another ending ( almost )

it has been cold...actually unseasonably cold for this early in november...

a bit over two weeks ago the bees were still busily mugging the marigolds out front...

things have changed...out back as well...

the cold has induced the northern tepehaun teocintli ears to open and begin to shatter even though the bulk of the seed is still green...

i have collected some however i am skeptical of its viability...

the zea mays mexicana began to shatter long before any cold settled in...

and there are still a multiplicity of green ears on those plants as well...

still, even this late they are producing mature seed...so i will be going over the ears for a bit yet (and hence the "almost" in the header ) to add as many as possible to the seven hundred or so seeds i have already brought in...things are slowing out there...i doubt they will stop completely...more as it comes up.

teosinte tent

there is talk of frost tonight...and on a few nights to come, interspersed with frost free nights to complicate matters...this disturbs me in teosinte terms...

i am trying to get as many of these green ears to produce viable seed as i can...so...

so i lashed some bamboos together with twine...

and wrapped a turn of landscaping fabric around the top and closed the gap with clothespins...

another turn of fabric below but overlapping the first and the "teosinte tent " ( so dubbed by a close friend ) was complete...i only covered half of the plants...because of material issues and as a sort of control to see if frost bitten plants will actually produce viable seed..if so frost protection becomes superfluous and a waste of time, energy,and materials...data collection for next season.

unscheduled indoor move...ready or not the season begins

this mashua plant out in the half barrel is still looking good...the first frost will end that...they are not cold tolerant...one of the three had died back and i dug it up yesterday and...disappoitingly...i found zero tubers...so i decided to act...

i mixed some potting soil and vermiculite in a container...

and dug the third plant up out of the barrel, leaving as much soil around the roots as possible ( it has been raining so the soil was soft and the plant came up readily ) to avoid root shock...

and i planted it under the lights...i brought in a trellis from the barrel to give the plant a place to vine and i festooned it with some of "puddles" garland for good luck..that was a mighty long lived resilient plant...

we will be growing her offspring from her seed in spring...

a...i am uncertain how to term it so let's say twig...broke off the plant in transit so i dipped it in rooting hormone and planted it with the rooted plant...sometimes this works...sometimes not...we will see...

it's october and milkweed pods aren't all i will be collecting...i have a dozen butterfly weed pods to harvest and share...

and the delicate yellow blooms on the sweet clover...

are producing delicate little seed pods...

the teosinte has produced many ears...there is a threat of frost this week...so i will bee covering the clustered plants and leaving the outlying ones in the open...to save work and materials and to act as a sort of control to see if the frost exposed seeds come out viable...making a virtue of a necessity i imagine.

northern tepehuan silks

found the first ones today...hoping for a warm october ( even with the evil portents that may bring with it )...not earth shattering news...i am geeked anyway...

its sternest shape

perhaps not its "sternest shape" as far as temperature goes...

there has, however been a considerable amount of snow overnight and into this morning...

this, for instance, is the winter rye...

and this is the garlic in the bed of my truck...

still some teosinte seed hanging on...

and a little green left on the brussels sprouts...

the snow grinds on...more is forecast...it is very quiet outside.

thaw's over

winter has made something of a return on the south end of the inland sea...

and it is "lake effect" snow that is trying to reinsulate the winter rye...

it's january however there are still teosinte seeds in ears that have not opened yet much less shattered...

the original growth on this mashua plant that was grown from a cutting has died back which led me to think the peat pot was becoming too confining, so...

so i transplanted it into a container and put it in the plant room under the lights with the rest of the mashua...

the spuds in the nursery are coming along well...

as is the yacon ( although there is still no word from the third rhizome )

there are plentiful nasturtiums cohabiting with the teosinte...

another teosinte flower is blooming...

however i still have no real idea what this structure on the plant next door might be...we will have to wait for event to evolve before we find some conclusion...

and last ( but surely not least ) Jean's "puddle wheat is looking robust ( along with its cohabiting onions )...it has been under the lights for seventy-six days...if all goes well ears should begin to form late this month and ( perhaps ) we will have indoor wheat berries before spring...