24—Lancaster Farming. Saturday, August 9. 1975
Com field day held
By Dieter Krieg
LOGANVILLE One way perimenters have come up
scientists are looking at to with. Admittedly an idea
increase corn yields is which poses a number of
“tassle seed.” The tassle of a problems, Trojan Seed
10-foot tall corn stalk might Company believes it’s
be a strange place to have worthy of further study.
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How tall is the corn? So tall says
four-year old Travis Doll. His three
year-old, camera-shy brother, Jason,
meanwhile inspects an ear of corn.
They are the sons of Burnell 0011,
Brodbecks RD, who attended the
Trojan field day.
Sewing winners named
Members of the Lincoln Sewing at County level dress revue were
Club held their fashion show on (from left) Laurie Leaman, Lynn
Wednesday evening August 6. Farlow, Sharon Molt, Lois Good and
Members of the club who won awards Julie Hartranft
com, but that’s what ex-
f £ Sr*
Phil Taylor, Trojan seed
specialist, explained that
tassle seeds develop when
there is silk on the tassle. It
is just one of several ways
his company is considering
in an effort to get more corn
on to a stalk.
Taylor was the featured
speaker at a corn field day
sponsored by the Atlantic
division of Trojan Seed
Company, which was held
here Thursday afternoon
with close to 200 farmers in
attendance. Trojan’s
Atlantic division,
headquartered in York
serves a six state area, plus
parts of North Carolina.
Besides “tassle seed,”
which resembles numerous
“fingers” hanging from the
top of the plant, loaded with
com, visitors to the field day
were also shown ears of com
with 32 rows of kernels on
them. This is yet another
way the company is testing
for increased yields. Taylor
pointed out normal ears have
only half that many.
“If you increase the length
of each kernel by only one
eighth of an inch,” Taylor
told his audience, “you can
increase yields by 10 to 15
per cent.” The company is
experimenting with that
concept as well. While such
“exotic” plants were
available for demonstration,
they are not yet in the
market category since
testing has not been com
pleted and a variety of
problems need to be solved.
7t '
For example, how would
you harvest the “tassle
seed?” Taylor believes the
potential yield may exceed
that of conventional ears by
as much as 60 per cent, but
the problem is getting it.
“Tassle seeds” are also
highly vulnerable to smut,
insects, and birds. The seeds
are bare with no husks for
protection.
Guiding interested far
mers through test plots,
Trojan representatives
pointed out differences
between dozens of proven,
experimental, and exotic
varieties. Fanners had the
opportunity to check for
Phil Taylor points out some of the important characteristics of Trojan
field corn.
themselves which variety easy one to breed for,” he
they thought to be best, while added,
representatives described Another interesting part of
each and listed uses and the activities was the so
applications. called “stress wheel” where
Multi-eared stalks were on com was planted in a pattern
display as were plants with resembling the spokes of a
“erect” leaves. “They’re the wagon wheel. Rows were far
coming thing,” Taylor said, apart at the outside
pointing to the leaves. Ex- perimeter, but narrowed
plaining why, he said the progressively towards the
erect leaves offer much center. The purpose for such
more exposure to sunlight, a planting pattern is to
and consequently more determine stress due to
energy to produce. “It’s an overplanting. The results
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were clearly visible. The
outside regions of the wheel
had a population stand which
would be equivalent to 17,000
plants per acre. In the center
the respective figure would
be 85,000 plants per acre.
Com was noticeably taller in
the center due to it having to
“stretch out” for sunlight.
Ears were extremely un
derdeveloped or even non
existant. The less crowded
plants near the edge showed
normal progress.
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Lancaster
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West Chester
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