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Gardening
e-book:
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Ministry of Agriculture Allotment &
Garden Guide
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Click image
for
facsimile of page 2
September 1945
Page:
1 /
2 / 3
/ 4 /
5 /
6 / 7 /
8
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Be
careful to sort your crop, to make sure that you don't store any diseased
tubers. But even with the most careful sorting, a diseased tuber or two may
accidentally get mixed with sound ones. So to prevent disease spreading,
sprinkle powered lime, or a mixture of lime and flowers of sulphur, among
the tubers. The sulphur also helps to keep vermin away.
Potatoes are easily damaged by even a few degrees of frost, and are
then unfit for human food. |
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Look
over your stored potatoes fortnightly and remove any diseased tubers.
If you have a large crop and want to store them in a clamp or pie,
this diagram may help you in building it.
Choose the driest bit of your land for your clamp and mark out a
strip 3 ft. 6 in. wide and long enough to take your crop.
Don't be stingy with the straw—provide at least a 6-in. layer.
Press the lower ends of the straw close to the ground, for it is along the
edge of the clamp that the frost generally creeps in. The straw layer should
reach almost to the top of the potatoes.
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If you can, store
your crops in boxes or barrels, rather than in sacks—and line the containers
with old newspapers as a protection against frost. Put the boxes or barrels
in a dry, frost-proof shed for the winter and cover them with old sacking,
giving extra covering in severe weather.
Label your varieties and use the poorer keepers first; for
instance, Arran Banner should be used before Arran Peak. Be careful about
ventilation, particularly in the first months of storage; the door should be
kept open, also the window when the weather permits. |
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You then put a covering of straw over the top of the ridge, so that its ends
overlap the straw at the sides. This ensures that the rain runs down the
outside and not into the clamp. To keep the straw in place, put some soil
along the lower edge and a spadeful here and there over the whole of the
straw covering.
Allow a few days for "perspiring," and then cover most of the straw
(to within 4 in. of the top of the ridge) with 6 in. of soil, leaving 6 in.
strips bare every so often. To get this soil, dig a trench 1 ft. away from
the base of the clamp, about 6 in. deep. Cut an outlet in the trench to make
sure that all water drains away.
When frost threatens fill in the bare strips with soil and also
cover the ridge. But make ventilation holes at intervals at ground level and
along the top of the ridges. Stuff these holes with straw to prevent them
getting blocked with soil.
If your clamp seems to be all right, you may leave it undisturbed
until February, if you like. But you should then open it when it is not
freezing and inspect the contents, removing any diseased tubers and
"sprouts." In remaking the clamp, take care not to bruise the potatoes, or
rotting may set in. |
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