Quote:
Originally Posted by Akula
I understand the benefit of the established corn and root system for the first generation however its unclear to me how the prior growth should be leveraged by following generations (second, third, fourth, etc.). The first generation (first pup produced by the original plant) will be directly tied to the original plant however what about the second generation? Should it be a pup from the first generation (i.e. directly tied to the 1st generation and through the 1st generation to the original corn) or a pup produced by the original corn in year 2?
I can select pups from either the original plant/corn or the first generation produced by the original plant.
Which pup is better to select and nurture for next year in order to leverage the prior corn and root growth?
Hope the above wasn't too confusing! I'm talking about maximizing the growth of my namwas. Thanks!
My biggest namwa is now greater than 13'. He looks like he has topped out and has been crowning. My gallery has a recent photo of the crown. He better pop a flower soon because we are running out of road!! Haha.
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Here is what we do with our GM.
Once sword suckers (pups) start growing around the first pstem and once they have reached the minimum size of 50cm out of the ground we will dig them up, all except one, the workers have instructions to leave the largest of the pups alone.
That pup is left to grow.
Until the original pstem starts to flower, we continue to remove all other new pups that pop up, once the pups have reached 50cm size as we use them for transplanting.
Once the original pstem starts to flower, we will leave the strongest next to appear once more. At that time we have three pstems allowed on the mat
Once the first bunch is harvested and the original pstem is cut, we will still have two generations ready to replace, and the process is repeated again and again.
We do this to get larger bunches as the mat does not spend energy growing too many pstems to adulthood. Some farmers will top off the third pup to slow it down if it is growing too quickly.
You can of course apply this to Namwa.
Keep always the biggest and healthiest pup.