Monday, July 2, 2012

engineered vs. heirloom ( or corn vs. maize )

the corn i grew at home last summer ( that the squirrels nailed all in one day ) in the top photo developed support roots just like the bayer/monsanto/pioneer engineered corn in the second photo did by last forth of july...no real surprise since they are somewhat related...so when i went to campus this evening to make sure the cowpeas were still well watered so they germinate ( and to put in some turnips just to have something to do ) it was no surprise to find that the hopi blue was developing support roots as well ( third photo ) but...what the hopi blue is doing that the dense yellow number 2 and the mass produced sweet corn didn't have a thought of doing is tillering...just like the zea diploperennis...the hopi blue has developed two tillers and that pleases me immensely...the photos of hopi blue ( even though it isn't called that ) in george f. will and george e. hyde's "corn among the indians of the upper missouri" looked so much like tesointe that i decided to grow some just to see if the morphology of the maize really resembled the ancestor as much as the photo seemed to show...so far so good and if things pan out i'll have some color photos to supplement the black and white ones form 1917...i am so easily geeked over these things...don't fret over it much though...more as the maize develops.

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