Actually, I did not directly sow them. I decided to play it safe and start everything in artificial conditions just because of the strange weather we've been having in central California for a while now. I can try to get a picture and perhaps post it after this, but for now I can at least give a better description: The "mildew" is a very light color, maybe white. It looks like incredibly fine little hairs just growing off of the seed. It runs off of the surface of the seed quite easily, I didn't even have to scrape it at all. Also, I don't know if this would even make a difference either way, but nothing else seems abnormal. Nothing strange on these four seeds that didn't go on the others, no foul odor to suggest that it may be rotting, etc. I'll try to get a photo though and post it. In the meantime, I'll go ahead and plant four more seeds to replace these just to be safe. I can give the plants away or something if these four surprise me. However, will it most likely be as I said, where these four replacements will always be a little behind the others in terms of maturity, or might they "catch up" at some point?

Not sure, does the "fragrans' (corn plant Dracaena) have stripes. I know the "massageana" does, as well does the "warneckii" and the "marginata" also. As Karen pointed out, mostlikely cause is you are not giving the plant sufficient light. Dracaena can take less than good light. But a stronger light will make your plant grow stronger, with tougher leaves and better retention of moisture. AT this time that can be difficult because the sun is just coming back north but will take a couple months yet before it gives plants what they like. In this regard though, try to give the plant as much sun as you can by giving it exposures from the west, south....or if you have to, the east. A northern location just will not do the plant any good. Dracaena is one of the plants that reacts to fluorine in the water. So try to let the water, if its out of the tap, sit for 24 - 48 hours prior to watering. Fertilizer should ahve low ratio of phosphate. If superphosphate is part of any feeding program, withdraw that. Perlite too contains amounts of phoshurus and so should be not so much part of any potting soil you use for dracaena.

I planted Northern Xtra Sweet Yellow, Mirai 421 W and Gurney's Gotta Have It this year. Northern Xtra Sweet and Gotta Have It were repeats from last year -- Northern because it produced so well last year (and again this year) and Gotta Have It because I figured I must have done something horribly wrong last year. (I must have done something horribly wrong again this year, too. I won't give it another chance here. I can't afford the garden space to get one ear of corn.) Anyway, like I said, Northern produced really well, and I'm leaning toward putting it in again next year for an early crop. It had pretty good cool-soil emergence and didn't seem to be bothered by the practically 30 days of rainy/overcast days in June. Mirai is on next year's list again, too. We enjoyed this augmented super-sweet. I often ate an ear of it in the garden when I got home from work. DH is incredibly fussy in odd ways. If supper doesn't come from a truck stop's hot deli, he'd just as soon not eat it. Corn on the cob is the exception. He normally doesn't pay any attention to what I'm doing in the garden, but he went so far as to suggest I only plant "that kind he likes" next year. I'm afraid to put all my eggs in that basket, though, as Mirai varieties are quite sensitive about soil planting temperature. Of the rest of your list, I've only grown Silver Queen. I planted it the very first time I had my own garden, which I think was 1995. Its DTM is actually a little long for this area, but everything must have been perfect that year (lots of hot, hot weather and no hail storms for a change). That corn was the most wonderful stuff I'd had since I was a kid in my mother's garden. I tried it a couple times after that but couldn't get another perfect season. HTH and good luck!

Cracked corn has some kernels that were small enough to not get cracked but they are still viable corn seed. Those will sprout. Not to worry, though, because you mow them off and they die. Wish bermuda was that easy to knock out. Are there any negitives to be on the look out for when applying cornmeal to the grass? It does not flow through a spreader very well. Being an organic grain it absorbs moisture easily, clumps, and does not fall through the spreader. I scoop it out of the bag with a 2-pound coffee can. That way I know I have about 2 pounds of corn meal. Then I scatter it like I was feeding chickens. Two pounds will cover about 100 (10x10) to 200 (10x20) square feet. I can 'eyeball' where my can of corn should cover and scatter freely. As far as storing it, I use up all I have in the fall to avoid storing it over the winter. If you store it, by spring time the invisible bugs that come with the corn meal will have eaten about half of what you have left. Those bugs make a great organic fertilizer but it is an icky thing to deal with. What is the nitrogen of this? Pet peeve alert. Snide remark to follow: Don't know. Don't care. Now if you want to talk about protein, it is on par with coffee grounds as providing about the lowest dose of protein of all the ground grains. The nitrogen in protein is the ultimate source of the nitrogen that the microbes provide to the plants. The problem is not all protein is the same. The protein in blood is available to plants much more quickly than the protein in feathers and hair. The protein in nuts, seeds, and beans seems to hit a happy medium of protein and nitrogen availability. Here is a link that might be useful: NPK of organic stuff for those who cling to tradition