yuletide mashua

temperatures are falling out back and there is a white christmas forecast with a "winter weather advisory" on tap for tomorrow..so i went out back to look around this morning...

Jean's wild strawberries from new york out in the east bed are holding up fine...

the ones in the south bed that spent the most time under the last snowfall are looking a bit more ragged...they will be fine however..."tough little plants" is what the vendor called them...i believe that...

the brussels sprout that overwintered last season look somewhat worse for wear...i am wagering the sprouts are still edible and will be bringing them in...

there are still unshattered ears of northern tepehuan teosinte out there...i will let them go..i have very low expectations of any results from this seed which was not matured when frost killed the plants...

there are still silks and ears barely protruding from the zea mays parvaglumis stalks out there too...

this ear had three sub-ears that produced half a dozen reasonably sized seeds

none of which looked remotely as mature as the seed i bought ( purchased on the left, backyard on the right. )

"so wher's the mashua?" i hear you saying...no worries...we have arrived at the slightly more lively basement season..the mashua from a cutting and the one that has come up from a tuber are doing very well and will be transplanted into a larger container soon...yesterday a second plant growing from a tuber emerged so there are now three and i am, hopefully, on my way to tubers to plant outdoors next spring...

the spud that burst into leaf a few days ago is growing robustly and has advanced its season significantly since yesterday while a second one has begun the process itself...

the aerial bulbs from the egyptian walking onions are turning into fully fledged plants too...if they produce they will "walk" out into the rd in spring...

finally ( and, seemingly, obligatory ) the flowers on the zea mays mexicana downstairs are moving along, albeit slowly...where this is ending is anyone's guess...we will be finding out.

teosinte lean

temperatures here continue to be more seasonal...

and this northern tepehuan teosinte plant has leand ( actuall more like broke ) over to allow the ears to disperse their seeds as far from the parent plant as possible...

unfortunately for the plant's efforts, most of the ears on this plant contain green seeds that will not germinate under even the best conditions...it simply started its reproductive cycle too late for this climate...

the plant next to it started a couple of weeks earlier and many of its ears have shattered already ( those that i did not harvest for seed anyway ) and the seed is littering the ground...as i have said i will leave it to see if it germinates come spring...volunteer teosinte would be a first...

the zea mays parvaglumis is leaning out as well...relative share similar traits...

while it did have a long enough season for ears top actually emerge from the stems this year, the seeds i found outside and those i brought in were all green...these plants' reproduction will fail in this climate will definitely fail...

a northern tepehuam ear i brought in may yield a couple of viable seeds, however i am thinking the seed harvesting season is about done...now we wait to see if they have any life in them.

what? more seeds?

recent sub-freezing temperatures have done in the zea mays parvaglumis and the northern tepehuan teosinte...

one of the two northern tepehuan plants flowered late and while it produced numerous ears they are all far too green to have any chance of containing mature seed...i may harvest then as decoration but they will serve no use in propagating more plants next season...

the second tepehuan plant still has ears that look promising so i brought more in today to husk and dry and flense out the ines most likely to be fertile...

along the way more than one ear has shattered as i tried to harvest it and multiple seeds have hit the ground...i am inclined to leave them there to what ( if anything ) happens in the spring...volunteer teosinte would please me...

the zea mays parvaglumis has a much longer season than the northern tepehuan and, because of the late autumn warmth, this year i have actually found ears outside the stems of the plants...a first...

so i brought some in and was not surprised to find the sub ears all contained nothing but very green seeds...i will let them dry but have little in the way of expectation of viability...

finally i have been taking a look at seed structures and find i can sea a hardened sheath fro a sprout wrapped around the outside of these seeds...