soak

these are the teosinte seeds from last year and, since it is the the tenth of may and things will be consistently warmer as the month wears on...

i picked out sixty odd of the darker seeds...

soaked them in a 3% solution of hydrogenperoxide for upwards of half an hour to break dormancy...

wrapped them in brown paper towel dampened with distilled water, put them in baggies, and set them in a dark place...when i tried to germinate some of this seed last autumn the results were pretty much a disaster so i have some concern...i have a fair quantity of frozen seed from past years so i can still manage a crop if these misfire...we won't know for a week or so...so, like a lot of things in the emprical life, we wait to see...

i perchased some hopi blue maize seed so i can plant the descendant with the ancestor...just to compare...

the teosinte in the basement is still exhibiting silks...

the plant still has what i can only call a rudimentary flower...

and there is a small bulge in the stem below the silks...one presumes the plant is trying to produce seed...dna is relentless...i am not sanguine about results...there will doubtlessly be more about the zea family as the season moves along...stay tuned if you are interested.