what is this ? II

i am unsure how kernels of alleged hopi blue maize turned out yellow...and i am still uncertain of exactly what this is...however...

in both the batch of seed i soaked in hydreogen peroxide...

and the ones i simply put into a damp paper towel they are the ones showing the most viability...they will be planted and place under the lights in the basement where i am somewhat less than convinced there will be anything more than,perhaps, green leaves and stalks...still we will be giving anything that germinates the opportunity to have a basement season and we will certainly be direct sowing some outdoors come spring simply to see what might happen...and since a basement season is under discussion...

the rescue potato has decided what stems are going to grow and which are superfluous and has begun to sprout more leaves and gain some height...opportunity taken.

what is this?

i planted three separate beds of mixed heirloom hopi blue maize and teosinte this past season...and, incidentally, it has not been a very promisng season in terms of viable teosinte seed...or maize for that matter and that is the point of this post...

teosinte seed develops in husks just like its descendant, however it produces a single row of seed with no cob ( and you can tell by green seed in november that things did not go well...by this time last year i had far more mature seed than this time around )...and there were a number of plants that produced just this...

maize produces ears with multiple rows of kernels ( i know, you know that ) and these ears did as well with three, four, five, and seven rows respectively left to right...

whatever this may be it certainly does not look anything like hopi blue maize...

although there are some "kernels" with a bluish cast to them...

when i took a few off the cob they did look a bit more like maize kernels...however, still clearly not...teosinte and maize can cross pollenate and i have to wonder if that is what has happened here...and i wondered if the seed might be viable...uncertain of how to proceed in finding out...

i used the tesointe/hydrogen peroxide method of breaking dormancy on half by soaking them for twenty minutes and putting them in damp paper towels in a baggie...

and the other half simply went into a damp paper towel...then both into a dark place, and we wait...we will be looking in o them form time to time and , if anything germinates, there wil be an addition to the bsement winter season...

speaking of which, the rescue potato is doing well...more, if anything happens...or even if it does not.

disrupted plans

my gibberellic acid arrived two days ago and so the pieces for my planned winter basement season of growing four corners potaotos form seed derived from the fruits i had harvested seemed to be moving along...i was not planning on starting anything down there until late this year or early next and when the plants had finished, if they produced tubers, i was going to grow outdoor potates cloned fron tubers grown from true seed next season...until, of course, my plans were disrupted...

when i found this spud chitting away in a corner of the plant room and very clearly almost on its last legs in terms of stored energy...feeling an obligation to, at least, provide opportunity for growth...

i planted it deep in a container leaving only the very top above the surface ( which looks actually like it was producing tubers )...added water...and turned on a grow light...we will see where we get with this.

four corners seed

the fruits i have harvested from the four corners potates have begun to soften...

so i picked out a couple of the mid-sized ones to see what i would find ( beyond the obious seeds ) in terms of numbers...

using the sharpest knife i own i cut them open...

and squeezed out the pulp...something like a tomato...which is no coincidence since they are both from the nightshade family...they are full of solanine and that always makes my hands itch...it si also toxic ( although not in the small dose one would recieve from a couple of fruits ) so it's always a good idea to wash your hands and owrk surfaces thoroughly when finished...if nothing else than to control the itiching...

these are small seeds...

about a sixteenth of an inch in diameter and exceptionally flat...

those two fuits ( and i have a dozen more to do ) yielded one hundred seeds...

which i set out on a paper towel to dry...the solanine will pretty much weld them to the toweling when it dries...no worries about lost little seeds...now to acquire some gibberellic acid and break domeancy...i grew spuds from seed a few years ago from fruits on more standard potatoes ( red pontiacs i think ) over the winter...a basement project yet again...starting in 2024 i think to time out any tuber production for summer planting...

and, while seeds are the matter at hand, it is october and teosinte seed is starting to come in...we are pleased.

four corners

over the past three months the four corners potatoes i planted on the last day of june have flowered...

and produced fruits...

fourteen of which i have retrieved as they dropped off the plants...so we may have viable seed...

today when i got home from work i noticed that two of the four plants had pretty much finished up...two are still green and one still has a fruit attached...so i decided to harvest the two that were finished...

one thing that immediately became apparent was the need for larger containers in the future...i suspect there would have been more tuber production if there had been a bit more room...

still two plants produced thirty-seven tubers...

that weighed in at a full ounce and a half...

which i do not find to shabby given the size...i will, i believe replant some of these and let them winter over outside to see what spring brings...the rest i will store in the basement and, if this past season is any sort of index, be planting again in next june.

notable sighting

the borage was looking decidedly unhappy so i dragged out a garden hose to douse it...

when i encountered a honeybee on the blooms...unremarkable except for the fact that i haven't seen a honeybee in my yard in a couple of years...that does not mean there haven't been any visiting, simply that, until a few minutes ago, i had not seen one in quite a while...we will talk about teosinte as the seeds come in.

concords

divining from the looks of the concords in the fir tree that it was time to harvest i got out my anvil shears and a five gallon bucket and went to work...

the vines there produced a reasonable amount of fruit...

however that was the low hanging fruit...

the vines in the catalpa tree were somewhat further off the ground...

and they held a bit more in terms of grapes...those collected...

i moved to the vines in the mulberry tree...

which were somewhat less laden with fruit...i did leave some bunches that were higher up in the tree for the birds...at least in part because i was not interested in getting much more than eight feet off the ground and reaching over my head to cut grapes down...we will make do with what i harvested...

the lot weighed in at 5 pounds 10.575 ounces which i washed off in the sink drowning more than a few earwigs...

i did save some seed just to see what might happen come spring...

i removed the grapes from the stems, and covered them with water in a stockpot...

it takes a while to bring grapes to a boil, however they finally did and i simmered them for ten minutes filling the kitchen with the aroma of warm grape juice...they are cooling now and in another hour or two i will strain the juice though some cheese cloth and refirigerate it until it is time to produce some homemade grape jelly...we will see how that goes.