tuber dormancy requirements

[Wills, Simon]

Hi to you all


> seedling tubers have rarely failed to come back into growth after up to six
> months' dry storage, in-pot, at room temperatures.
>  The temperature of their store
> room has varied according to my use. Some years, they were kept in the 70's
> and 80's F.during the day.

I leave seedlings in their pots for 2 - 3 years and put the pots in a frame
with just enough bottom heat to stop them freezing solid.   Once they have
outgrown the seed pots those that are not going out-doors are knocked out of
their pots in October (before our first frosts) and then stored dry, in
trays, in a wine cellar until February, when they are re-potted.   The
relative humidity must be about 60/80 per cent over winter, and the
temperature range over the year is 40 - 65 F.   This seems to have worked
well over the past 12 years for the Himalayan species, at least.   The reason
for knocking them out is two-fold:  a) you can inspect for rot and cut out
problem bits, and b) they take up far less room.

>Which species have you done this with?  Leaving the tubers in their pot at
room
>temperature during dormancy is an alluring idea.  It would be easier than
refrigerator
>storage with plants whose hardiness is unsure.

consanguineum, costatum, exappendiculatum, flavum, intermedium jacquemontii,
nepenthoides, ochraceum, propinquum, ringens, robustum, sikokianum,
speciosum, thunbergii, tortuosum and triphyllum

>Thos which have failed
> to re-emerge, I believe, succumbed to my impatience in attempting to force
> growth by watering too early in the season.

Hear, hear - or by carrying on watering too vigorously as they go down in
autumn.

Simon Wills.