[AT] garden question; potatoes

[charlie hill]

John,  I read an article recently about corn.
It seems that it is one of the most modified plants in agriculture.
It started out as what amounted to a grass with just a few grains
on it somewhere in Mexico or that area and has been selectively
bred over 100's of years to what we have today.  I don't know if it's true
or not but the article implied that  corn could not survive in the wild 
without
continuous cross breeding by the seed farms.  It would revert to
it's origins and be useless as a crop.

Speaking of a tangled mess on the ground.  A few years back when I was
dabbling in adjusting Federal Crop Insurance a farmer near here who farmed
about 4000 acres had some flat planted (no rows) corn that got blown down by
an early hurricane.  He had I guess 100 acres like that or more.   He called 
me
to look at it but he told me he was going to try to get it up.   When I saw 
it
it was laying as flat on the ground as if you had cut the stalks off with a 
cycle bar
mower.  Some of the ears of corn that were touching the ground were 
sprouting.
He had new combines with some sort of head that would work right down on the 
ground.
He called me later and told me he got it up and didn't loose enough to file 
a claim on the
loss.   He ran both JD and IH equipment.  I think those combines were JD.

Charlie



-----Original Message----- 
From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 10:19 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] garden question; potatoes

I would think all seed have been bred for certain qualities. Back in the
'80's I ordered some open pollinated field corn from a place in South
Carolina. After planting it I can see why we prefer hybrids. Some of the
ears were 8ft up in the air and by the time it was ready to combine, the
stalks were so weak they were breaking resulting in a tangled mess and a lot
of missed corn.

John Hall


-----Original Message----- 
From: Richard Fink Sr
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 3:45 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] garden question; potatoes

I have what may be a real dumb question. In organic farming how is it
organic if using a hybrid seed. Or one that has been made to be better[
witch means to me screwed with]  Charlie ain,t that what is to fix any
problem throw money at it????????
R Fink
PA


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