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![]() Birgit Kratzheller, "POTATO-BOX", glass, wood, acrylic glass, nail, fluorescent plant tubes, ventilator, electronic timer, potatoes, 30 x 30 x 45 cm., Storeroom-cellar, Mainz, Germany, 1999 |
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Birgit Kratzheller Potato-Box Glass, wood, acrylic glass, nail, fluorescent plant tubes, ventilator, electronic timer, potatoes. The "Potato-Box" is a light-emitting box created to observe the light-sprouts of potatoes. In contrast to the long, pale and colorless darkness-germs, which arise in cellars, basements or dark pantries, the light-germs are very compact in form and intensely colored. These sprouts are very important for the development of a Potato-Sort. These sprouts are used to distinguish one sort from another and they also give the material a special bio-technical procedure to obtain a special sort. The miniature-houses highlight the different stages in the circle of development of a potato-sort. The wood and glass used to build these "houses" refer to a special agricultural type of building, which formerly has been used for seed-potato-growing purposes in the North of Germany, in the region close to the city Stade, the "Stader Kartoffelvorkeimhaus". The luminous tubes in the rear part of the box give a green and violet light which is especially conducive for the plants and is used for potato breeding and sort control. The way the potatoes are presented in the front area - being pierced on nails on wooden boards - shows how they are arranged in the control room of the Federal Office for Agricultural Plant Control. Since the fifties all potatoes for commercial use have to pass a program of control, which now comprises about 100 tests. An important part of this controls focuses on the light sprouts. The fan provides the necessary ventilation similar to the systems used in pre-germinating houses, stockrooms and breeding stations. The potatoes can be put into the box right after harvest and will be perfectly illuminated and ventilated by an electric timer. They can be held in this observation stage for half a year up to the best time for dissemination or even up to one year to observe all different stages of development. The sort-specific sprouts then produce corresponding leaves, blossoms and even small new bulbs.
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