Rooting around in the vegetable drawer of a refrigerator

[ChrisGreaves]

Diary_20240404_173436.jpg

I harvested half my artichoke bed last fall and stored the tubers in plastic bags in the refrigerator vegetable drawers. Throughout the winter I used artichokes as an alternative to potatoes.
Today I hauled out the second-last bag. Many of the tubers have sent out roots.
This puzzles me.

Refrigerators are an abnormal device made by man. My understanding of seeds and bulbs and vines and most other vegetable species is that they react to either a rise in temperature or a lengthening of the day as triggers to a new season – time to send out roots and stalks.
The vegetable drawers in the refrigerator maintain a constant temperature and absence of light.

What then causes the artichokes to send out roots?
Is there some sort of chemical fuse that has evolved to synchronize with the normal seasons?

(signed) "Delighted but Puzzled" of Bonavista

[BobH]

I'd say you are due for a clean out if you can root around in your vegetable drawer, Chris. Just how deep was it, anyway?

[ChrisGreaves]

I'd say you are due for a clean out if you can root around in your vegetable drawer, Chris. Just how deep was it, anyway?

Hi Bob. I'm tempted to say that it is not a standard Texas-size drawer, but a Western-Austraian sized drawer, ...

It is standard size drawer, well, two of them last October, but you can fit a lot of Jerusalem artichokes in my drawers.

But still and all, regardless of the size, what can have caused the tubers to begin sprouting?
Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

Some plants have to be subjected to cold temps for an extended period of time in order to start growing again. Jerusalem artichokes might be in that group.

[ChrisGreaves]

Some plants have to be subjected to cold temps for an extended period of time in order to start growing again. Jerusalem artichokes might be in that group.

Agreed, yes, but is it time alone that caused the artichokes in my 'fridge to sprout? If so then they have a pretty good internal clock - six months at least.
Cheers, Chris

[DocAElstein]

I had a similar experience recently, Chris.
I came into a lot of potatoes end of last Summer. Must have been 3-4 sacks worth I guess, but I did not have any sacks, so I piled them up in cardboard boxes in the cellar.
I only stored potatoes once in my life before, more years ago then I like to remember, a sack I bought from a local farmer, thrown in the corner of the Kitchen, that went OK , - kept 3-4 of us alive for a term or two.
They seem to have sprouted this time, especially the ones at the top. I am still eating them, but I have not made much headway. I am thinking of what to do with them all now.
I have not started googling yet how to plant these things.

Rooting around in the Cellar.JPG

I know of some long strips of waste land where every few years someone walks a alongside a remote controlled monster thing that looks like a wide squashed bulldozer with heavy duty mower blades at the front that decimates all in its path leaving a mulch behind it. That was done on some strips near where I frequent in recent years, and where I recently arranged a new water source, just before the monster attacked it, (and luckily when the monster came I had already hid most of my “activities”) . That might be a good place…...

New Potatoe Place maybe.JPG

Alan

[ChrisGreaves]

I have not started googling yet how to plant these things.

Alan, just dig a hole, drop them in, and cover with soil.
Never underestimate the power of life.

Only people who want to win prizes at shows worry about pH instead of getting on with life.
To learn what depth to plant potatoes in your specific soil and climate, plant half a dozen at different depths and label them in some way. The harvest will then indicate the depth appropriate for your conditions.

In my case, next month I will store a couple of spuds in a vegetable drawer in my 'fridge to see if they behave as did my Jerusalem artichokes.
Cheers, Chris

[DocAElstein]

( ... like you suggested to the neighbour to do with her Dog, Lol, , .... )
OK, I will do that - maybe a long 100 meter row, on the slope , on the right of that long dip, so on "my" railway side, where they just decimated a row of nice bushes and small trees. I will update in September ... when "my" railway late summer grilling season starts ....


_.________________________________________--

Edit a few days later....: So the first 4meters done, 14 April 2024 – ( I had planned a lot more, but either I forgot what bush I hid my spade and pick axe in, or someone nicked them over the last few days. Strange, they never took anything else I had hidden there. Oh well, luck in un-luck, I had just finished the major river making excavations, and a bit of tidying up was possible with my Swiss army spade, ( they never nicked that either ). I will think again maybe on how to get a long row done. Something like a pick axe and hand to make a long thin slit will be the best approach, the shovel is not so effective

First 4meters of Potatoes.JPG

First 4m of Potatoes.JPG

_ Sunday 28 April, 2024
https://i.postimg.cc/RhqGyKZ5/Pot-34-Er ... s-Bach.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/3NgjP1Qq/Pot-35-La ... tatoes.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/YCXNKjTt/Pot-36-En ... otatoe.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/28D7ns4N/Pot-37-Au ... anzten.jpg

[GeoffW]

Chris, I'm sure you will have remembered what rooting
around means in Australia.

I won't explain it to the others in a family friendly forum.