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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Sept 15, 2012 10:27:41 GMT -5
Thanks Joseph i enjoyed that walkthrough. Even i was surprised by some of the traits showing up. The large cob was a nice one! Something to keep in mind about some of the bush teosinte is that they are potentially perennial. Not saying that they will be perennial in your climate (as they didn't survive in mine), but it's certainly a possibility. Perhaps the chances of overwintering could be increased with heavy mulch.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 15, 2012 20:27:08 GMT -5
Once in a while, I get aphids on corn, in October, and then they only occur in a protected place between the leaves of a cob's husk, so in the popcorn. I still have to be careful late in the season about not sprinkle irrigating the mostly dry corn. It's easy enough to mold a crop of corn if I fill the husks with irrigation water. I did a bad this year and picked a crop of seed corn and left it in the truck for a couple days without shucking. Oops. About 10 ears moulded. But of the hundreds of ears I picked and shucked in the field, there were only two ears with mold on them. I sometimes get mold on a few kernels close to where an earworm has eaten. I only saw one cob with ear worm damage this summer.
The fabas this year were like an ant colony... uuugh!!!!
About the only fungal disease I get is (powdery mildew?) on pepo leaves, but that only occurs at about the same time as our first fall frosts, so no big deal, the plants are pretty much dead anyway. The moon and stars watermelon leaf spotting sure was interesting... I got all excited thinking that I had finally gotten a fungal disease in my garden. Oh well.
I'll check the teosinte/gamagrass roots for anything that looks like a rhizome, and put them in the root cellar overwinter.
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Post by cortona on Sept 16, 2012 13:20:17 GMT -5
oh Joseph, i really really appreciate the video! the corn looks good! if you can send me back some sample of theplants that have some interesting trait i will add it to the genepool nex year, it surely looks good on your video but the ken 101 corn looks magnificent!
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floricole
gardener
39 acres, half wooded half arable, land of alluvial
Posts: 108
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Post by floricole on Sept 17, 2012 19:57:08 GMT -5
bjargakarlinn: I took a photo earlier today of the zea plant for you. It grew as a volunteer, which probably means that i dropped the seed this spring, so I don't know what it is, perhaps a popcorn, or something from the keen101 hybrid swarm, or glass gem, or a teosinte. It currently has 16 ears on it distributed between 3 stalks of approximately equal size. Joseph the glass gem you have, is it like that picture? If so I would like some seed to grow next year if you have or know a seed source Sorry to have derived from the subject
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 17, 2012 20:13:08 GMT -5
Joseph the glass gem you have, is it like that picture? If so I would like some seed to grow next year if you have or know a seed source I think it's the same. Mine is still growing. I'll let you know in about 6 weeks. Send me your mailing address in a personal message.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 5, 2012 19:33:07 GMT -5
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 5, 2012 22:55:12 GMT -5
Oh Joseph, I love the noise when you walk through the corn. It's like what I hear one the wind. Gorgeous corn. Congrats Cortona, that's beautiful corn. A really beautiful field.
My corn this year is not pretty. I'm having to feed it all to the chickens.
So much damage due to corn ear worm and smut. Leo is distraught over our corn. I'm feeding it to the chickens. I have nothing to grind this year. I will have enough good ears for seed next year, but all of my field corn (flour and polenta) cannot be saved.
Well that sums up a year of farming.
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Post by castanea on Oct 5, 2012 23:14:18 GMT -5
I am having the same problems with my corn. No aphids this year, but lots of earworm, stunted cobs, smut, and a few other problems. Amanda Palmer really hates it here. Two of my Giant Inca corns blew over today. It is a super long season corn and they had just started to tassle so they were probably not going to make it anyway.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 10, 2012 23:13:42 GMT -5
These rhizomes are from the Keen101 hybrid swarm of corn: I believe they are Zea diploperennis. I dug the (frost killed) plants today. I transplanted two root balls into a spot where they can (attempt to) overwinter with only a few inches of soil over them. I buried the rest 18" deep in an out of the way spot in the garden. The plants did not flower in my garden. Since I was digging corn roots, I also buried a root from teosinte (Mexicana?) and one from corn, just to see what happens when they are replanted in the spring. I also harvested the cob of corn that I attempted to pollinate with teosinte pollen. A third variety of teosinte didn't produce any seeds or rhizomes, though it was just starting to tassel when killed by frost. And I harvested some teosinte (Mexicana?) seeds that seemed immature still. Oh well, that's to be expected trying to grow a tropical plant so far outside it's native range. It looks like Tripsacum dactyloides didn't germinate for me.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 7, 2013 19:28:32 GMT -5
The teosinte plants which I transplanted to another place in the garden died during the winter.
Some of the teosinte plants which I buried 18" deep survived. I dug them today and transplanted them into a row in the garden. It's still a month before our frosts end, so I also brought some home with me which I planted indoors in pots. It wasn't clear to me if there were two species that survived, or just one. Some of the plants had roots that were still fleshy, and the stems were green even though I couldn't discern rhizomes, so I planted those as well: Wondering if they are two species.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 22, 2013 16:33:34 GMT -5
The teosinte rhizomes that I buried in the garden for the winter survived. A few weeks ago, I planted some in the garden, and some in pots. Here is what the indoor plants looked like a few minutes ago. I presume that they are zea diploperennis.
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Post by starry on Aug 23, 2013 14:17:57 GMT -5
The teosinte rhizomes that I buried in the garden for the winter survived. A few weeks ago, I planted some in the garden, and some in pots. Here is what the indoor plants looked like a few minutes ago. I presume that they are zea diploperennis. How are your teosinte plants looking now Joseph?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 25, 2013 19:16:46 GMT -5
The plants currently look like this. It looks like they are not going to flower this year either. They are sprawling this year. Last year they grew in the midst of a 9' tall corn patch and grew more upright. Zea diploperennis teosinte:
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Post by starry on Aug 26, 2013 13:01:44 GMT -5
The plants currently look like this. It looks like they are not going to flower this year either. They are sprawling this year. Last year they grew in the midst of a 9' tall corn patch and grew more upright. Zea diploperennis teosinte: Any plans for these in the future?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 26, 2013 13:32:18 GMT -5
I don't currently have any day-dreams about what to do with the perennial teosinte. It is so far out of it's native habitat that I don't know if it would be of use in my breeding programs. I'll probably dig it and try to keep it alive for another winter. Due to the death of my landlady and the sale of my other main field, I'll be a farmer without a farm shortly after our fall frosts. There's no telling what arrangements I'll make for next growing season, but there is always the possibility that my priorities might change dramatically before next spring.
Hybrids between Zea diploperennis and Zea Mays are compatible, and the offspring are fertile. In order to make a successful cross in my climate, I'd probably have to grow the parents in pots and/or indoors: I certainly don't have the consistency to add/remove a cover every day.
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