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Post by DarJones on Oct 17, 2011 20:56:47 GMT -5
What do you want Darth, a single kernel big enough to take 48 bites out of?
We could cross the Giant Inca corn with Pennsylvania Butter Flavor and come out with Buttered Giant popcorn.
This is one of those ideas that sounds interesting but does not work out in the real world. Popcorn has an optimum size at which is pops to the maximum expansion. Kernels bigger than this optimum don't pop as well because the internal pressure breaches the kernel too early. For similar reasons, smaller kernels don't pop as well because they don't have thick enough hard starch layers to hold in the pressure.
Re colors in the endosperm, I've seen a popcorn that popped with a pale yellow color. It started out as a very deep orange.
DarJones
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Post by Darth Slater on Oct 18, 2011 2:59:04 GMT -5
Just kidding on the size, but you answered what I was thinking about the internal pressure, i guess the next question would be, what is the size limit to..or endosperm? It would seem perhaps crossing to a flint might optimize the size no?
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Post by Earl on Oct 18, 2011 6:21:43 GMT -5
hey there is no endosperm....whatcha talking about eh?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 31, 2011 3:04:04 GMT -5
Wishing you were here to help me eat it!!!
I've popped more than 50 batches of popcorn since yesterday: One batch per cob. These are a grow out of the F2 of a cross between Indian corn and popcorn. Oh my heck there is a lot of diversity!!!! Seems like too much to deal with. Here's hoping that next year I'll be able to do some selfing. That aughta make selection easier. Mass selection is OK, but i think that selfing would make population improvement quicker: won't have so much non-popping pollen floating around.
I am approaching it scientifically this year... Measuring out 21 ml of kernels, and popping them in the microwave then measuring the output, and writing the final volume on a piece of tape that I attach to the cob. The largest popped volume so far is 500 ml. The worst cob produced only small grannies. I get about 40% greater volume by popping in oil in a skillet, but the microwave is easier for me. By having a standard I'll be able to evaluate the improvement of the crop from year to year.
The smallest kernels and the largest kernels are not popping well. So far, all of the cobs selected for next year have pearl shaped kernels, or slightly pointed pearl kernels. No rice shaped kernels have made it into the select gene-pool yet. I still have lots more cobs to pop so that's subject to change.
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Post by DarJones on Dec 31, 2011 3:40:23 GMT -5
Pearl shape will win the race. The pointed tip kernels can never achieve popping volume over 20 to 1. A really good highly selected pearl shape can reach 40 to 1 or sometimes a bit higher.
You might note that popping is highly dependent on moisture in the kernel. The best I remember, about 14% is supposed to be optimum. Also, for popping in a microwave, coating the kernels in a small amount of oil can enhance the popping volume.
DarJones
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 31, 2011 3:56:15 GMT -5
You might note that popping is highly dependent on moisture in the kernel. The best I remember, about 14% is supposed to be optimum. DarJones Is percent moisture in the seed something that I can aspire to measure at home? I guess I could weigh the kernels before and after popping: See if any patterns emerge. [Edited a few minutes later to add]: Looks easy enough, I have the equipment on hand already: www2.bioversityinternational.org/publications/Web_version/188/ch05.htmI also saw another page, which I didn't bookmark. That recommended making a chart of relative humidity vs % moisture in my cultivar's seeds since they exist in equilibrium with the environment.
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Post by spacecase0 on Dec 31, 2011 16:46:09 GMT -5
to measure moisture you weigh your grain first, then dry the grain out at something like 250F then weigh it again then compare weight
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Post by DarJones on Dec 31, 2011 18:35:59 GMT -5
Joseph, some corn makes really good parching corn. Keep an eye on the corn you are working with and if you see one that is really good parched, set it aside for some more breeding work.
DarJones
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 1, 2012 16:20:18 GMT -5
I ran a moisture test on one of the cobs of popcorn that hadn't popped very well.
I did it as follows:
Grind the corn in a mortar and pestle. Weigh out 5 grams. Put it in the oven at 225F. Weigh it periodically. It reached a constant weight after about an hour.
The moisture content was 10.5%. What else would I expect living out here in the desert??? So I took the remaining 52 grams of corn from the cob, and put it in a glass jar, and added 2.1 g of water. That's a lot of water to be adding to a jar of seeds!!! I sealed the jar and shook the seeds until the water was absorbed. I'll let them equilibrate for perhaps a week and pop them again.
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Post by spacecase0 on Jan 1, 2012 22:32:54 GMT -5
when I add water to popcorn I usually only have to wait a few hours, is a week recommended ?
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Post by 12540dumont on Jan 1, 2012 22:43:21 GMT -5
Just goes to show you, if I put water in corn for a week, I'd have corn spouts!
Hey Joseph beautiful corn this year. ;D
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 1, 2012 23:28:48 GMT -5
when I add water to popcorn I usually only have to wait a few hours, is a week recommended ? I said a week, because I won't be able to get back to the corn project until next week. I tasted several after adding water. After 12 hours there seemed to be a dry center and a moist pericarp/aleurone. After 24 hours the moisture seemed to be distributed through the whole kernel.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 7, 2012 21:42:46 GMT -5
Thanks all for your feedback regarding popcorn... I was disappointed that after a 3 year effort at breeding popcorn that I was getting such poor results popping it... Without your input I never would have considered that one of the vital aspects of producing popcorn is to measure the moisture content of the corn, and to adjust it as needed for best popping.
About a week ago I popped some corn and set aside the worst popping of the lot. They expanded 9X after being popped dry in a microwave. I measured the moisture in them and it was 10.5%. I added water to the seed to bring the moisture up to 14%. I let it equilibrate for about a week. Then I popped it again. Under the same popping conditions it expanded 21X. Wow!!! I can get excited about my popcorn again.
But where do I go from here? I guess that in theory, I could adjust the moisture of each cob before testing it for popping performance. There is enough seed on each cob that something like this could be done:
shell off the kernels store them in a sealed bottle, cob-to-jar measure and adjust the moisture to 14% pop and measure expansion ratio select the best popping cobs for planting
Popping with oil in the microwave gave a 16X increase. Popping in oil in a pan gave a 13X increase. I attribute this to my selection criteria for last year which was to dry pop in the microwave.
An important selection criteria for commercial popcorn is "nearly every kernel pops". I don't care about that... Expansion ratio indirectly measures this because if a kernel doesn't pop it's not adding to the expansion ratio.
p.s. for what it's worth, I'm popping in a brown paper lunch bag in the microwave.
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Post by steev on Jan 8, 2012 1:26:15 GMT -5
A pink paper lunch bag will give a more delicate texture.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 16, 2012 16:37:01 GMT -5
I've been running more experiments with my popcorn landrace. I measured the moisture content of a batch of popcorn, and then added water to smaller samples of it to adjust the percent moisture. I mixed it well and let it sit for 36 hours. Then I popped it. I used seconds because I have plenty of seed. Here's what the data looked like: The volume of popped corn almost doubled when the appropriate amount of moisture was added. The amount of non-popped kernels didn't vary much with percent moisture. So I'm calling that a measure of the phenotype: It measures the ability of the corn to pop, and it is essentially independent of moisture content. What that means in the real world, is that I should be doing my selecting based on the percentage of kernels that pop, and I don't have to worry much if any about the moisture content of the kernels. That greatly simplifies my selection process. I wrote the other day that I don't care about the percent of grannies. Today I care!!!Then, when I'm ready to prepare the bulk corn for popping, I can do a one-time adjustment of the moisture content.
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