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Post by oldmobie on Apr 17, 2014 19:53:07 GMT -5
Yes, you could select for corn that was red white and blue presuming you start with those colors. But when red and blue are on the same kernel, it will look dark, almost black. You would have to have a white corn with special genetic background. I suggest getting seed of Pennsylvania Butter Flavored white popcorn to start with. It has the traits you would need. I just got some in a Garden Web trade. So I have a few approaches in mind, and I wonder which you guys think is best: 1) Plant a row of my blue popcorn, then a row of the Pennsylvania Butter Flavored, then a row of whatever red kernels I can scrape up. Leave all the tassels intact. 2) Same planting, detassle the PBF. 3) Same planting, detassle some percentage of the PBF. I assume that if I detassle anything, it should be the PBF, if I'm looking for that clear pericarp, and that's maternal.
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 13, 2014 7:48:54 GMT -5
I have been way sad this spring that I haven't been able to find my radish seeds... And I'm still missing a packet of watermelon seeds. Still months away from planting watermelon, but I aughta get serious about finding the radish. Must be the downside when your stash gets too big for the fridge. (That'll be me soon...)
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 11, 2014 21:30:18 GMT -5
Not a radish fan myself, but my wife loves her Cherry Belles and Sparkler White Tips. So far she hasn't liked any others we've grown. But I've got the landrace bug, and want to breed and select. She likes the flavor, texture, size, and reliability.
She'll taste test anything I grow, but if it's not close, it'll get rogued out. I'd love to introduce more colors and shapes.
I'd also like to try using big daikons for breaking up soil and mining minerals up from below. It would be really cool to produce a 2 pound Cherry Belle or Sparkler, "till" with it, and bring a few in for the table. Kinda like killin' 2 birds with one stone.
Besides getting daikon seeds, any advice? Anyone know similar varieties?
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 11, 2014 17:31:21 GMT -5
Direct sowed lettuce and Romanesco to finish the SE square foot bed from yesterday. Romanesco in the 2 middle squares in back, lettuce in all of the 3rd row and the first 3 squares in row 2. Wife planted SW bed (4X4) in onions, 9/ square. She also sowed radishes in NE bed (4X4), 16/ square. (Holy cow, what'll we do with 256 radishes?) No home yet for her 4 bare-root roses and 2 blue-berries. Temporarily planted in wash-tub of mel's mix so they can be watered.
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 10, 2014 21:14:48 GMT -5
Monday, ate "broccoli" of collards and wild mustard; excellent! Seeded plenty of collards today to ensure a goodly Spring crop of this, next year; I think I must make an effort to encourage the fleshiest wild mustard, so it doesn't get weeded out. Just the stems? Did the taste resemble broccoli? Did you peel the stems? How did you cook it? I'm excited about this, because to date, I'm a broccoli failure. (Picture a small tree, without the crown or head that we eat.) But I can grow collards!
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 10, 2014 19:48:16 GMT -5
This is my first year WinterSowing. Every jug has sprouted something, except for my mustard and kale. That was also the driest jug, so I waterered it and put it back. Transplanted all the cool season stuff out to one of my square foot beds. Leaving the warm season stuff for later. Left to right: Front row: Lettuce - spinach - michihili cabbage - pak choi Row 2: empty - empty - empty - collards Row 3: empty Row 4: Broccoli - empty - empty - cauliflower Gonna direct sow a bunch more lettuce, a bunch of radishes, and some Romanesco. (Don't know if that's broccoli, cauliflower, or a cross.)
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Bamboo
Apr 2, 2014 11:00:13 GMT -5
Post by oldmobie on Apr 2, 2014 11:00:13 GMT -5
My main concern is having it spread into the next county. How would you confine it to one area? I have read a few way of doing it, mostly very costly or involving pesticides (not going to happen). I probably already know the answer but is there an easier way? My wife got me some for Christmas a few years ago. The guy she bought it from said he just tills around the outside frequently. According to him, the new shoots are tender and easy for the tiller to cut off.
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 2, 2014 10:07:31 GMT -5
No, I don't. Thank you for the link, though! Too bad I don't have easy microscope access, looks as though it would turn my vague understanding into definite answers.Wow, this has gotten very involved! I guess that's why you don't see red white and blue ears (yet). I'm learning a lot, I want to thank everyone for your time spent tutoring me! I still intend to try this, but don't want to disapoint anyone due to a bad return on your investment of time. For anyone who hasn't picked up on it yet, my relevant knowledge prior to this thread extended as far as punnett squares. I read somewhere about aleurone only being one cell thick, but forgot before I started cutting. Never thought of the leaching thing. If you guys don't mind that I'm in over my head, then keep it coming.
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Post by oldmobie on Apr 2, 2014 2:35:23 GMT -5
Having trouble inserting picture. If it doesn't imbed, here's a link. These kernels are from one ear. All the pericarps show the stripes. (You told me that's from the mother, so the whole cob's the same.) I think I skinned the aleurone off of all but the bottom one. It has blue. I would call the pericarp a transparent yellowish brown? (With stripes.) I guess this isn't educational for anyone here but me, but I think I'm starting to get it.
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Post by oldmobie on Mar 30, 2014 22:52:30 GMT -5
Is it fair, then, to say pericarp color is determined exclusively by the female, aleurone exclusively by the male (barring mutation)? Or do I over-simplify?
For example: I could detassle any white popcorn, and only let it be pollinated by a selected corn with the aleurone color I want, and the detassled mothers would produce the same color that was present in the father? (Perhaps muted, depending on whether the white popcorn had a white or a clear pericarp)
I may have to disect some indian corn seeds tomorrow...
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Post by oldmobie on Mar 30, 2014 21:44:35 GMT -5
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Post by oldmobie on Mar 30, 2014 21:41:49 GMT -5
Sounds like I have homework... Suppose you have a corn (of unknown pedigree) with a color you want to use, but you're kind of a noob and don't know how to tell if the color is in the aleurone or the pericarp. How do you determine the pigment of the individual parts? Can I learn to tell with the seed intact, or will this require disection?
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Post by oldmobie on Mar 28, 2014 16:50:45 GMT -5
Choose a strain of corn with photosensitive kernels... At about the dough stage, shuck the cob and replace the husk with something like a dark piece of paper or rubber or tape with a stencil cut-out on it in the shape of a maple leaf. The kernels exposed to the light would turn out to be a different color than the kernels under the masking... I haven't paid all that much attention, but red/yellow is a common photosensitive combination. The same stenciling technique could be used to write words on a cob, or a spiral pattern, etc. Sorry, that was a smart-alec, "unanswerable" question. Forgot I'm playin' with the big boys now!
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Post by oldmobie on Mar 28, 2014 14:19:20 GMT -5
So it looks as if I should still try, and enjoy the experiment, but don't get my expectations too high. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It has probably spared me a great deal of future frustration.
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Post by oldmobie on Mar 28, 2014 14:06:06 GMT -5
Want to breed some patriotic strain of corn ? Or maybe French ? Just choose your flag and stick it on the stalks ! ;-) That would save a lot of time compared to getting all the blue to gather at the stem end and the red and white to line up in vertical stripes! Canadian would be the real nightmare... how would you get corn kernels to draw a maple leaf?
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