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Post by canadamike on Jun 29, 2008 15:15:13 GMT -5
Alan,your early mix is showing tassles , so I am on for july corn it seems. Since I want to beat you for 4th of July corn, I'll cook a plant into soup...on July 3thd...lalalaleeere...
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Post by canadamike on Jun 29, 2008 21:02:38 GMT -5
I went to take pictures of the corn tassling, onlyto discoverastorm that happened while I had supper laid it on its side a bit. I also took pictures of my squash patch and melon patch, I'll post them later when I have my puter back,this is the neighbour's, to show how discouraging it is here if you are not looking at your lettuce corner.... Even on plastic mulch melons barely grow, squash the same.We only had 3 so so sunny days in June, I amfrigginlucky I grow in beds, this is the 3rd year in a row they have saved my life. No kidding, is there a good northern rice? I really have a sweet spot for it and by undoing some beds I could really grow a lot I think. 3 years in a row of teaching plants how to swim is looking more and more like a trend... On the plus side I got all my accessions from GRIN-USA so WHITE MIDGET and BLUE JADE are in the ground. I have another accession of a W.Midget, this is definitely a different corn, and also a W. Midget Improved. My W.Midget was soown with Lincoln Homesteader peas, Baby Blue( Blue Jade)and Mirai 421bc and some cabbage were undersown with lotus corniculatus for weed suppression/ nitrogen fixing/bee feeding. Alan, do I have time to plant Mexican June if I dehydrate the seeds in a dryer? I need to try a high carbon producer, and at 15 feet it fits the bill. I want to grow seeds this year and check the combo corn fiber/gypsum on my clay 2 years down the road... Since corn produces up to 3 or 4 times the carbon it needs, I' ll plant it in a high nitrogen zone to produce my much needed fiber,which means anywhere and everywhere in both cases  |
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Post by Alan on Jul 5, 2008 21:10:11 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about all the problems Mike, luckily I think I've got mine all worked out now. I guess we will see.
It's probably to late to be planting corn now. In this area June 25'th is usually considered the last possible date to plant and grow to maturity, so I'm thinking in your area maybe a couple of weeks earlier.
I too would like to find some rice to grow here in Southern Indiana, grain is an area where I need some more experience.
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Post by johno on Jul 7, 2008 23:45:35 GMT -5
I've got some silks dry now. I'm afraid to pick them because I want to save a lot of seed... I'll get the ones from the 2 buggy plants to eat.
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Post by Alan on Jul 9, 2008 22:34:40 GMT -5
LOL, same dillema here Johno, what to pick to eat, what to pick to sale, what to pick to save for seed, with every freaking crop, it's hard, but great for selection pressures!
Same deal with harvesting anything, it's got to be done several times over in a week, and many times in a season. Enough to eat fresh, enough to can, enough for the CSA, enough for market, enough for the co-op, and the best of the best for seed! It can get to be stressful and confusing, but I do love it!
-Alan
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Post by johno on Aug 4, 2008 13:25:19 GMT -5
Alan - and any other corn experts (start speaking up lurkers) - I have a few questions.
The Astronoy Domine is at the stage where some of the plants still have a little green on them and some are completely brown. All of the ears are fully developed, but not fully dry (not really hard.) I'm worried about bugs and birds doing damage, so I'd like to pull the ears and finish drying them indoors. In fact, I already got a tray of them picked last night before it occurred to me that I'd better ask... should I go ahead with this plan? And is it okay to remove the husks - mainly to make sure there are no hidden insects, but of course curiosity has me burning to see what I've got!
Much of what I'm seeing are the shriveling kernals I expected from sweet corn. But there are also dent type kernals and flour types (fat and round.) I know these are good to eat at the milk stage, even though not shriveled types, but should I be selecting for shriveled only at this stage of development? At any stage in the future? Or are we happy with a higher degree of genetic diversity rather than all shriveled type kernals?
I got about 30 or so ears picked last night, and I (conservatively) estimate that there are at least three times that many more. Can I rogue the smaller ears in favor of the long fat ones, if that means not using 10% to 20% of the ears I have for seed-saving? Or should I use them all for the sake of genetic diversity (especially considering that this is a small population,) and call the natural selective pressures experienced in the cool, wet spring good enough for this generation?
And diverse it is! What a grand display of colors, etc.
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Post by canadamike on Aug 4, 2008 14:56:44 GMT -5
Johno, I would gladly accept an offer of kernels from some small cobbed plants, as I will work with some dwarfs.
The interesting thing is all of us will create something different. If I was in your shoes, I would keep them apart and re-seed the others, that is if you are not depriving the mix of color, and maybe reintroduce them later if need be.
They have been crossed with a white se, haven't they?
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Post by Alan on Aug 4, 2008 20:06:22 GMT -5
Sure thing Johno, as soon as you start seeing the husk turn a little yellow and start to dry a bit they are as mature as their going to get, you will know when you pull the ear because it will break away from the plant easily. You can also and should also pull the husk back and place them in the sun or in a greenhouse or window somewhere to dry. Once they are dry enough to seperate seeds from the cob you can do so and throw them in a dehydrator for about 2 days at the lowest setting to dry, or you can leave them in the sun untill dry enough to store.
I have been selecting for the larger ears that are lower to midway up on the plant, 6-8 inches, lots of colors. The flint and flour type kernals your seeing are actually still sweet, you'll notice the crinkling more as they dry, if anything you will find a few flint types here and there, I throw those out.
The small ears I am saving for our northern friends (mike and others) but I will not replant them here on my farm.
On an interesting note, the higher up the plant the ear is the latter the maturity, the lower the earlier. This also determines plant height. For you and I Johno the higher of the lowest ears and the lower of the highest ears are probably most suitable.
When your done saving/drying seed let me know, I'd like to trade you some of my second generation seeds for some of yours so as to maximize diversity in both of our crops.
Hope this helps friend!
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Post by johno on Aug 4, 2008 20:23:45 GMT -5
Thanks for the help guys.
The ear height:maturity time ratio makes sense, but I hadn't thought of that on my own... Plain to see now that you point it out. Interesting. I recall collecting one from very near the ground that was a long cob but not as thick as the other long ones. Might leave that one in the mix, eh?
I'll save seed from the little ears for sending up north. They came from short (early...) plants, and also from plants with multiple ears.
No se whites. Silver Queen (su hybrid) was planted around the same time, but matured later. Also planted Stowell's Evergreen even later. I checked some of the white ears, and they had a few dark kernals. So there was some overlap in pollination, but not too much. I intend to save the dark kernals from white ears to throw back into the mix.
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Post by johno on Aug 24, 2008 11:45:10 GMT -5
I dried the AD. There are lots of smaller ears from early plants and multiple ear plants set aside for anyone who wants to develop those kinds of traits (like Michel.) Also quite a bit saved from the bigger ears, all selected by nature for cool wet soils...
Picked all the Rainbow Inca and it is drying, as well as a small amount of ears from Silver Queen and Stowell's Evergreen. Some of the kernals on those white sweet corns are purple, pollinated by RI. Those I'll set aside for whatever purpose we devise over the winter.
I'd like to wait until the weather is cool to mail seeds, as a few days in the heat can reduce viability.
Who else is developing Astronomy Domine?
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Post by canadamike on Aug 24, 2008 14:15:03 GMT -5
Me, and it seems AD and argent are tasseling at the same time for most here. The early WHITE MIDGET accession I am growing is now tasseling and it is, indeed, a dwarf, and quite multi-stemmed.
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Post by Alan on Aug 24, 2008 21:23:00 GMT -5
I got all my seed saved from Astronomy Domine now, about 3 lbs of seed which represents the best of the best in my opinion. Should be relatively early season selection, somewhere around 75 days or so. Mike I had you a bunch of small ears drying in the greenhouse, unfortunately the local one eyed half tailed squirrel stole them before I noticed. Glad to here Johno will have some.
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Post by canadamike on Aug 24, 2008 22:54:43 GMT -5
Ok OK! Your own selection will do then... ;D
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Post by johno on Aug 25, 2008 11:36:41 GMT -5
The one-eyed half-tailed squirrel sounds like quite a character...
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Post by canadamike on Aug 25, 2008 13:21:56 GMT -5
I think the hoosiers have a good recipe for squirel stew ;D
I read it a month or so ago, there is a book written on weird local recipes like that, along with heirloom vegetables and breeds..
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