Thursday, August 15, 2013

more potato storage

my eucalyptus leaves arrived today so i went to work on the storage project a soon as i got home from work...first i went out to check on the plants still in the ground and surprisingly ( for me anyway ) i found the olalla just beginning to bloom...these are from spain so i can't imagine they are having day length issues...just a long season ( they have been in the ground since april )the roja narino are still going strong as well so their harvest will have to wait...i do have stored potatoes however so i went downstairs and added a healthy handful of eucalyptus to the boxes of early blue and yema de huevos i have stored in the indirectly lit basement...part of the technique is a regular inspection of the stored tubers to check for rot, sprouting, and infestations, removing the afflicted spuds from the group...part of rot prevention is regular turning of the potatoes and not stacking them too deeply...the early blue have a roomy enough box. but there are quite a few yema de huevos and they were packed closer together than oi wanted so i split the harvest into two boxes, adding lavender and eucalyptus to the new space...regular inspection implies regular reporting...this project is ongoing until the next planting season which is in around eight months...andean micro climates allow for double cropping so the longest traditional storage length is around four months...i am trying to double that so i expect attrition...i expect to learn something as well...there will be more news form the basement.

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