If one will do, cut the others off at the soil line.
Ideally this bud will be about three to four inches above the soil line.
Plant your bulbs in the fall, one inch below the soil line with the root scar downward.
Nestle them so their roots are covered with earth and their tops are clearly visible, at or right above the soil line.
For example, seed decay, damping-off (the destruction of seedlings at the soil line), and other seedling diseases are favoured by excessively wet soils.
Proper cultivation, including spacing for ventilation, judicious fertilizing, and watering at the soil line, is helpful in reducing the chances of gray mold rot.
Though Mr. Abreu has tended roughly a half-acre of land, it represents a small fraction of the soil lined with beans, corn and, occasionally, tomatoes, that has been tilled in Highbridge Park by area residents.
Symptoms include roundish, rough-surfaced galls, several inches or more in diameter, usually at or near the soil line, graft or bud union, or on roots and lower stems.
"The female crawls down the trunk to the soil line and makes as many as seven slits in a little baby tree the size of my thumb and lays an egg," he said.
Finally, about planting a grafted tomato or any grafted plant, for that matter: It is crucial to keep the graft above the soil line so that the scion does not root into the ground.
