Any farmers out there?
Someone told me recently that if an ear of corn were picked from a field that the seeds on the ear would never germanate and grow. Is this true?
The person who told me this said that it was so that the sead companies could prevent farmers from harvesting and saving seeds to grow future crops.
If so, then this may not be as whacked out as it appears on the surface.
What do you mean the seeds will not grow? When the crop is ready, you harvest. And any corn planted today is hybrid seed, unless you are a home gardener and prefer the open-pollinated. And hybrid seed by nature will not reproduce true to the parent. So what are you saying?
BTW in my state they are making signs with pictures for tourists/travelors to use, identifying things like- this is a hay bale, this is a tractor etc. Trying to replace the “milk comes from the grocery store” mentality.
I don't know that as a fact, but I suspect that is true. I've heard rumors of lawsuits against farmers who were using non-hybridized seed corn and saving some of the resultant crop to reseed the next year. The seed companies were trying to force farmers to go hybrid across the board as each plant is actually a clone and is sterile. That forces the farmer to buy seed corn every season. It also presents a major problem down the road in that wide areas are populated by what is genetically a single plant. If a pest develops to which the plant(s) have no resistance, you loose the whole crop. It's risking a biological "pandemic", and that's the truth w/o sugar coating. All the seed people say is "It ain't happened" (yet)!
Regards,
GtG
The seeds will grow. They just won't be the same hybrid as the store bought seeds. If you ever grew tomatoes and "volunteers" pop up the next year, they're never the same.