Arisaema storage

[Ellen Hornig]

I have some doubts about using chick grit as a storage medium for
arisaemas - I'd worry about all those sharp edges scoring the surfaces
and fostering decay. Have you had any problems with that, Ray?

Last year, I stored all my large candidissimums and fargesiis by wrapping
each tuber in newspaper, putting the resulting bundles in loosely
closed plastic bags (the sort your groceries are packed in at the store),
and storing the bags in the fridge.  Smaller tubers mostly overwintered in
their pots in the cyclamen house, which I try to keep above freezing
(occasionally it gets cold enough for pot surfaces to freeze).  Everything
did fine; the only problems were with some A.taiwanense that emerged too
early in the cyclamen house.  The still-folded new leaves got frozen at
the emerging end (the inner part of the leaflet), resulting in leaflets
with white interiors that persisted for the entire season (tubers bulked
up just fine nonetheless).  Lacking a cyclamen house, though, I'd have
packed the tubers in slightly moist peat moss in poly bags, and kept them
in the fridge.  I maintain an older, non-frost-free fridge for nursery
use; frost-free fridges vacuum out the moist air at intervals, so don't
maintain as high humidity within.

Ellen

Seneca Hill Perennials
3712 Co. Rte. 57
Oswego, NY 13126
USA