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"Chicken legs" are single tubers which have been severed from the main clump with
a small piece of the old stem still attached.It is important to make sure that each tuber
cut off in this manner still retains this, and that it has some viable eyes present. Some
tubers are what is referred to as "blind", that is they have no eyes on them. These are
the tubers that later on do not produce any shoots.
If you prefer to leave the clumps intact until they produce new growth later, making
it easier to see where to separate them, this is quite all right.The only danger
here is if the centre of the old stem has begun to rot down into the clump, and
here you have no alternative but to split the clump into two or three pieces and
remove the rotten parts.Dust any cut surfaces or wounds with Flowers of Sulphur,
and this will help it to dry out and heal cleanly. Avoid getting this powder on
the tuber eyes if at all possible. Tap the tubers lightly on a firm surface
to remove excess powder, and then store in whatever medium you have chosen.
If you have a lot of "Chicken legs" or mini clumps, you can mark these individually
with a permanent marker pen for easy and quick identification later on.
The seed heads you saved earlier can now be sorted. Split open the seed head and
separate the chaff from the actual seeds. Store the seed in a paper bag or envelope
until required for planting in the Spring.
The ground can be roughly forked over and left for the Winter. If you would like to
sow a green crop, now would be a good time to do it. Use either blue lupin or mustard.
In June continue on digging and storing your tubers.After they have been dug, washed and
dried as described in the May notes trim off the rat tails to tidy up the clumps. Cut out
any rotten tubers or the whole clump will eventually rot also. One of the most common
methods of storage is a box, either cardboard or polystyrene, of damp sawdust, either as
"chicken legs" or full or part clumps. Some growers have put their cleaned tubers into
supermarket bags of damp sawdust and hung them from rafters in a cool dry place, and they
found this worked quite well.
