potato fruit and tesouinte seeds ( or viability IX )

the early blue potatoes in both gardens on campus have finally given up blooming ( a signal that this incredibly long potato season is drawing to a close..the early blue in the community garden were planted one hundred and fifty-nine days ago...and they are still verdant as could be..the ones in the pgp are a few days older and just as green...clearly this season will be defined by frost )but that hasn't stopped them from trying to produce fruits...i found four nascent ones( top two photos )...doubtlessly they will not see maturity...if frost doesn't end them something else will...you can see by the barren stems in both top photos that there were more..well...i brought in five...two on the fifteenth of september and three on the twenty-ninth just to be sure of having some...prudence wins out this time...the potato fruit on the left in the third photo has been ripening in a paper bag since the fifteenth of last month and the one on the left since the twenty-ninth...the older one is much softer and has begun to evince a shriveled appearance and looks to be about ready to process for seed...the potato introduction station in sturgeon's bay wisconsin sent me some rather detailed instructions for seed removal which, among other things, involves a blender...there will be more on that as i assemble the necessary equipment...the other seed news involves the zea mexicana seed from 2010 that the coach returned to me and that i began to test germinate a few days ago...seems teosinte seed ( at least some ) is viable beyond two years...there is definitely a root there in the fourth photo and there are signs of movement in other seeds...so i am inclined to declare the teosinte seed crises resolved ( or, more accurately, state that there never was a crisis..just the perception of a possible one )...so parts of this season are melding into the next as we perpetuate generations...i am geeked...there's no stopping me.