over-wintering

most of the corn fields around here look like this in february...

however this one, about a mile down the road, has a crop over-wintering which is something i have not seen in a while...usually the field corn is all in by early december at the latest...there are nay number of reason why this corn is still in the field and there are pros and cons ( just like the rest of life )...it might just be that the farmer didn't get to it before the weather tuned wet and precluded harvesting...field corn is 35 to 40% moisture in the autumn...leaving it out to over-winter naturally reduces the moisture content obviating the need to use ( and pay for ) a grain dryer... it sems clear that the corn in this field is drying...i found more than these husks splitting open and revealing the kernels...

the cold would kill off pests and diseases...and, i am told, the roots releases nutrients beck into the soil...my figures are about twelve pounds of nitrogen per ton of corn cobs and i wonder how much the roots might contain...needs more research... and that is about the limit of pros i can find...on the downside the weather can be deleterious...specifically freezing rain...i've seen tree limbs and tree tops broken off by a coating of ice and corn stalks are not nearly as strong as wood...additionally, the cold is not the only thing opening the husks..

it seem sreasonable to assume that deer have been at work here...eating the corn off the stalk...

and leaving them , fully or partially consumed, on the ground...hungry critters in february...and that is what i could see from the roadside ( i did not wade out into the field...that would be bad manners...and trespassing )... when will this field be harvested? and how close to planting will that be? this will be a bean field next season and those usually don't plant until june...that doesn't mean a late ( or early? ) harvest won't interfere with planting some other crop in some other field...i believe farmers have more than enough to worry about in good times and that leaving a crop out in winter would simply add to that burden...than again i am not a farmer...just someone interested in the overall impact of the neolithic revolution.

natural? unnatural? new natural?

something like a four degree difference from one side of the yard to the other...or it might just be the thermometers are not calibrated the same...one suspects they were never completely accurate to begin with...that does not conceal the fact that it is near or above fifty degrees ( fahrenheit ) here on the fifteenth of december and that is unusual..or would have been in the past...it may just be what is these days for whatever reason you may wish to attribute it to ( bound to be some deniers out there )...

warm enough that the berry plants i rescued from my old truck before i sold it have decided it's safe to escape the netting i put over them to keep the new puppy ( it has been a busy autumn ) from digging them up ( a terrier, she likes to dig and fresly turned soil is irresistable ) and seek sunlight and evince new growth...admittedly they stay green all winter and are cold hardy...still, they generally hunker down afer november until march...so there is movement in the yard...

and in the basement the rescue potato is doing well...

as are the zea plants...i begin to suspect that, despite the oddly shaped seeds, these are teosinte...they simply do not look like maize...so..it's december and, for the most part, quiet...we will see how the remainder of the month goes weather-wise and what the yard does...the basement would seem to be prety stable for the nonce.

oh it's zea alright

there is no mistaking it...

and the rescue potato is supported.

what is this? IV

opened up the dark place and looked into the baggies and found five sprouts ready to plant, while the rest would seem to be misfires...we will give them more time to see however i am not sanguine about their viability...

the sprouts i planted five days ago are greening up and the concavity of the first leaf on both of them is a distinct zea feature...they are doing well and i am hoping for some morphological comparisons to known photos of both maize and teosinte...so far all i can say is they are zea of some sort...

so i planted all five..two with the originals and three with the rescue potato...which is becoming somewhat "leggy" under the lights and will doubtlessly be in need of support...happens every time...more as it develops.

what is this? III

while a few more of the hydrogen peroxide soaked seeds are showing signs of viability...

this one is ready to plant...

the unsoaked seeds are showing a bit more movement...

however only one of these is ready as well...

so i prepared some space under the lights...

planted them both and lowered the light until it almost touched the top of the container...the other seeds went back in the baggies and into the dark...will be checking on them on thanksgiving to see if more space is required...and now we wait and see what comes up...something from the zea family...but what? the sprout and root certainly look like teosinte...

simply the seeds do not...we will be checking in and having a look at morphology as things progress...perhaps that will clear things up.

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.