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Post by flowerweaver on Sept 4, 2014 14:36:18 GMT -5
As many of you know much of my landrace corn project was destroyed by a tornado and what I wasn't able to harvest right away was invaded by fire ants and picked over by racoons. I probably harvested about 25 mostly scrappy ears off 400 plants. I've been so busy with home repairs since that I did not plant a fall crop of corn. However, there were a handful of kernels in what I harvested that were already sprouting in the ear. So rather than let them go to waste I planted them strategically in my backyard so that my outdoor shower might again have privacy from the neighbors. Well, they only grew 18 inches tall--LOL! But the F1 cobs are interesting, although sparse.
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Post by steev on Sept 4, 2014 18:55:21 GMT -5
Well, if you shower sitting down, it'll mostly be OK.
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Post by cortona on Sept 6, 2014 9:43:45 GMT -5
it looks a bit like mine in the early stage of selecting flour corn! wish you luck!
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Post by flowerweaver on Jul 16, 2015 13:01:20 GMT -5
After two years of drought, last year's tornado and hail, and this year's deluge of 50+ inches of rain mostly over a month and a half period with resulting flooding-- and during tasseling--the flour corn harvest was again abysmal. Out of 500+ plants about 7 incomplete ears were produced. Many ears never fully matured, or were taken over by huitlacoche. On the positive side, at least what I did salvage is interesting to look at. This was a field of some of last year's F1 landrace and flour corn ( cortona). Morado Potolero and a couple of pink Andean corn plants were also tasseling at the time. The Andean corn did not silk. The MP has not yet harvested, and I'm anxious to see how it has crossed. It was the only corn that attained normal height and looked healthy throughout it all. Although all of it tasseled, very few silks were produced so the number of ears will be reduced. I'm wondering if the lack of silking was also caused by all the rain? I have not seen this before since too much rain is not usually an issue. Picked it after milk stage but before it has entirely colored up to get it before the fire ants do. Flowerweaver's Indestructible Flour Corn
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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 16, 2015 15:03:32 GMT -5
Flower...pink flour? It's so girly.
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Post by reed on Jul 16, 2015 15:47:33 GMT -5
I also had some silk-less ears, new to me too. Also had bizarre amounts of rain, not fifty inches thank goodness but enough that garden paths are covered in green slime. I only had a few of the silk-less ears, they were on Oaxacan and Hopi.
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Post by flowerweaver on Jul 16, 2015 16:24:39 GMT -5
12540dumont yes, indestructibly girly! More like hardened farmwoman pink. reed good to know I'm not the only one experiencing the non-silking. According to Purdue: "The most common cause of incomplete silk emergence is severe drought stress." That definitely is not the problem. I have not found any mention of too much rain causing this. I probably have 100 MP plants and maybe 10 ears if I am lucky.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 16, 2015 18:56:42 GMT -5
I got a report earlier today from another farmer that had almost no silking this year. he wondered if it could have been due to the extreme hot temperatures we had a couple of weeks ago. flowerweaver: I could imagine all that rain you had washing the pollen away before it could reach the silks.
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Post by reed on Jul 17, 2015 5:39:54 GMT -5
When I was going out couple times a day to hand pollinate I saw that a to large degree the corn somehow knew to shed the pollen between rains. Of course I don't know how much also got washed away while it was raining but there was often powdery pollen being released right after a rain, even while the tassels still looked wet. It was there but the humidity made it almost impossible to collect and distribute it, it just stuck and clumped on what ever I used to collect it. I resorted just to bending a tassel down as close as I could to an other plant's silks and shaking it. That worked well, except of course when they were too far apart, as a lot were. flowerweaver , what is MP?
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Post by reed on Jul 17, 2015 7:52:11 GMT -5
Picked it after milk stage but before it has entirely colored up to get it before the fire ants do. Flowerweaver's Indestructible Flour Corn I have lots of corn in that stage or maybe even a little farther along. I guess it must be viable for seed like that? I'm not worried about fire ants, thankfully, but the humidity and more predicted rain has me a little spooked.
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Post by flowerweaver on Jul 17, 2015 22:38:28 GMT -5
Joseph, I do think the rain likely washed most of the pollen away. reed MP is Morado Potolero, a purple Mexican flour corn I'd mentioned. From what I understand, corn that is past milk stage can picked and dried down for seed.
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