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Post by petitvilaincanard on Aug 26, 2013 15:29:19 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. That's really a mess about your fields.Hurry to find a new field.Can't you buy the property from your landlady,cheap because you have special rights as the one that used the land for years?Refuse to leave the field?Don't you have any protection of the law?
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Post by Andre on Aug 26, 2013 15:32:45 GMT -5
What is the price of this field ?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 26, 2013 15:53:55 GMT -5
I have been protected, in both fields... Through the end of the current growing season. The new owners of the big field sought me out to tell me that they are protecting my interests. I haven't heard a peep from the estate of my landlady for my main field, so I went ahead and planted and harvested as if nothing had changed. (Except that I didn't weed as carefully in either field as I would have if I was expecting to be there another year.)
The price of the land is way beyond my ability to pay, and not just a little.
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Post by Andre on Aug 26, 2013 15:56:23 GMT -5
How much is that ?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 26, 2013 17:09:11 GMT -5
Unknown. Around US$140,000.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 8, 2014 15:05:42 GMT -5
On May 7th I replanted the corn seed from this project. I planted it inside a patch of the South American synthetic composite corn. I'm intending to detassel the North American hybrid swarm to make a cross between them. I can envision a name for the resulting seed already: "Civil War Corn"
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Post by cortona on May 24, 2014 11:15:12 GMT -5
greath name my friend! greath name!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 24, 2014 1:53:47 GMT -5
As a followup to this post... I sent the zea diploperennis rhizomes to a grower in a warmer climate. Keen101 sent me some seeds which are crosses between normal corn and perennial teosinte, [Zea Mays X Zea diploperennis]: Ames 13502 & Ames 13503. There are only about a dozen seeds of each, but I'm intending to plant them this summer and see what happens.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 8, 2015 17:12:32 GMT -5
I was cleaning Isola de Este yesterday. This is my polenta corn. I got about 32 pounds. Of course not every cob gets selected. These were the ones that did not make it into the seed crop. I put all the seed from the bowl into jars. Then I processed this lot. They went into a separate jar. I will probably eat these first. I did not select these because some were off colored. See the purple corn kernels? Highly dubious and all...suspected mild pollen drift from Taos Blue or Kaana Pango. The cobs with inferior germination (spotty germ) were also not chosen. They make a lot of chaff that takes a lot of extra time to winnow out. Finally some of these little corns were tassel ears. I don't know if by not keeping them it will eventually eliminate tassel ears. Any thoughts Dar? Joseph? Corny experts? I want to eliminate tassel ear because they attract birds. The birds peck them, then they get smut.
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Post by DarJones on Mar 8, 2015 21:28:32 GMT -5
Even under the best conditions it is not entirely possible to eliminate tassel ears, however, the trait can be reduced significantly. The tassel ear trait seems to be highly correlated with the trait for side shoots off the main stem. If you can select for stalks that do not produce side sprouts, you will eliminate two problem traits with one round of selection.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 9, 2015 13:37:08 GMT -5
Thanks Dar, I had a feeling there was more to it than just not replanting the tassel ears.
I'll replant this next year and then fiddle about with it. So far, this has been my best polenta corn. I loved the Florianni, but did not like the yield. This yield 2x my Florianni.
I made cornmeal muffins out of the Papago and Cherokee Flour last night. They were vunderbar!
This year's corns are:
Cherokee Squaw (135 Days) Flint Huhni (60 Day) Gila River Reservation White/Yellow Flour Pi 433678 Ottofile Righetta Bianca (Flint/Dent?) (115days) Similar to Hickory King (So Dar this could be similar to your drought tolerant king).
I've done 4 corns every year (well 5 if you count sweet corn). But this year, I think I'll skip the sweet corn. With the drought, I have to continue to conserve water.
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Post by steev on Mar 9, 2015 20:05:06 GMT -5
In a pinch you can irrigate corn with beer, suitably processed.
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Post by DarJones on Mar 9, 2015 22:35:11 GMT -5
Cherokee Squaw is a soft dent, not a flint. There is a bit of flint genetics floating around in it. If you do some selection, you can develop a flint from it.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 10, 2015 13:29:49 GMT -5
Okay, wrote that down in the book. Which means I have to look for a flint to grow for the year!
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 12, 2015 16:50:55 GMT -5
Dar, One of my blue corns from last year has Fusarium moniliforme. As much reading as I can get to about this disease tells me that I cannot eat this corn, but my chickens can. However, www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3435026?sid=21106098370563&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&uid=3739560 in this article it says that it breeds both horizontally and vertically. Horizontally by outside infection, which can be controlled through seed fungicides, but vertically it remains a well that can infect future generations. This scares me because I certainly never want to see this again in my field, so I'm reluctant to even feed it to the chickens, what if they miss a kernel? So, what do you think? Burn it?
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