Maize
From Open Source Ecology
Basics
- Also known (mainly in the USA) as "Corn"
- A Cereal Grain native to the North/Central Americas
- Was Domesticated first by the indigenous peoples in southern Mexico ~10,000 years ago
- Currently the most efficnent per-unit of land route to Sugar and thus Ethanol short of Sugarcane ?
Best Practices
- From Wikipedia:
- "Cold-intolerant, in the temperate zones maize must be planted in the spring. Its root system is generally shallow, so the plant is dependent on soil moisture. As a plant that uses C4 carbon fixation, maize is a considerably more water-efficient crop than plants that use C3 carbon fixation such as alfalfa and soybeans. Maize is most sensitive to drought at the time of silk emergence, when the flowers are ready for pollination. In the United States, a good harvest was traditionally predicted if the maize was "knee-high by the Fourth of July", although modern hybrids generally exceed this growth rate."
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