Hal
Deeply Rooted
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2013
- Messages
- 442
- Reaction score
- 149
- Points
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Yes, Painted Mountain, which is a great variety, takes a little too long here to grow on natural rain fall.
Thanks for the pointer to Bear Island Flint. I will start searching for that now.
Concerning my planting time, I can plant in the last week of June in anticipation of the rains. (BTW, a terrible time be outside because of the no-see-ums, but they are not active until 9 AM.) Deep down, about 10 inches, there is some moisture in the soil, but there are issues with planting that deep. Not all varieties seem to tolerate it, although I have read that some were bred for it. Still, it can take a while to come up all that way. Some corn (Painted Mountain) that I planted that deep back in late May are up now (another experiment) and are about 4 inches tall. However, only 50% made it. I do not think that the germination was that bad. I think it was the depth, but I will do a germination test on the seed (I bought it for this year, so it is not supposed to be old seed).
Concerning my profile, I need to figure it out a bit better. I need to put up location and a profile picture. I have no need to be anonymous.
For location, Candy Kitchen, New Mexico, which is no place at all, although nice enough to have a Wikipedia entry, I hear... I have never looked at it. We are all just a bunch of odd balls living on marginal land... pretty, if you like austere, but everybody close by here a hundred years ago tended to be rather thin most of the year.
I think there might be a Bear Island Flint source in the US, otherwise if I am mistaken it will be Canada but either way good to have the name in case you come across it one day.
Now you have sufficient soil moisture but too far down, when I've had that issue I've placed the corn in a furrow in contact with the moisture and with enough soil on top the stop it drying out but to give a more suitable planting depth and then as the plants grow I've gone and hilled up the soil around them as they have grown when there was sufficient rain of course but in dry times I've used the furrow as a means to deliver water direct to the roots of the plants when I have had water to irrigate them.
Candy Kitchen would make a memorable name for a corn you end up breeding!