It would appear that what you are doing is correct. You read to cut the tuber off with a piece of the stem attached and put it in soil and just cover the bottom half. This is what I do. You also mentioned that the end with the piece of stem just stick out above the soil. This is correct. Lastly you mentioned that some tubers are just feeder tubers and they won't sprout. This is definitely correct. Just yesterday, I threw out a tuber that was firm and plump, looked like it "should" have had eyes on its stem, but alas just sat there growing huge roots. It is hard to tell sometimes, which ones will sprout. Others, that I thought would have one sprout, have many. Emory Paul is indeed a beautiful dahlia. My sister has it, and has had good success in keeping it.

Anney, I have just explored Dr. Dirt's site re using cornmeal as a plant fungicide. As usual he is giving incomplete advice. He takes ideas posted on GardenWeb and that other gardening Forum we can't mention here and gives them his own spin omitting important information. To date, after much experimentation, I have not had success controlling any tomato diseases/blights/fungus using cornmeal. Some have reported good results but I am not been able to. For those who would like to try a cornmeal tea do a search here on GW for Cornmeal Tea to find formulas I have posted. Also do a search for Aspirin Technique which has been my personal best, cheap remedy to date. Some claim it is not organic but to date aspirin has been certified safe for human consumption. The IMPORTANT part of attempting to control tomato problems with WHATEVER one chooses to use is to begin treatment EARLY in the tomato's growth...when the plant has grown a second set of true leaves is a good time to begin.

You have lots of questions. I will try to answer some of them. Cherry will darken over time. However, cherry consists of sapwood (nearest the bark) and heartwood. The heartwood starts out salmon colored and will darken to a rich dark red. The sapwood starts out oatmeal colored and does not get red. Premium work will cut away the sapwood and delegate it to the scrap pile or secondary wood (parts you don't see). If the manufacturer is trying to avoid so much waste, they may employ "sap staining" in an attempt to bring the colors together. This normally involves first staining only the sapwood, then covering everything with a blending stain. Some manufacturers even bleach all the color out of cherry so it's all bland, and then use stains to restore the uniform color. Stripping may remove some of the added color, but it usually does not remove the patina, unless it's followed by aggressive sanding. What did you see in your stripping sludge, lots of color? Then, of course, you could have birch wood with a cherry stain. Cherry, for the DIY, can be particularly difficult to stain, both because it is prone to blotching, and because it may obliterate the natural beauty of the wood. --- The following is from a friend of mine that I will simply call "Steve," primarily because that's his name. You can achieve the color of the cherry very easily without the use of either stain or dye by using the schedule below. Over time the natural inclination of the cherry to darken with age will only make it better. Begin by carefully sanding thru 220g. Make sure that you remove all sanding scratches left by the proceeding grit and don't skip grits --120g, 150g, 180g, and finally 220g. Remove all sanding dust with a shop towel dampened with mineral spirits and carefully examine the MS wet wood for scratches you have missed and for evidence of glue squeeze-out that must be removed. Next, apply a liberal coat of boiled linseed oil (BLO). I'm talking here about applying a thick, syrup on pancakes application. Allow the oil to soak into the wood for about 25-30 minutes and then wipe away the excess and buff the surface as "dry" as you can with a clean towel. Then, set the piece aside for a few days to allow the oil to cure. The towel is a spontaneous combustion hazard so do not wad it up and throw it in a corner, but hang it up to dry. After a few days apply a 2# cut of garnet shellac mixed fresh from flakes. Simply brush it on with an inexpensive natural bristle brush with as little over-lap at the wet edge as possible and by keeping back-brushing to a minimum. Keep an alcohol dampened soft cloth in your free hand to pick-up runs and sags as they occur. The freshly mixed shellac will dry very quickly (25-30 minutes tops). You can then lightly sand, just enough to smooth the surface, and apply your varnish topcoat. For a light-colored varnish that will not darken itself over time use a soya oil based alkyd resin varnish such as McCloskey Heirloom. For a somewhat darker look switch to a tung oil based or linseed oil based varnish. I prefer Waterlox Original, a tung oil-based phenolic resin varnish. --- End of Steve's process --- NOTES: 1) A Tung-oil based varnish is not the same as tung oil. 2) 90% of things labeled "Tung Oil Finish" have not a drop of tung oil in them. They are either thinned varnishes or oil-varnish blends. They are NOT tung oil. This is typically true of anything you're likely to find in a home center or hardware store. It's not that they are bad products; they are just extremely over-hyped and you are being lied to.

Thanks for the information Dave. And thanks for providing the search link, I always forget about the search link. I had heard/read that starting from seed is less desirable, but I figured since I got in the seed I would use it- and give myself some time to get the bed set up. I figure if by the time the bed is ready to go, if I'm not happy with what I got from seed, I can get crowns of another sort at the time. I'm patient, and figure I probably won't see anything till at least 2020. I also figured that the wet area in the sun would be the best spot, but I wasn't sure. It's big enough that I can probably expand it a bit more as time and need go on. That drive is about 200 feet long, but I figure the usable area is more around 150 feet long- and of that I figured starting out with a 20-40 foot long patch was reasonable. Maybe I'll end up with two patches, one from seed starts, and one from crowns. Reason I figured around 60-80 pound a year is because my husband and I can go through 30-40 pound a year. I pick it up by the 10 pound bag when the local farm starts selling it in the spring. Now that I have mom and sis living with us, and they love asparagus too, I figured the increase. But then, if it were free out of my garden instead of buying it, we might end up eating more than we currently do. So maybe 60-80 pounds is too conservative an estimate.