Thursday, May 3, 2012

What Was It?...

On Tuesday I posted about planting corn , along with this picture...


Did you figure out what the gray is in the planter box?

It's graphite...intended to help the seed flow more smoothly through the planter and into the ground.  As soon as he told me what it was, I remembered way back when our kids made Pine Wood Derby cars, and we put graphite on the wheels/axles to make them run faster.  It's the same concept.

The seed corn is red because it's been treated with a fungicide and with other things that vary, depending on the variety of corn.

Just in case you ever wondered.  :)

7 comments:

  1. Well gee do I feel sheepish, I never would have in a million years guessed graphite. That is great. I should have remembered the seeds are treated.
    I guess I need to go back to farming 101.
    I also wanted to tell you, the Mennonites out here are the black bumper kind, you know no chrome. :)
    I laughed because I remember my Dad asking me that question when I first started dating my husband. :)

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  2. I never knew that . Thanks for the info ya do learn a new thing everyday . Have a good day !

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  3. I would never have guessed the graphite. I'm going to ask my nephew if they do that. :-)

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  4. Well I'll be ****, graphite ? hmmm, I never knew that. Thanks for the farming lesson. JB

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  5. Well I'll be...
    Just goes to show that you can learn something new everyday; I did!

    Good luck with your corn crop.

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  6. I'll bet that does help the corn flow smoothly through the machine! We are always learning from each other! :)

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  7. I remember the graphite from my boy's Boyscout Pinewood Derby as well. :)

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