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Post by Hristo on Aug 1, 2011 10:50:35 GMT -5
Wow, that's a weed! The leaves resemble Xanthium spp., but our Xanthiums never get that tall. Is it something new in your area?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 1, 2011 11:49:24 GMT -5
This weed only grows in one of my fields and not in any of my backyard gardens. It is not Xanthium. The leaves are very bitter tasting. I'll try to catch it while flowering. I guess I aught to maintain better hygiene when I move the tiller from field to field: Make sure I wash it between fields so I don't move these seeds to another field.
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Post by ottawagardener on Aug 1, 2011 13:04:12 GMT -5
Love what you used for scale.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 1, 2011 17:50:26 GMT -5
Here's a photo of what my F1 [Indian Corn X se+] corn patch looked like a few days ago. Mothers included Pink Hopi, Blue Hopi, Taos, Anasazi, Earth-tones Dent, Peruvian Morado, and a number of Indian corns collected from farm stands and home gardeners from around the Internet. There are also a couple rows of 100% se+ dehybridizing (F2) sweet corn, and a row of cherry flavored sweet corn.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 4, 2011 0:21:40 GMT -5
Based on the flowers of my mystery weed. I am tentatively identifying it as a member of the amaranth family. The height of the camera was 6 feet.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Aug 4, 2011 5:40:17 GMT -5
Could you would you taste it? Perhaps it's a worthy plant?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 9, 2011 23:06:27 GMT -5
The wild amaranth are nasty bitter-tasting fibrous plants. I was sick to my tongue for some time after eating it. No gentle lick for me, just shove a wad in and start chewing: It's an amaranth after all, what could go wrong? On a happier note. I harvested my first two cobs of corn today! It is an F1 hybrid [Long Island Seed Project's Ashworth X Precocious-se+] that I crossed last year. It is the corn that I grew under a floating row cover for a while. Sorry for the bad lighting. There are no do-overs for the first. I ate two cobs in the field. They did not seem particularly sweet, or particularly tender. They were a pleasant corn though, and of much higher quality than the ear I bought later on in the day at the grocery store... (And for what it's worth, I was not being a lazy farmer and stopping at the store to get food after working all day in the fields. I was doing market research.)
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Post by DarJones on Aug 10, 2011 22:25:48 GMT -5
so now we know the rest of the story. Joseph buys corn at the store to do market research. He eats the corn and decides the store is doing a good job of marketing.
Joseph, most of the corn in stores these days is a synergistic sh2 that can run up to 50% sugar.
DarJones
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 10, 2011 23:48:11 GMT -5
When I test it, most of the corn I get at the grocery store contains the shrunken gene. I haven't been testing for synergy with sugary enhanced.
The cob I got last night cost 69 cents. It was very immature. It was not sweet. It was not flavorful. I ended up composting it after eating about 3/4 of the cob. When I measure the sugar content of corn that makes it to my local grocery store there is only about 5% sugar left in it... They sure did a great job marketing it though....
I ate some cobs of painted mountain flour corn today in the field. They tasted much sweeter and better tasting than the one I got from the grocery store yesterday. They were tough though and very chewy., even crunchy.
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Post by DarJones on Aug 11, 2011 1:09:23 GMT -5
I need to harvest my Cherokee Squaw X Silver King. I've pulled half a dozen ears and they are ready now. I am getting 1/4 su kernels but roughly 3/4 of the cobs are red and 1/4 are white. I'm probably going to select for large ears and mostly use the kernels from white cobs. Next year will be the big year for self-pollinating plants. I need about 200 plants selfed so I can see which are se+.
DarJones
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Post by DarJones on Aug 12, 2011 1:09:55 GMT -5
I got the Cherokee Squaw x Silver King harvested today. I should wind up with at least one bag of seed that show the su phenotype and another 2 or 3 gallons of seed that are typical dent shape. I deliberately harvested the corn a bit early because we had excessive rainfall the past 2 weeks. A few ears were obviously immature on about 10% of the plants. I will cull these since they represent late season maturity which I choose to select against. About 2/3 of the cobs are red to pale red. I will save seed from them separate from the seed from white cobs. With any luck, next year will see me putting bags on a few hundred plants so I can self them and select the su/su se/se plants. In other words, plants showing high sweetness from the combination of su and se genes.
DarJones
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 31, 2011 0:09:13 GMT -5
Here's what my [Cherokee Squaw X Silver King] corn looked like this morning: It is a few days away from fresh eating stage. It has been in the ground since May 17th. I'm expecting the first fall frost within 1-3 weeks. It might actually produce viable seed before frost. It's pushing the limits on DTM that is acceptable for my climate. The cobs are huge... It grew more vigorously than Silver King (in past years), and seems to have a longer DTM. The hand of that cute farmer is resting on a cob 4.5' from the ground.
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Post by caledonian on Sept 25, 2011 12:56:17 GMT -5
It looks a lot like a member of the goosefoot family - Chenopodiaceae - although they seem to have been merged into the amaranths recently. How peculiar. They don't share all that many traits with the amaranths I know. If I had to guess, perhaps it's Giant-seeded Goosefoot (Chenopodium simplex)? I believe it's found in your area.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Sept 25, 2011 14:20:24 GMT -5
I am also curious to know if it is actually a amaranth. I took a picture of what i think is the same plant in my area now that it is blooming, and i have to say that it doesn't really resemble the cultivated amaranth all that much. There are some similarities i guess.
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Post by DarJones on Oct 9, 2011 1:47:38 GMT -5
Joseph, what is your update is for the Cherokee Squaw X Silver King.
Did it mature?
DarJones
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