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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 30, 2013 5:40:24 GMT -5
Zero germination? That's... that's... close to impossible isn't it?
We are seeing "sweet spots" in our corn field. The most obvious is in the popcorn. A nearly perfect circle of deep green plants circled by healthy, but clearly lighter green plants that are shorter by about a foot.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2013 8:38:29 GMT -5
Thought I'd chime in. Better late than never, I suppose. Here's what I've got this year.: Blue Fox Flour Black Apache Flour Schroeder Hickory King Pepitilla (uncontaminated gourdseed) Yellow Hickory King x Cuzco Gigante Morado F1 Warner's Gourdseed Gaspe' Morden Hopi Blue x2 Araucanos (early flint breed from Central Chile) x3 temperate-adapted tropical populations (Coroico, Southern Cateto, and Caribbean) Coroico x Bloody Butcher F1 Andean Flint composite 2 Hawaiian synthetics
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Post by steev on Jun 30, 2013 23:38:22 GMT -5
Jo: modified crop circles! They are among us! oooEEEooo!
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 1, 2013 13:20:43 GMT -5
LOLOL Dude, you slay me! Actually, we are thinking that it really means that our soil is reviving. Don't know if you recall, but we've had to use fertilizer AND nitrogen to get our corn to grow in the past. We weened of the fertilizer, and we used only a TINY bit of nitrogen last year. This year we are chem free! We've got the peas volunteering in droves again and a decent showing of brassicas already as well. Still far to many unwanted weeds; horse thistle, false indigo, morning glory/bind weed, palmer amaranth, and common burr. Still, hand weeding diligently against the worst of them (horse nettle in particular) is already paying off good dividends.
That's an interesting list you have BJ... What is Hawaiian synthetics?
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Post by Andre on Jul 2, 2013 6:29:20 GMT -5
My 85 corn populations for 2013 (4 feets large block of each population). Will control pollination by bagging ears and tassels. Picture taken yesterday (45 days after sowing and very bad weather since. Only 450 GDD in 45 days vs 600 usually at this date). Corns are between 1 and 2 feets tall by now. In the alley you can see corns I remove because I leave only 1 plant each 5 inches My corn field in Bordeaux - 2013 by Andre, on Flickr I do some trenches between rows for weed control and watering. Is this how you do too ? I'm litterally infested by cockspur, goosefoot, chickweed, couch grass and purslane probably arriving here via the cow manure I use to feed my sand...
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 2, 2013 8:59:09 GMT -5
We've used extensive mulching using wood chips and pine needles to control weeds here. We do SOME hand weeding, but not nearly as much as without the mulch. Also, planting the corn closer together with alleys as narrow as possible, barely enough to walk through, allows the corn itself to out compete and reduce weeds.
One thing that I have forgotten to mention... We have used ZERO manufactured fertilizer this year. Z-E-R-O It's a VERY good feeling I might add. Assuming the corn produces decently and has great flavor, the encouragement factor will be off the charts for us.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2013 12:08:01 GMT -5
Mnjrutherford,
The 2 synthetics I'm growing are populations from Hawaii that were bred for resistance to 2 diseases: Northern Leaf Blight and Southern Rust. I've planted roughly 1000 seeds of each and will be saving the earliest 20% and crossing them with some early tropical material.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 2, 2013 12:50:41 GMT -5
Interesting... but... what makes them "synthetic"? That's what I don't understand....
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Post by Andre on Jul 2, 2013 13:31:45 GMT -5
A synthetic population is the result (the synthesis) of the crossing of numerous populations.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 2, 2013 15:08:41 GMT -5
Ok... NOW I understand... I just read the FULL definition of the word "synthetic". I understand or understood the definition as only "artificial, chemically produced". You can see why I was confused!
It will be interesting to see your results. We have corn from Asia, but not Hawaii. Are there any properties you are looking to enhance aside from the disease resistance?
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Post by Andre on Jul 2, 2013 17:32:26 GMT -5
These Hawaian populations are not originally from Hawaï. There are a lots of seeds companies that came to Hawaï to create there new population because the local climate allows 3 or 4 planting seasons in every year so you can create a brand new population in only 2 or 3 years
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2013 19:33:03 GMT -5
Jo,
The Hawaiian populations are the result of combining 14 - 19 inbred lines (derived mostly from Caribbean maize) with high general resistance to said diseases followed by 6 - 10 cycles of improving standability, ear quality, etc.
Basically, I'm trying to put together a giant hodge-podge of corn from the tropics and temperate areas focused on reliability and flexibility rather than yield or culinary quality. For example, this year I'm trialing maize from 13,000 feet in the Andes where the average summer temperature is 65 / 45 as well as corn from a part of the Amazon that regularly receives more than 300 inches of rain per year (Coroico). I also have several collections that have good resistance to cornborers, which are bad in my area.
Eventually, I'd like to synthesize a population that can be grown anywhere with at least 2550 frost free heat units Fahrenheit and at least modest rainfall. A breeder in Peru did something similar by creating a corn that does fine in both the country's eastern jungles and its high mountain fields. It will be a challenge, I think, but interesting to pursue.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jul 2, 2013 20:21:46 GMT -5
Fascinating project. Good luck with it! We are working on edibility from the standpoint of nutritional absorption but we also love sweet corn and pop corn. We are much more amateur in our approach and knowledge, still we are learning with a good curve so I count it success.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 2, 2013 23:05:51 GMT -5
Here is what my South American corns looked like today. They came to me from bjargakarlinn. I am also growing the variety closest to the front/left in two other patches, attempting to bring the high vitamin content into my popcorn and into my sweet corn.
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Post by mayz on Jul 3, 2013 5:49:22 GMT -5
My sweet corn (F1 Double red x Mirai white)sown two months ago has only one feet of height because of the cold spring of this year. Hoping for a "hot" summer...
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