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Post by darwinslair on Jul 15, 2011 7:31:27 GMT -5
mine is short this year too. previous years it has been about 5 feet tall. This year it germinated and grew for a month in really cold wet weather and none of it got over 3 feet tall. My other early plantings did much the same, but not to that degree. I am curious to see the cob development.
Tom
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Post by garnetmoth on Jul 15, 2011 8:59:23 GMT -5
How cute is that?! Pretty and short... With it being a big genepool, can you get the tassels and hand-pollinate? or do you need a big population planted all together?
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 15, 2011 9:33:20 GMT -5
How cute is that?! Pretty and short... With it being a big genepool, can you get the tassels and hand-pollinate? or do you need a big population planted all together? I planted a large population, maybe 800 plants, and am also doing some hand pollinations. The hand pollinations I did last night were a backcross with [Painted Hills X se+] sweet corn. It only has about 25% Painted Mountain influence left in it and I want to increase that. I like to collect pollen into a black plastic washtub like my grandma used in her kitchen sink. I walk along a row, tip a tassel over the washtub and give it a shake. If it's got pollen to release a cloud will float down into the wash tub. A few shakes of the tub separates the pollen from the anthers that might also fall into the tub. I scrape the anthers out, or blow them out with a gentle breath. Then I dip my finger into the pollen and smear it on the target plant. No bagging for me. I'll be able to tell which kernels took if they look like flour corn instead of sweet corn.
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Post by Darth Slater on Jul 15, 2011 11:07:38 GMT -5
It really would be nice if all you corn breeders could post a "How to thread with pics"!!
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jul 16, 2011 21:01:32 GMT -5
Thanks Joseph! ...and wow! Do you routinely look for ones with 3+ cobs often?! Here's a photo of one of my short corn plants giving it's pollen away early. I've got plenty with red pollen, but i haven't spotted any (except that tiny one) that have silks other than yellow. I have seen a correlation between pollen color and color of seeds, but i wonder if color of silks might have a correlation of some other part of the seed? Maybe the color of the of the Endosperm? Wasn't someone awhile back looking for corn seeds that had colored endosperm other than white? P.s. most of my corn this year are short like everyone elses, but i do have a few that are saving their pollen and are starting to get much taller than the rest, and may reach "normal" height. At least one of those has a strong looking stalk and is purple, and i am fairly certain it is from my selections from last year. I think this year i might make some selections on the healthiest looking plants.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 16, 2011 23:24:19 GMT -5
I wasn't looking for three cobs... I was looking for pink silks. It was a pure accident that I happened to take a photo of that particular plant. (Close to the truck, in an area that was tasseling at the time.) But once I started composing the shot it just had to show off all three cobs.
Hmmm... Is multiple-cobs my next selection criteria for Painted Mountain?
Sometimes during harvest I notice a corn plant that has many more cobs than normal, and sometimes I save the seed from it into a "great cob" packet, but so far I haven't turned them into a "prolifically-cobbed" landrace. I may however have planted some of the great-cobs ear-to-row. The genetics of a plant that produces multiple ears is over-represented in the collected seed, so even if I don't specifically collect them as prolifically-cobbed, the math eventually favors those plants.
One of the "great cobs" that I planted ear-to-patch this spring contained 22 rows of kernels last fall and was by far the largest cob that I grew. I'm looking forward to reporting in a few months how that one grew. It came out of "Early Festival" by the Long Island Seed Project. It was the only cob of it's kind in anything that I have ever grown.
With Painted Mountain flour corn, I normally only plant seed from cobs with 8 rows of kernels (dries down quicker on thinner cobs).
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Post by spacecase0 on Jul 18, 2011 15:20:11 GMT -5
I have a Painted Mountain flour corn plant that is tasseling when only a foot tall, I also have some mohave flower corn that is full hight and has silks, so I am going to cross them and see what I get
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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 18, 2011 22:00:22 GMT -5
Well, here's an anomaly. Let's just go straight to corn on top of tassels no husking required. This is Augusta. Attachments:
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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 18, 2011 22:01:38 GMT -5
Augusta made a beautiful stand. Ears filling nicely Attachments:
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Post by 12540dumont on Jul 18, 2011 22:05:24 GMT -5
Leo's 6'2" This corn is easily 11' Santo Domingo Posole Attachments:
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Post by darwinslair on Jul 19, 2011 0:22:16 GMT -5
Well, here's an anomaly. Let's just go straight to corn on top of tassels no husking required. This is Augusta. wild. wonder if you just planted those out what you would get. Tom
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jul 19, 2011 11:24:46 GMT -5
I've seen that on the Internet before, from what i've heard is that it's not entirely uncommon. It's probably throwback genetics from long ago when corn (or a corn ancestor) had the male and female part together in the same area. If it's a trait thats desirable, it probably could be bred to be like that on a more stable basis, but i've heard bugs and birds can get to the corn much easier, so it's probably not something i would select for.
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Post by spacecase0 on Jul 19, 2011 14:00:15 GMT -5
I can see drawbacks from an open cob of corn, but I would think it would work better for very wet rainy areas where all the pollen gets washed away before pollination, I would also like to see it grown to see where it leads
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 19, 2011 15:28:40 GMT -5
I find similar cobs in Painted Mountain flour corn. Today there were around 6 cobs. In every case the odd ear was on the end of a tiller. Here are a couple examples: I'm not expecting to play around with this trait, but I'll collect seed for any of you that want to. It would sure save labor as a decorative corn.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Jul 19, 2011 22:51:44 GMT -5
Joseph, nice picture. I find it an interesting trait, but it's not something i would want in my corn. I think it would lead to smaller kernels in general because of drying out too early, and also is prey to birds. But, perhaps it might have a chance to dry out faster if it was a flint corn, which actually might help it survive in the wild.
Still, it might have possibilities for a project i've been working on. There is a dry field nearby where i live. Wild sunflowers, Indian Ricegrass, very drought resistant weeds, and some interesting wild (unknown) herbs can be found growing in this field. I've been trying to seed this area with corn and teosinte seeds in an experiment to see if i can get a true wild corn to grow in this area. It's probably a crazy idea, but it would be interesting to study a corn that was able to survive in the wild, and to see what traits might reemerge after being made dormant by domestication.
...It might be really cool if this was bred with pod corn in an attempt to help protect the open kernels.... that would be cool to see...
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