sub-ears

seasonal cold has finally arrived and a hard freeze has killed the teosinte plants pout back...there will be no further seed maturation so i have been bringing in the most likely looking ears from the plants and husking the seeds...

the ears are all composed of a variable number of sub0ears, each with a single spike of seeds in its own husk...

this particular ear has six sub-ears...

and rendered forty-four seeds by my count...

and altogether the six ears i brought in this evening left me with around two hundred seeds..the darker seeds are more mature and have more developed endosperm and have the best chance of being viable...i would expect little from the seeds that are still green and, as they dry, i will be sorting them by maturity and getting a better count...with all the ears i have husked int he last three evenings i would estimate i have gathered ( and i am not finished looking over the plants...i have been doing it the failing light of a mid-autumn evening...a better look in daylight tomorrow ) somewhere around five hundred seeds with possibly a third or so with good prospects of viability..once they dry i will be freezing the best prospects and doing a test germination in spring when i can plant any successful ones outdoors.