six days before the holiday

the new "seasonal"?

at about three this afternoon the temperature in my back yard was some sixteen degrees ( fahrenheit ) above the "average" high of thirty-seven ( yes, averages lie )...so there remains a lot of green out back...

the new yorkers are still looking fresh...

as are the winter rye and wheat...

the garlic is looking positively robust...

as are their cousins the egyptian walking onions...it's not all greeness and light though...

the teosinte has died back and the ears i left unharvested have begun to open and shatter...to little avail i am afraid...still, i have a lot of seed and will be germinating/planting come spring...there will be more...meanwhile down in the plant room...

spuds are coming along...and they are somewhat less "leggy" than last year...perhaps a combination of variety and a better execution of light/dark simulating a more accurate day length...or maybe just dumb luck...either way...so the n.o.a.a. forecasts above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation for the month...this may help the wheat and rye...we will see what it does for the rest.

four containers of differing results

nineteen days ago i planted spuds in containers under the lights downstairs...

and the difference in the results of the ensuing days are worth a mention...

the green container contains greens...however not an exceptional amount...one very "leggy" plant and a second one that is green but refusing to leaf out...the rest have declined to put in an appearance...

the blue container has three up and runing ( one has two stems from one tuber ) that are a bit less leggy and considerably more leafy...more promise here...

the first of the black containers also has three plants and they are looking far more leafy than their cousins in the blue container...however...

they are all outdone by the plants in the second black container...even more leafy and genuinely robust these may be yet another potato shrub akin to last year's irruption of green ( which had little to show in the way of tubers i might add ) down under the lights...a couple of things come to mind...first spuds are very genetically diverse and these are clones from different varieties...seasonal length and developmental pace may vary considerably from one to the other...secondly the tubers i planted had all chitted however they were of various sizes which meant they had diferent levels of stored energy to call on for growth and that impact may be showing here...they have had an equal opportunity...same compost...same lights ( although the have had the same darkness too and day length may be a factor )...same plant room...same water ( which is actually pretty minimal...it's a basement after all ) same temperature ( there is a heat vent directly above them )...so? we do what we always do...wait and see...patience is avirtue...so is induction.

viable?

forty-eight days ago i had a look at the twelve foot behemoth from the zea family ( i am not at all certain exactly what it was in the family however it was unmistakably zea ) that had begun to sprout silks and ears...it was late in the season...still it did produce ears...

and while some of them remained distressingly green until the first freezes killed them...

some of these odd ears may have come along far enought produce viable seed...

so out of curiosity i took two likely looking ones...

placed them in some unbleached paper towel soaked in distilled water...

and into a baggie in a dark place for a while to see what happens...

i did not soak the seeds in hydrogen peroxide to break dormancy as i would have with teosinte...mostly because i don't think this is teosinte...the plant they came from was allegedly maize...at least that is what the seed package said and they certainly looked like maize kernels whan i planted them...there was teosinte interplanted in the bed and there may have been some cross pollination...and these seeds many not germinate...or i may have a hybrid on my hands...who knows? we will be seeing...more in a week or so.

puttering

it is a fairly quiet time of year however i invested some time from a day off to wander around the basement...

where the spuds i have planted under the lights down there...

have stems...

and leaves that are greening up...so an indoor season well underway...

while outside in the yard where it is "unseasonably warm" even after a couple of hard freezes...

and what the drought monitor calls "abnormally dry" with this being the rainfall total for the month...in my yard at least...

none of which would seem to have had a negative impact on the garlic...

the egyptian walking onions...

the winter wheat and rye...

or a cpuple of dandelions i found out by the alley...winter seems to be hesitating...we will see for how long...and to what magnitude...

zea mexicanan ears are opening and shattering...

i took a handful of seed that looked reasonably viable from one...

which i broadcast and raked into a known patch of open space ( after i removed the catalpa tree pod ) just to see what comes of it in spring...perhaps nothing...perhaps a pleasant surprise...we'll see...

finally, for anyone who might be interested, this swhat the 2345 zea mexicana seeds i harvested this year looks like...i will be sorting them, mostly by color, saving some to germinate and plant in spring, and freezing the rest...more on that later.