Saturday, October 4, 2014

viability

i usually buy annual teosinte seeds from native seed search to be sure the seed i have is viable..but this year they are already sold out of seed ( why? bad year? or are more people growing it? )...i have some seed i bought from them last year and i am fairly confident of its viability so i decided not to test germinate it...i have other seed as well...the baggies int he top photo contain seed i bought in 2012 as well as seed from plants i grew here last season...maize seed is usually viable for two years so why shouldn't the ancestor be so as well? well...i don't know so i am searching for empirical evidence...i got out the bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide and put half a dozen seeds from the 2012 store bought seed to soak...it soaks for twenty minute to break dormancy and while it was soaking i got out the brown paper towel...this is important...the bleach used to make white paper towels doesn't do germinating seeds any good so unbleached paper towels are a necessity...and i doused them in distilled water ( chlorine in tap water probably wouldn't be a problem but i am being picky )...when the soak was done i put the seeds in the toweling and into a properly labeled baggie to await results...if we don't see any in the next couple of weeks there could be a serious lack of annual teosinte plants in my gardens in 2015...not an outcome that would pleasew me.

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