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Updated: May 29, 2025
Here it is kept fresh and moist and perfectly safe from fire and frost. Another excellent way to preserve bulblets is to pack them in boxes and bury them in the ground, as our forefathers did potatoes and apples. They must be covered sufficiently to guard against any possible danger from freezing, and with this precaution they come out in fine condition at planting time.
Bulblets are produced during the summer, on underground stems that come out from the base of the new bulbs. Each bulblet is enclosed in a hard shell, which is generally brown in color, though sometimes gray, slate, or black, and very rarely white. Just here I will speak of the difference between bulblets and small bulbs, for there are some confused ideas abroad on this subject.
There are ways of guarding against this situation. First, when varieties are found to have many bulblets, save only enough to keep the stock in balance, and throw away the rest. By being watchful and persevering in this course, much of the difficulty in question can be avoided.
This is often the case with new, high-priced varieties, and occasionally with an old and popular one that naturally increases very slowly, as the Shakespeare. It has been discovered that this end can be achieved by peeling the bulblets before planting.
The smaller crates are preferable for several reasons. First, they can be handled by one man while the larger ones, when filled, require two. Second, the tight bottoms prevent any mixing of varieties, which may happen in using the larger crates by the bulblets dropping through from one to another.
The second, and better way, of restoring a variety that has become exhausted, is to save the bulblets, however tiny they may be, pack them in damp sand, and store them in a cool place over winter. In the spring, peel them carefully, and plant according to the directions given in the chapter on "Peeling Bulblets."
They seem to exhaust their energy in pushing their way out of the shells and up through the soil, and their subsequent growth is not strong enough to be satisfactory. As a rule, it is the object of the grower simply to change the bulblets into bulbs, without special regard to size, but even if the latter were the chief consideration, the end would probably be better attained by close sowing.
Every grower knows that bulbs the size of peas are far more prolific of bulblets than those of the same variety two inches in diameter. Accordingly, he sells the large ones, which bring good prices, but make little increase, and retains the small ones, which would yield only trifling returns if sold, but are of great value as multipliers of stock.
If the stock is simply common mixed, which is about the only grade offered for sale, the grower is likely to find that a good part of it is such as he can take no pride in, and he will be under the necessity of beginning soon to weed out the undesirable varieties. The same difficulty will re-appear in the crop grown from the bulblets.
The crates should be placed where the ventilation is good, and no rain can reach them. The bulblets are separated from the earth with a fine sieve, and put into a box or barrel.
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