Leftwood said:
In heavy soils, we would break a lot more large roots than in a looser soil, like Lorn's. As evidenced by the last pic I posted with the two buckets, it's likely that Lorn never has large roots broken, rather just smaller ones.
Yes, roots could break. But with our heavy winter/spring rains water could fill the space under the bulb; the roots and basal plate could sit in the water. I think this would be worse than leaving it alone with water evenly distributed through the soil. The crawl space under my house is lower than the surrounding yard and every winter there is standing water under there.
As for chaff, I can get some really big pods on trumpets and OTs with nothing but chaff in them. If I gently squeeze them I find them to be flaccid. A big rock solid pod usually has a lot of good seed in it.
