2013

second indoor generation?

after four days in a box the smaller yema de huevos potatoes i harvested on christmas eve had begun to turn soft so, despite the early hour, i decided it was time to replant the first wave ( the larger ones are still chitting in the box and i will try to wait for sprouts before planting...they are greening which will help defend them against any virus or fungus they encounter while sprouting...green is good in this case )...the empty bushel baskets have been drying ( i dumped the soil in the compost bin out back )for four days so they should be okay...i took one and put a layer of charcoal in the bottom to absorb excess moisture...i bought a bag of "all natural" charcoal at a local home improvement store ( the only place i have found it so far ) because it does not have the chemicals producers like kingsford put in their charcoal to facilitate lighting and so will not damage the tubers...then i mixed compost and potting soil in the basket...compost alone is a bit too heavy and compacts a bit too readily for sprouts...i poked my right index finger in the mix up to the second joint ( about two inches) and dropped the tubers in and covered them...the compost and potting soil had been outside and were frozen when i brought them in..thawing produced a lot of condensation both inside and outside the bags ( wet floor in the plant room ) so the soil is moist enough that i did not have to water...i will be sparing in that until i see green emerging...don't want to rot the tubers...so now the hard part...we wait...the thermometer in the plant room has been reading a steady temperature around sixty degrees fahrenheit...forty degrees is the minimum germinating soil temperature and they really don't like it hot...we should be okay... more as ( hopefully ) it comes up____________as an afterthought, i forgot to mention that i did not completely fill the basket which was done to a purpose...no tuber will grow below the depth that i planted these at so when the emerge these guys are going to be hilled mercilessly to generate as many tubers for spring planting outdoors as i can manage...i am spud greedy.

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