MM Seed available again

[Jitterbugdude]

Aristocob is selling MM seed (in a kit form). Well worth the $10.00 because you will easily get about 20-30 bowls out of it.
https://www.aristocob.com/2018-19-H...-Meerschaum-Corn-Cob-Pipe-Seeds-P5681929.aspx

After you plant and harvest your crop, you get:

 

[deluxestogie]

Making your own cob pipe is both fun and practical. I've grown six of the "largest" ear corn varieties available to the public (Bloody Butcher, McCormack's Blue, Kentucky Boone County, Virginia White Gourdseed, Tennessee Redcob, Hickory Cane) , and these yielded some nice cobs. But the MM cob seeds that JBD sent me produced a higher percentage of nicer, more solid cobs.

I would predict about 3 or 4 usable cobs from the kit. How many bowls that makes will depend on how tall you want your pipe bowls. The kit provides two stems. Quite smokable stems can be cut from untreated bamboo tomato stakes.

My impression from the significant variability in color and other traits of the MM corn stalks and ears is that this is not a specific hybrid, but rather an heirloom variety. Although I have not replanted (and probably will not replant) my harvested MM seed, I suspect that it propagates just as well as any vegetable heirloom. But just that one small crop is plenty of cob pipes to last decades.

Bob

If you aren't interested in growing your own corn, you can just order one of the cobfoolery pipe kits: https://www.aristocob.com/COBFOOLERY-Cob-Kits-C335637.aspx

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Bob, I had to check my harvest before I posted this but... from the 1 dozen of seeds I received in the kit I harvested 16 cobs almost all of which would yield 2 bowls per cob. So this kit should produce about 30 usable bowls. If I were a master pipe maker/cob grower aficionado I might be able to eke out a few more.

 

[deluxestogie]

From the link you provided:

Conversations with Missouri Meerschaum’s General Manager Phil Morgan led us to believe that your best approach to successfully growing your own corn would be to plant 9 seeds in a 3’ by 3’ square, with one plant centered in each square. That said, we are both concerned about the corn’s ability to germinate, so we will include extra seeds to increase your odds of success. We predict that you will likely yield only two ears of corn that may be suitable for making a pipe, so we are including shanks and bits to complete two pipes.

My own results were better than that, but many fewer than you produced.

Bob

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Maybe I should stop growing tobacco and go in to the corn growing business....

 

[deluxestogie]

It sounds like your corn does way better than what the MM people grow themselves. It also sounds like the MM people aren't very adept at growing corn for cob pipes.

You should give Boone County corn a try. That was my tallest, and next fattest cob corn after MM. It makes fat, very long ears, suited for some impressive MacArthur's and super tall sitters. (Plus, Boone County intimidates neighbors into silence.)

Bob

EDIT: I'll add that saving seed from corn is a royal pain in the butt.

 

[davek14]

I used to always have a vegetable garden. The deer have gotten so bad around here that I can't grow a thing but tobacco. I saw that seed and was tempted, but I wouldn't get a harvest.

Jitterbugdude: Did you grow that MM seed with other corn? Seems like you wouldn't get the pollination you would need with just a few plants.

 

[deluxestogie]

When I grew MM corn, I allowed most of it to open-pollinate, but also bagged and hand-pollinated 4 stalks. Deer (which, by the way, are quite good around here) took down one stalk and munched on one other. So out of the 16 or so stalks that I had planted, deer feeding was not a major issue.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Nothing wrong with deer that a little high velocity lead poisoning won't take care of.

Wes H.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Davek, I planted 12 seeds. I planted them 6 inches apart in a row 12 inches wide (2 rows with 6 seeds in each row). Plenty close for pollination. They grew like "normal" corn to me in that they produced two ears per stalk.

 

[deluxestogie]

Nothing wrong with deer that a little high velocity lead poisoning won't take care of.

As a consequence of your having been suspected of consuming 3 ears of corn, I hereby sentence you to death by firing squad.

Bob

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

Well...I can't say about deer conditions in Ohio, but the population is plentiful around here. According to a person I know at our state DOT the annual road kill is about twice what the hunting numbers are. I don't like the critters because they are a terrible hazard to navigation. You should see what a deer can do to the front end of a flat nosed school bus. I have. I don't know haw many thousands of dollars of damage were done, (a bunch!) but I suspect the driver was more than a little spooked when a buck deer tried to jump into the cockpit with him. Moose strikes are the leading cause of accidental death in Alaska. I know a guy who used to drive school bus in Alaska and he said that the only time it was permissible to put a school bus into a ditch (without getting fired, that is) was to avoid a moose strike. I believe him.

I've been lucky, the biggest thing I've hit was an immature turkey. (An introduced species.) The business across the alley from me is a body and fender shop who employs 4 or 5 guys doing mostly repair work to cars that have had deer collisions. The proprietor of the body and fender shop lives in a nice house and drives a nice car due to the profitability of deer strike repairs.

And don't get me started on introduced non-native species! I know a farmer who has special permits to kill elk because they are destroying his crops. The Roosevelt Elk is an introduced species which seems to be on the decline around here, due primarily to predation by wolves, another introduced non-native species.

I can go on, but that is more than sufficient.

Wes H.

 

[Alpine]

That’s new to me... elk, turkey and wolf are introduced non native species in the US?

pier

 

[OldDinosaurWesH]

The US is a large place with a lot of different habitats. Different habitats support different groups of species. In the study of ecology, we discussed what was termed as "Climax Flora and Fauna." That is; the plants and animals that any given habitat will support over the long term. Long term being 100 or more years.

Turkeys are native to the eastern and southern US. Not the Pacific Northwest. Three species were introduced here in the 1980's. Two of those three species were able to adapt and survive.

Wolves are native to Canada, Alaska, and certain northern states in the US (Minnesota being one) and the Rocky Mountains. Wolves are not native to Eastern Washington State. Wolves only exist in nature where there are sufficient numbers of large game animals for them to feed on. A modest pack of wolves (5 or six adults) will consume two adult elk in approximately three weeks. A full grown elk weighs 800 - 1000 pounds. Prior to the introduction of the Roosevelt Elk into this region (in the 1930's), there was never enough game for wolves to be able to subsist. Only the combination of introduced elk and introduced wolves has allowed this phenomenon. Meanwhile, our local ecology becomes increasingly dangerous due to the presence of introduced non-native wolves.

Wes H.

 

[skychaser]

Wolves are not native to Eastern Washington State.

They were found in all of north america from central mexico north to the arctic ocean until the 1800's. By the 1950's they were wiped out in every state except Minnesota and Alaska.

The turkeys we have here were introduced in the late 80's and are native to the pine lands of Colorado. They have thrived and are very common now throughout the pine lands of Eastern Washington. There are lots of them here. I have counted over 50 in my yard at one time. They get quite tame once they get to know you. They like hanging out here because coyotes and hunters don't bother them.