General

This wiki page focuses on growing crops in the greenhouse. We have grown maize, fescue, and hemp in our bay.

Please remember to be respectful of our neighbors. Only use Wallace lab tables and equipment marked Wallace Lab or JW (Jason Wallace).

• Shut the door behind you when you come in. Don't let in pests, and don't give out key codes for locked buildings.
• Ask other labs before you mess with light or temperature controls.
• Orange Stakes indicate you will water plants themselves. You can just stake out the four corners, you don't need to stake every pot. It also helps to tell the greenhouse manager (for the whole greenhouse not our lab) if your plants should not be fertilized or sprayed with pesticide.
• Make sure you date your stakes so you know how old the plant is.
• Dispose of heavy trash (60 lb bag of sand) and large plants (fully grown maize) in the dumpster and not in GH trash cans.
• Plan large experiments out with Lab Greenhouse Manager to ensure everyone has enough space.

Maize

• Growing normal maize to maturity
• TODO: Growing minimaize in the greenhouse

Tall Fescue

• Propagation and care of tall fescue

Peanuts

Fertilizer Schemes

Dynagro 7-9-5

• I have tested watering MiniMaize with Dynogrow at different ratios: 1:50, 1:100, 1:1000, and None.
• 1:50 and 1:100 3 times a week is far too much, it burns and kills the minimaize.
• At the time of this writing, 1:1000 stresses out the maize, but they still tassel.
• No fertilizer leads to very colorful and stressed plants. So far they have not tasseled, but they have not been outright killed like the 1:50 maize.

Hoaglands

• I am just now starting with testing 1/2 and 1/4 Hoaglands with MiniMaize planted in sand.

Osmocote

• A slow release fertilizer great for growing maize to maturity. A scoop every few weeks does wonders.

Shelling Maize - TODO: Move to its own page & about harvest

Ear shelling

1. Dump all bag contents into a container (ideally a sieve)

2. Check for plant tag and that all the ears look roughly the same (=same genetics).

3. Use the metal corn shellers and/or your hands to remove all kernels from cobs

• If a kernel jumps out of the pan, leave it. It’s better to lose some than risk contamination

• Try to avoid moldy kernels or ones that look obviously bad/dead

4. Count out 20 kernels and record their weight (in grams)

5. Record the total weight of all kernels

6. Dump kernels into a bag. Tear off the end of the plot tag and drop inside.

7. Fold the bag down to close. Use a rubber band to keep closed and secure the remaining plant tag to the outside

8. Place in bin and move on to next bag.

Things to record:

• Plot ID
• 20 kernel weight
• Total weight