as though my photos, writing, and general deportment hadn't given this away some time ago...i can be a bit of a slob at times...sloppy with soil...sloppy with water..i have always belived in content over form...i agree with charles bukowski...when form becomes important it's because there's nothing to really say...so there's soil and spahgnam moss and potting mix and compost all over the work table i'm growing plants on...i went down there this morning to check on things and water the plants before i left for work and what did i find growing in the soil on the tabletop? grass...this isn't the first time i've had grasses in with my trees ( which, as i believe i have pointed out, are just big grasses) and it's got me wondering...i eliminated the last grass because it was interfering with a tree (that didn't survive anyway) and it ws a choice between helping the tree or satisfying my curiosity about what it might be that had sprouted and where it had come from...i chose the tree last time, but these were growing in soil on the table top ( i didn't take my camera down there this morning...i wasn't really expecting to find plants growing on the table and i was under some time pressure...so i have no photos of this event...too bad) so i chucked them into some soil in some pots and gave them some water...this is the same table i was trying to grow teosinte on last spring so i am somewhat curious as to whether these grasses that are turning up are seeds spilled on the table last spring that are now germinating, or if there are rouge seeds in the compost or potting mix taking advantage of the habitat i'm provising for the trees...whichever it is you'll know as soon as i find out...if it's a bunch grass it isn't teosinte...if it starts to tiller i will be writing and photographing from now until fall.
so far the new batch of trees are doing okay...between one and three inches tall...i have more seeds ( an apple at breakfast every day provides an abundance of seeds) that i have not put in to germoinate yet because; 1) i am waitin gto see how this batch does, and; 2) i have some issues with space...there is safety in numbers and i will be doing these things in batches until some actually become saplings...then we will think about where the orchard will be.
Actually i would disagree. When i planted Zea diploperennis last year, it sent out like 20 tillers. I would say it is very much a bunchgrass, but perhaps only the perennial ones do that...
ReplyDeleteI really wish i had taken a better picture, but here is a picture of one while it was still small. http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af224/keen101/SUNP0005.jpg
I look forward to your teosinte progress. I will be sure to come back to your blog later in the year. Perhaps by then i will also have some success with mine.
it may well be a bunchgrass...the seeds i dumped in that pot were zea mexicana that i got form the usda and which i had had little success in germinating indoors...if it was something like barnyard grass it keeled over well before it went to seed
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