andyb
gardener
Posts: 179
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Post by andyb on Dec 2, 2016 1:59:44 GMT -5
Got it. Those times make sense if the lights are in a visible place. My setup is in a corner of the basement with blankets hung up to keep light out (and in) so I can grow short-day plants in the summer, and stray light in the middle of the night isn't a problem.
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Post by imgrimmer on Dec 2, 2016 10:25:20 GMT -5
Are these teosinte graines edible? Are they soft inside like maize only with a hard shell outside?
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Dec 2, 2016 15:00:19 GMT -5
Are these teosinte graines edible? Are they soft inside like maize only with a hard shell outside? That is my understanding yes. Teosinte seeds apparently can be popped just like popcorn and perhaps is one reason native people collected them and kept breeding them until they got more modern corn. Presumably anyway.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 4, 2016 22:31:28 GMT -5
I have some Zea mays teosinte seed laying around so I tried eating it tonight. I'm calling it inedible as raw seeds. But it popped up nicely.
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Post by steev on Dec 4, 2016 23:03:10 GMT -5
So it blew off the tough coats, but still had some "hull"; I assume it tasted like popcorn, so you'd spend hundreds of years turning it into "Orville Redenbacher"?
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Post by imgrimmer on Dec 5, 2016 7:35:15 GMT -5
I have some Zea mays teosinte seed laying around so I tried eating it tonight. I'm calling it inedible as raw seeds. But it popped up nicely. So, popcorn is probably the reason for the domestication of maize
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Post by starbuckwhy on Dec 21, 2016 16:29:15 GMT -5
dude, sooo coool! that is fantastic, i am very jealous after drying a stripping the hybrid cobs did you notice any structural differences in the cobs? i had a few cobs that i hand pollinated very carefully but with drastically different breeds, i got the same sort of spotty pollination results on some of those, but not on the ones that i hand pollinated with similar species. this leads me to wonder if it was actually some kind of failed hybridizations. i notices the largest number of failed pollination in the ones that wear a cross of huge hominy corn with 10-15 inch cobs and 15 foot tall stocks crossed with the tiny strawberry popcorn with the 3 foot tall socks and the 1-2 inch cobs.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 21, 2016 17:58:48 GMT -5
after drying a stripping the hybrid cobs did you notice any structural differences in the cobs? The cobs were much smaller diameter than I am used to, and the kernels were very firmly attached, so my corn sheller didn't do a good job of shelling them.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Feb 11, 2017 13:08:56 GMT -5
Joseph Lofthouse, are you planning on doing any backcrosses with the diploperennis-domestic hybrids back to Z. diploperennis to try and recover the perennial traits? If someone is able to do so i think they should. I don't even think Z. diploperennis tassels or silks the first year, i'm fairly sure it's similar to a bi-annual sort of deal.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 11, 2017 17:43:35 GMT -5
keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.): I haven't made plans regarding the diploperennis-domestic hybrid other than to grow it. Seems to me, like Zea diploperennis is day-length sensitive, so even 2nd year plants haven't flowered for me. I buried some rhizomes in the root-pit last fall, so maybe they'll survive, and I'll have something to play with. I suppose that I could try the garbage can trick to shorten day-length. The hybrid clade also seemed to have some day-length sensitivity, but I selected for the earliest maturing plants, so eventually, that aughta reduce the day-length sensitivity issue. It might be nice to create a version of this corn that is a sweet corn, instead of a flint corn. I really aughta look to see if I can find any of the Long Island Seed Project's Ashworth that I was working with. I really like that for making crosses. I think that it's one of the varieties that I lost with my family melt-down a few years ago.
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Post by bunkie on Feb 11, 2017 18:00:15 GMT -5
Joseph, Restoration Seeds, Sow True Seed, and Fedco are a few who have the Ashworth seed. I liked the Ashworth corn, too. Grew it several years ago and got the seed from Garden City Seeds. It grew well in our northern climate. I'll check out my stash and see if I have any extra for you.
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Post by starbuckwhy on Feb 12, 2017 4:20:19 GMT -5
gonna try again this year. using the seeds and things that i already have. i was thinking of buying some of your hybrids through your web site actually, but got distracted trying to figure out how to use the public encryption code, then got side tracked with another project and never picked it back up. *shrug* i'm thinking i'll try them in containers on the porch this year as well, last year i tried them in the garden and they didn't hang in there as long as i would have liked before they got killed by something. this year it will be nice to have a backup or two in a pot, so i can at least use the pollen to try and get some hybrid seeds. i'm probably going to be pretty preoccupied with my fruit tree grafting projects and the potatoes from seed this year.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 25, 2017 22:08:42 GMT -5
I didn't have any survivors of Z. perennis or Z. diploperennis. Not those that I tried to overwinter indoors. And not those that I buried in the root pit.
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