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Post by castanea on Feb 23, 2012 20:48:36 GMT -5
Some of these traits are part of old varieties and if selected out will diminish the variety. People have valued some of these traits and sometimes encouraged them for their uses. In generations past multiple ears per stalk were valued when harvest was by hand but machine harvesting encourages a preference for single ears per stalk. Keeping older varieties has reoriented my thinking about what is a trait to keep. I had Morado ears with tassels from the top of the ear and the base as well. This allowed the ear to be pollinated when the tassel at the top of the plant had shed pollen weeks before the ear had put out silk. Side tassel branches at the base of the ear had kernels and farther up produced pollen to fertilize the ear. How do you get your maiz morado to mature? It takes an awful long time to mature here. I'm not sure exactly how long because it has never matured.
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Post by johninfla on Feb 24, 2012 13:03:24 GMT -5
Here we don't have any problem getting it to mature. In fact, I planted last weekend and if we have any luck I should start picking immature ears in late May early June. This is in northern Florida (close to Gainesville)
John
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Post by traab on Feb 24, 2012 16:28:17 GMT -5
My Morado failed the first year when planted in early June. I got tassels before frost. 2011 I started seed April 1 in loose perlite with a week nutrient/vitamin solution. Chulpa, Cancha and Carhuay were also sown. These are from the local market, imported for food from Peru. April 15 these sprouts were gently transplanted under plastic and watered with warm weak nutrient solution. The plants grew and tasseled well before ears and silking. Tassels from the base of some ears and the tops of ears protruded from the husks and provided pollen for the same ears. At the end of October the day of frost I brought in the ears with long shanks to finish indoors. This was very interesting to me and I was able to compare the growth of the teosinte I had growing in pots which ripened seed inside. I am envious of johninfla being able to grow this in the open garden and would enjoy seeing the growth habits in a longer growing season. I wonder if it sheds pollen from the stalk tip along with ear silking. Or are the out-crossing mechanisms of early pollen shedding as pronounced in the sub tropics.
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Post by gray on Feb 24, 2012 16:39:14 GMT -5
I looked at the site traab posted for the wisdom of corn book. A quote on the site by Carl white eagle Barnes cherokee corn elder is the guy who the glass gem corn came from. In another thread on this site someone noted that he is dead now. dumont warned she had sent for seed from him and that she never got seed. Same happened to me. Does anyone know if this book is legitimate and worth buying.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 24, 2012 16:56:50 GMT -5
CORNS [Seed Exchange] c/o Carl L. Barnes R.R. 1, Box 32 Turpin, OK 73950-9714 No web address. Info: $1.00 and SASE
Carl and Karen Barnes, who have been collecting and growing corn for 50 years, started this exchange, which is devoted entirely to corn. And lest you think that means plain old ordinary yellow grocery-store corn, CORN has some remarkable things--old dents and flints, flour corns, popcorn, white, red, black, blue, orange, purple, and multi-colored corn, old Native American varieties, and plenty more. That's just part of what this exchange has to offer. The growers in this exchange maintain many other kinds of corn, save seeds (it takes some skill to keep corn varieties pure), and trade it with others who do the same. They also offer two or three varieties for a donation of $3.00 per packet.
As I warned, they are still listed, but you no longer get corn for your money. Don't know if anyone lives close enough or knows them well enough to inquire. If you goggle Carl Barnes Corn...lots of great info comes up.
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 24, 2012 17:04:07 GMT -5
Also, If anyone can go to the Heirloom Vegetable Gardener's Assistant www.halcyon.com/tmend/heirloom.htmand drop her an email and let her know That both Appalachian Heirloom Seeds and CORNS is defunct. It might save a lot of folks a lot of trouble. My email will not connect to her site. Thank you!
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Post by traab on Feb 24, 2012 21:31:37 GMT -5
The listings in the net are often outdated. I was very interested in the offerings of a company that had closed 2 years earlier but had a seed list and description up.
CORNS was started in 1942 and closed a few years ago.
Some of you are more aware of CORNS than I am. The work of keeping corn varieties alive and circulating must be recognized. Perhaps part of the stock you work with was grown by this network.
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Post by turtleheart on Feb 24, 2012 22:39:12 GMT -5
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Post by DarJones on Feb 25, 2012 1:11:33 GMT -5
Just a heads up that Brook Elliott of Appalachian Heirloom Seeds is still around. If you need info or seed, send me a PM.
DarJones
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 25, 2012 22:06:20 GMT -5
Speaking of exotic corn,
Today Leo and I planted St. Joe's Frosty Sweet Corn (the weather says we are going to have a frost...we'll see). It was 77 yesterday and 55 today. It is officially 6 weeks before our typical last frost.
We reburied the potatoes that were up. There are sunflowers and corn coming up in the patch....that's just crazy.
Joseph, I was about 20 seeds short of planting a complete plot.
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Post by homegrower on Oct 8, 2012 13:10:31 GMT -5
Never had a chance to grow corn before...those sure look interesting
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