Friday, March 31, 2006

tubers & roots & bulbs - oh my!!

So tubers are a mass that grows off the roots, like a node but bigger. Potatoes are an example of a tuber. If you remove a potato but not the plant or the roots, then the plant will grow on. In mountainous terrains of Ireland, the potato plants can grow quite big, and you can undig and harvest potatoes for many seasons yet.

'Roots' in reference to vegetables, are vegetables where the edible part is the root itself; usually they are large masses growing underground. The stalk grows up from it, but is not a part of it in technical terminology. When you pull up the root, you pull up the whole plant. Beets are an example of roots.

Bulbs are extensions of the stalk, large masses that grow above ground, where the roots sprout beneath it. Although the roots can be a separate entity beginning lower than the bulb's terminus, often the roots sprout directly from the underside of the bulb. Pulling up the bulb would, in effect, kill the whole plant (unless it were for transplanting purposes). Garlic and onions are good examples of bulbs.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

seed collection

Discovered something new at the bottom of the box of seeds. There was an inventory created on 31 March 2005 (almost a year to date ago), which lists not only the seeds and amounts remaining but also the year. I wonder if there is a time-sensitivity issue with seeds. Naturally, seeds accumulate in the seedback, but I wonder if it is different with these. Were they grown organically? Would that make them more or less susceptible to timing? I wonder. And it may be a good idea to make note of the years in which these seed packets were purchased and used, as well as their future successes upon cultivation.