Saturday, September 1, 2012

hopi blue

the second of five hopi blue maize ears that my plants have produced was done when i got to campus yesterday so i harvested it today and brought it home...the seeds i planted were blue and the kernels on the ear i harvested are blue...nothing odd about that i suppose...maize would not seem to have the genetic diversity that say apples have...i will be reading buffalo bird woman and using her instructions on saving seed corn to save the seed form this one to plant next season just as a comparison to see how a second generation of an heirloom seed compares to the "volunteer" second generation of industrial corn i photographed just a few weeks ago...bet the second generation hopi blue looks a lot more like maize than the "volunteers" resemble industrial corn...i believe i will purchase more seed for next season but i will still plant some of mine...in two different locations...just as a control...so many directions to go so little space...as i was pulling out of the lot on campus i looked north towards the little calumet river prairie and wetlands nature preserve and amongst the wildflowers thought i saw some mighty familiar looking blooms...sure enough...if those aren't jerualem artichokes growing out there i will eat my hat with no salt...wonder if there was any gene flow with the group behind hawthorn? that could go a ways in explaining some odd behaviors this season...just thinking out loud.

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