The weather has eased from summer nights to autumn morning chills… Since we have some crops that might not appreciate the drop in temperatures (such as our melons, chiles, cucumbers, and tomatoes), we are covering our greenhouse frame with plastic to keep the heat in at night.
This is also the time of the year to identify the corn plants that we think are the most mature, or seemingly “happiest” of the population, and to flag them off for seed saving. This year we identified about 15 plants that we would like to be sure to save for seed. The rationale of saving seed from the crops that mature the fastest is to try and select for the crops that will be the most effective in avoiding frost at the end of the season and that will mature in the shortest amount of time. Below you can see Greg Romero on the left who was once an intern with UNM-Taos’ CAMP program but is now under contract with AIRE to help complete our goals. On the right is William Roth who is now an intern with AIRE from the UNM-Taos CAMP program. These photos were taken by Micah Roseberry.
Leave a Reply