What, you disagree?
Well, let me tell you...
At some point a few homegrown indian popcorn seeds were tossed into Hubby's potted ponderosa pine in the corner of the dining room. They sprouted last winter, and s l o w l y grew through spring, and into summer. A couple of them were uprooted or otherwise bit the dust, but eventually we had a very classy stalk of corn growing in the dining room, aside a stubby little pine tree in a big, ceramic pot. I can't even uproot volunteer tomatoes from the WRONG place in the garden, and I certainly couldn't hurt this tall, spindly effort at survival. When it started to tassel, well, we all laughed.
And then we were astonished when it began to put forth an ear, with silk. Just a little one, with a little bit, mind you.
And then we questioned whether or not a single stalk of corn could self-pollinate. We knew the little tassel-bits had to fall on each strand of silk to produce a full ear of corn, but did it have to be pollen from a different stalk? Could it manage to reproduce all on its own? We decided we would find out, eventually.
The stalk began to dry out (I looked, but couldn't find a photo on my hard drive), and Organique pulled on it's long leaves many times, and it was bent, and we propped it back up... Eventually Hubby 'harvested' the ear... What do you know, it did it! It managed to reproduce! And counting up the kernels of corn, it actually reproduced near about "an hundred fold." Makes me wonder what a successful stalk of regular corn generally manages. Several-thousand fold?
In any case, it's enough to plant a nice little stand of popcorn next year, if we so choose. Such lovely stuff.
1 comment:
That's just super cool.
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