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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 25, 2014 0:40:03 GMT -5
This spring I planted a couple of rows of bulk popcorn, but mostly I planted ear-to-row: Meaning that I planted about 5-10 seeds from the same cob together in a short row, then skipped about 3 feet and planted another short row. This allows me to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each mother. I call the rows a "Sibling Group" because all the plants in the row share the same mother. They may or may not share the same father. So they are either full siblings or half siblings. One of the weaknesses I discovered is that during a thunderstorm every plant in a particular sibling group lodged. That sibling group is animal food. Some sibling groups were very productive. Some sibling groups tended towards kernels that are too large, or too small. Then, I got clever and kept the sibling groups (mostly) together during harvest. (I made an "early" harvest in which I took any mature cob from the patch regardless of it's sibling group: Part of my strategy to shorten days-to-maturity.) I only collected one cob from each plant regardless of whether the plant produced one cob or ten. I'm intending to score each sibling group for popping ability, and then only replant the sibling groups with the highest scores.
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Post by mickt on Nov 4, 2014 17:19:02 GMT -5
It amazes me how organized you are. I have grown about 1/4 acre of flint corn now for half a decade and have thought about doing an ear-to-row thing but the thought of having ten thousand little packets (one for each mother) makes my eyes glaze over. However, I do see the genetic advantage to it. I wish I could be as 'office oriented' as you.
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Post by mickt on Nov 4, 2014 17:23:16 GMT -5
Just had another thought... those who do the hill planting method of corn (which I dont) could plant one ear per hill. That would be an easy way to see differences.
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Post by raymondo on Nov 4, 2014 23:15:21 GMT -5
I think if I were planting ear to row I'd leave the kernels on the cob until planting time.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 8, 2014 16:14:44 GMT -5
Seed for eating is my end product. I like to get that work done during the winter before I start planting, so I stick about 10% of the kernels on the best cobs into packets for planting ear-to-row, and then process the rest of the seed in bulk.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 13, 2015 23:07:46 GMT -5
With the squash eaten up, and germination testing finished, I am turning my attention to testing the popcorn. I'm really pleased with how it's popping this year. Again this year I am test popping each individual cob. I saved some sibling groups together, and plan to save the best popping sibling groups for replanting.
One problem that I have had with popcorn is that it flirts with being too long season for my garden. I have been working on shortening the days to maturity by selection: Saving seeds each year from the earliest plants to mature. And then replanting only the seeds collected from near the butt of the cob: Figuring that they were more likely to be pollinated by plants that were shedding pollen earlier.
I have also been working on shortening the days to maturity via a plant breeding program. Several years ago I pollinated my shortest season sweet corn (LISP Ashworth) with pollen from my popcorn. I grew out the F1 in 2013 and the F2 in 2014. I saved seed from the earliest cobs. I sorted the corn after harvest and set aside cobs with sweet kernels for the chickens. (I saved some of the sweet kernels to add to the experimental sweet corn population.) Then I test popped the remaining cobs. About 50% of them popped very poorly. About 35% of them popped somewhat. About 10% of them popped great. So they definitely aren't ready for incorporation into the general population, but at least some of them seem to be moving in the right direction. I'm intending to grow the best popping in their own patch this summer and again select for short season and great popping ability, and against cobs with sweet kernels.
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Post by philagardener on Feb 14, 2015 14:13:05 GMT -5
And then replanting only the seeds collected from near the butt of the cob: Figuring that they were more likely to be pollinated by plants that were shedding pollen earlier. Does that mean that the silks grow/mature from the bottom ovules first?
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Post by DarJones on Feb 14, 2015 23:21:25 GMT -5
"mature" is the operative word. The silks develop earlier near the butt, but they have further to grow. The result is usually that the silks emerge in a clump that includes ovules all along the cob, but the most mature are near the butt of the cob. So the kernels nearest the butt are usually pollinated first followed in sequence up the cob to the tip.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 25, 2015 22:04:46 GMT -5
I got a corn sheller working this morning, so I spent the day shelling corn... Here's what some of the popcorn that was selected for seed looks like. The far ears popped nearly perfectly. The ears near the middle/left were early to very early and popped well. The ears close to the camera and the middle/right are mostly hybrids between various corns and my popcorn. I'm trying to incorporate various traits into my corn without contaminating the patch, so they were detasseled. These are the high carotene corns that popped well, or hybrids with my popcorn. They are very tough. But orange as can be! Closer look at some of the hybrids: Best of the lot... Except that I still haven't popped the sibling group plantings. Some of these may get bumped lower in priority once I test pop the sibling groups.
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Post by steev on Mar 25, 2015 23:44:00 GMT -5
Got some beautiful corn there, whatever its popping quality.
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Post by steev on Oct 4, 2017 19:41:56 GMT -5
Very pretty.
I've found the "Dwarf Indian Corn" sold as decorations to be fairly hull-less, crisp, and tasty; the only glitch to me is that it tends to blow out of an air-popper before popping; just means I go to the old kettle.
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