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Post by Alan on Jun 5, 2008 21:52:37 GMT -5
Good link Johno, I searched around that site a lot this morning, lots and lots of terrific and useful information there, I encourage anyone interested in natural living to check it out.
I have not tried quail eggs mike, but will look into it, any clue where I could find them?
The astronomy domine here is doing very nicely and about a foot tall. The pure astronomy domine breeding seed is interplanted with some low growing greasy beans which are providing nitrogen to the otherwise cow manure amended soil that it is planted in. As well the Astronomy Domine and Silver King crosses are growing nicely despite going in the ground much later in the year, they will after their first cultivation be interplanted with some winter squashes from various crosses, mostly of hubbard ansectory but also some butternut variations. Pictures will soon follow.
There is a very nice patch of Astronomy Domine growing about a mile down the road that I gave to a co-conspirator of mine, it's up about a foot and a half or so, very good cool soil germination in that, the earliest of batches for our neighbor. I will be collecting some seed from that patch as well to add into the new mixes set to go out this fall/winter/spring.
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Post by johno on Jun 11, 2008 13:06:33 GMT -5
First A.D.'s are starting to tassle already, and less than three feet tall. Isn't that strange? Time for a shot of alfalfa meal, I suppose.
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Post by canadamike on Jun 11, 2008 21:02:16 GMT -5
Aren't there some dwaves in the mix? Mind you, mine is not all in the field yet, and I am all confused with what is ''the season'' when it comes to you lucky sons of the heat  But it could also indicate stress from some form of starvation...Why don't you go both foliar and in the ground? Did you mean alfalfa meal in powder or as a tea? It might also sound bizarre, but I used hair clippings from a women's hair salon for a while, until the owner left her husband ( my friend). They are an excellent free source of nitrogen and the slugs absolutely hate them. I am sorry that I forgot to mention it when we were discussing nitrogen sources month's ago...and the bleach they use is hydrogen peroxyde, another plus ;D |
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Post by johno on Jun 13, 2008 14:05:53 GMT -5
I mixed up some dry food for the corn and applied it at each plant, to be watered in: cottonseed meal, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, and molasses. I'm buying some sprinklers this afternoon... My preference is to walk around with the watering wand so I get a good look at what's going on in every square inch, but I need automation.
My sprayer only seems to work when I test it. As soon as I fill it with fish emulsion/water, it gets plugged up and only dribbles. There must be a little gob of something floating around in there somewhere. I'm taking it apart again to go through each piece one more time, then I might have to break down and get a new one (grrr!) All that to say that I plan to foliar feed the corn, but the sprayer isn't cooperating...
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Post by Alan on Jun 13, 2008 15:02:33 GMT -5
Johno,
there were definetly some very dwarf varieties in the mix, mostly added for color, cool soil tolerance, and earliness in the breeding of the O.P. Astronomy Domine line.
I wouldn't rouge them untill they produce or unless they are just ridiculously small and of no use, but I also wouldn't bother saving seed from those if they don't represent what you are after.
Most of my crop is about two and a half feet tall, no tassling. The three foot seneca arrowhead is tassling, but that's right on time for it, should have sweet corn right around July 4'th!
-Alan
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Post by canadamike on Jun 13, 2008 21:23:26 GMT -5
Johno, fish emulsion ( at least the brand we have here ) is very good at clogging wands and so. I would filter it before spraying it. Cheese cloth works well or ''bas de nylon'' in french, you know, those transparent sox women put on their legs... I can't remember the name, those who are ugly half of the time and divine the other half Does anybody has a suggestion as to a type of seed meal that is unusual or unconventional but could be available up here. It was OK to use whole weat flour when the 20 kg bag was 11$, now it's 28$... We do not have cottonseed meal here anymore, nor anything produced in the states unless it comes from around the border, costs of transportation have killed that business segment. And I can't manage to get peanut shells anymore, the mushroom guys buy them all. A friend could ground them... Ideas are in short supply , since the darn price of everything is up to the roof, so if anybody has one, please share |
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Post by johno on Jun 20, 2008 16:11:32 GMT -5
Mike, I did a little googling about your seed meal problem and came up with squat - sorry. Wish I knew more about it... You might have to grow your own - I suspect any ground grains would have a good nutritional value.
You, on the other hand, helped me tremendously. I always thought fish emulsion was sprayer-friendly, and never suspected it as the culprit. I've used T shirts as filters in the past, but they take too long. I tried a nylon stocking as you suggested, and it works great! I couldn't believe the pile of stuff left over - it looked like bug parts or something, and definitely would clog the sprayer. Thank you.
The corn grew significantly taller overnight after a good rain. Silks have started appearing now.
I don't intend to rogue any of the surviving Astronomy Domine unless it has really bad characteristics, since it's a fairly small population.
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Post by Alan on Jun 25, 2008 18:08:16 GMT -5
Hey Johno,
How is the Astronomy Domine doing now? Ours is growing very nicely with some of it tassling even now in the patch that isn't mixed with silver king. The silver king patch is coming along nicely. Out of the probably two acres of both types that I'm growing I think I have rouged out two plants both because of some stem rot, other than that it's looking good. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed untill harvest!
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Post by canadamike on Jun 25, 2008 23:47:47 GMT -5
Glad I could be of help, Johno. This is about the only time where being older has its virtues... I had more time to do things the wrong way and ask myself '' Why the fuck doesn't it work?''  One day, after myriads of wand cleanings, I noticed the sludge around the cap of my fish emulsion bottle and VOILA, the apple had fallen from the tree and proper conclusions were drawn. Now,as a general rule,anything that is in a bottle saying SHAKE WELL BEFORE USING gets an inspection first My AD gets in the ground this week, with ARGENT. I unfortunately did not get my super dwarf white corn from GRIN-USA ( 2.5 feet) so it will be done next year...unless I get it in a day or two. |
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Post by flowerpower on Jun 26, 2008 7:10:09 GMT -5
VOILA, the apple had fallen from the tree and proper conclusions were drawn. That musta hurt the apple.  |
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Post by johno on Jun 26, 2008 13:53:28 GMT -5
The AD is doing very well. There is a lot of variation, which I suppose was to be expected...
Quite a few are tillering like crazy, and have multiple ears - some have 4 or 5 silks. A few are expressing something I haven't seen before, some of the tillers have tassles with little ears on the end - hermaphrodite-ish?! I think there's one like that that is a tassle with 3 or 4 mini ears protruding from the top. Weird.
Some have red tassles and some have red silks. Good looking corn, overall. They have really shot up in size in the last couple of weeks. They went from waist high to head high. Now, if that big row of Silver Queen were just silking out as well...
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Post by canadamike on Jun 26, 2008 21:31:01 GMT -5
that's what is worrying me: our SE being late for some of the mix, or, worse, all of it. I haveleftover6-9inches high Merlin and some Mirai, 2 varieties, left, they are ShQ, but what t he hell, I will put them in the field,might as well experiment than do nothing. The AD and argent were seeded today, along with Pickanniny,Merlin and Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Popcorn, Red Fife wheat and an unknown soft wheat given to me by a farmerwho has no clue as to its name. He got it as leftovers of a wheat silo from an european born farmer. The europeans are the ones buying our farms here mainlyswissand belgian, then french and germans. He did not evenknow what was soft or hard wheat, I had to tell him what is what, and he grows 150 acres of it  Wheat is simply a commodity, good or bad, soft or hard, they get the samer price for it. By now I am used to see farmers not knowing a thing about gardening, but this one blew my mind. |
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Post by flowerpower on Jun 26, 2008 21:31:35 GMT -5
Can corn even be a hermaphrodite? Sounds pretty weird.. I put in a bunch of corn but they are all still pretty small. I think I still have room to get in a few more late ones for animal feed.
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Post by canadamike on Jun 26, 2008 22:48:22 GMT -5
Johno, please take pictures and post them. I sure hope I get this character in mine to study it. Alan, did you get this too?
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Post by Alan on Jun 26, 2008 23:49:20 GMT -5
What Johno is seeing with the corn creating grains on the tassle is a genetic adivism, a throwback to Teostine type grains, I've seen it before in OP and Hybrid lines and it does ocassionally happen, it's not a particularly usefull trait, but interesting none the less. It is from this characteristic that the original corn lines were bred and sourced. Technically I guess corn is a hermaphrodite since within one plant lies the ability to for the flower to fertilize it's own stamen, however inbreeding in corn is a bad thing, something to definetly be avoided. Mine is just starting to Tassle out but no silks as of yet. Many of them are tillering though with lots and lots of suckers, something that I myself would actually look and select for for an abundant and extended harvest. There is definetly a lot of genetic variability within the populations, lots and lots and lots of parents in the mix to add and select from. Keep me updated Johno. Oh, as far as the SE gene, trust me, I'm sure were still going to get it in the mix regardless, remember, one parent was Ruby Queen, an SE similar to Silver King but with the ruby red coloration. The tassles, pollen, and silks should show all kinds of variations, I've seen a ton of variations so far just in how the plants are growing, short, tall, medium, long leaves, narrow, wide, and even the golden streaking like the old OP field corn "old gold stripe", which, I'm not even sure where I would have stumbled upon that gene. This corn is going to be a thing of beauty in time I tell ya!  Our last possible corn planting date was on the 25'th (supposedly) but with the strange weather lately who knows! I just hope I get what I've got out to produce and that the Kculi Maize Morado matures a nice crop! Keep me updated everyone! |
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