Saffron experiment update. The good, the bad, the maybe?

Okay guys, well you know we have had a unreal amount of rain here over the winter and spring. So much so its been just down right weird. Of course Murphy's Law, I put my saffron bed in late last fall. Next time we need rain I will just plant something that doesn't like it LOL.

I dug up a few bulbs/croms to see what was going on in my saffron bed. I wish I had done it sooner. Live and learn with saffron I guess.
1. There were some rotten ones.
2. They had made babies so I thought that was a very good sign.
3. Not all the bulbs were rotten just maybe one in the cluster. The rest of the bulbs/croms were still firm.
4. They are not "rooted" in. I don't know what this means. I am wondering if this is why Saffron rots so easily because when it goes dormant the roots die off of the bulbs as as the green tops...so in effect its just a dormant bulb sitting there in soil. Its not like a regular plant that has live roots all rooted into the dirt? I don't know if this is true its just a theory on my part or better I guess a question?





I know they look bad, but like I say only one in this cluster was rotten that I dug up the others were not and I dug up a few with no rotten ones. I think / hope this means I have time to salvage this situation.
So I did this to make sure that no more rain gets in that bed! It drains well and its a darn good thing. I used mostly organic matter in this raised bed as I had read that was good for them and I added a little sand. In hind sight I wish I had used at least 1/3 sand.

I used what I had to do this.  A bucket of stakes, some nine gauge wire and duck tape. A roll of painters plastic. 
I drove the wood stakes in the ground. 

Then I cut my wire for making the hoops, I pushed the wire into the ground several inches on the outside of the wood stakes and then I used duck tape to tape it all together. I have said it before, duck tape is a girls best friend! 
 I rounded up anything I could find to lay on the plastic to hold it down on the sides. I didn't want to staple it to the stakes because I will no doubt need to fold it back like this on nice sunny days due to heat build up.
I raided the scrap pile, found a big long board and some big pieces of rebar. Drug those over to the bed to lay on the plastic down the sides.
 Next to duck tape these little clips are a life saver. I have used these things for everything under the sun! They are cheap too. They are easy to squeeze but hold tight. My hands are not big enough to do those big clips honeyman uses for stuff. These last forever and so I grabbed my little tub of clips as well.
I put the clips on top of the plastic and clipped it to the wire hoops every so often all the way down in different spots.
Rolled up on side for air circulation.

I will keep it rolled up on the ends for air circulation as it heats up super fast as I found out when I was putting it together and had the ends down... We have another 7-8 day stretch of daily rain coming starting tomorrow. I did this this morning. After seeing the bulbs/croms I knew they couldn't take anymore rain. I wish I had checked them sooner. I kept meaning to. Could of, should of, would of.... arghhhh
 This way I can even close the ends off to prevent rain from blowing into the bed if I need to. Both ends I left the plastic long enough.

Ok so here is my question to you guys... lets have some opinions. I was wondering if I should dig up the croms/bulbs and let them dry out. Then replant them AFTER I amend the dirt to a higher portion of sand!
I just am not sure what to do at this point. I wondered if the ones that were rotting would just spread rot to the rest and I will loose any that have a rotten bulb in the cluster. I hate to loose alllll these. I forget now how many hundred I planted, I would gladly dig them all up and separate out the firm ones from the mushy ones and let them dry..... rework the bed adding in more sand I think..... if that would be a good thing to do. I am just not sure what to do?

2 comments:

Kev Alviti said...

Of they've got no roots out then I'd be tempted to dig them up, remove the rotten ones and replant them incase the tot spreads. Alternatively do it with half a bed and leave the other half as an experiment than way you'll know what they can take and in other years you won't have to worry so much. Is there anything on the Internet about it?

PioneerPreppy said...

That's pretty much what happens to our roots and bulbs every year here until June. Not this year though as you guys are getting our rain it seems.