![dugup.jpg](tn_dugup_jpg.jpg)
71.91 Kb Here's caladium gingerland freshly dug up |
![p000618.jpg](tn_p000618_jpg.jpg)
89.08 Kb After cutting the stems, the plant is ready for hosing the soil
off. Under the plant, you can see a screen box I created years ago. It had
been sitting unused but seemed like the perfect gizmo for this project. |
![p000606.jpg](tn_p000606_jpg.jpg)
70.99 Kb Here's a close-up of the tubers prior to hosing. |
![hoseoff.jpg](tn_hoseoff_jpg.jpg)
74.15 Kb As the project progressed, it seemed less important to cut the
stems before hosing. Furthermore, this facilitated keeping track of which variety
was which. |
![p000621.jpg](tn_p000621_jpg.jpg)
59.19 Kb Here's a close-up of the hosing. You can see that this is
one of those multi function spray devices and it's been set to a fine sheet of water. |
![p000604.jpg](tn_p000604_jpg.jpg)
72.09 Kb Once the tubers were cleaned of soil, they were ready to begin
drying off. |
![p000616.jpg](tn_p000616_jpg.jpg)
88.56 KbHere's a pile of cleaned tubers. They were separated by
variety. |
![p000623.jpg](tn_p000623_jpg.jpg)
105.95 Kb There were seven different varieties of caladiums. I left
them in flats to allow the roots to dry before final preparation. |
![floating.jpg](tn_floating_jpg.jpg)
81.69 Kb Once the tubers had dried, I cut and rubbed the roots off and
soaked the tubers once again to wash and last bits of soil off. |
![fungicide.jpg](tn_fungicide_jpg.jpg)
66.33 Kb After the soil was washed off the tuber, I soaked the tubers in
a fungicide: Benomyl. (Obviously, this was done one variety at a time.) |
![p000630.jpg](tn_p000630_jpg.jpg)
74.92 Kb The Benomyl-soaked tubers were allowed to dry for a few days. |
![vermiculite.jpg](tn_vermiculite_jpg.jpg)
57.92 Kb Once dried, the tubers were stored in vermiculite in plastic
bags. In the spring of 1998, I've found about 95% viability in the tubers. |