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Post by blackox on Feb 28, 2014 18:07:53 GMT -5
I've recently been to the annual farm convention, there was a class on developing your own locally adapted vegetable varieties. The speaker (who had little experience in growing and was just a biologist) mentioned something about popcorn pollen being incompatible with pollen from other types of corn (dent/flint, sweet). According to this I should be able to plant popcorn next to some flint/dent or sweet corn. Can anybody confirm or correct this? corn is a relatively new crop to me. In case anybody was wondering the whole convention was a total bust, most I already new or could have easily figured out myself. One out of every seventy people their likely had any experience with farming, the rest probably coming for the food. We did walk away with some nice T-shirts though.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 28, 2014 18:34:21 GMT -5
There are genes available in some strains of popcorn that prevents them from being pollinated by corn that doesn't carry the same gene. It is not a universal trait that is common to all popcorn, but is a specialized trait specific to certain strains. Work is being done to move the responsible genes into other types of corn to reduce the likelihood of being pollinated by GMO corn. A search term for further reading would be: "gametophytic incompatibility gene".
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Post by philagardener on Feb 28, 2014 19:28:26 GMT -5
Blackox, to add to Joseph's response, I think the effect would be directional. i.e. while popcorn carrying a gametophytic incompatibility trait like Ga1 can't be pollinated well by non-Ga1 pollen (because those pollen tubes don't grow well in Ga1 silks), the converse is not true. The Ga1 popcorn pollen could fertilize your sweet corn, causing issues as well as potentially introducing the Ga1 trait into that line. Because Ga1 acts as a dominant trait, if that isn't eliminated the next year you could have crossing in both directions.
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Post by DarJones on Mar 1, 2014 1:55:34 GMT -5
About 2/3 of popcorn varieties have the Ga1 gene, but virtually no sweet or field corn varieties do. You could wind up with a lot of sweet corn with starchy kernels. If you are prepared to hand shell the sweet corn, you could still grow them side by side, just would have a lot of work separating out the mis-type kernels. My suggestion is to separate all corn varieties in time and space by planting them as far away from each other as possible and by staggering planting time so they do not have receptive pollen/silks at the same time.
Even when Ga1 is used to restrict foreign pollen, there are some circumstances where a small percentage of kernels can still be fertilized.
If it would help, I have a list around here somewhere with popcorn varieties with and without Ga1. Pennsylvania Butter Flavor is one that has it.
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Post by steev on Mar 1, 2014 3:19:52 GMT -5
Dude! So glad you're still around and free!
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Post by blackox on Mar 2, 2014 10:39:10 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies and furthering my understanding of this! I was thinking that the Ga1 would stop crossing altogether. I have plenty of time on my hands and would be prepared to hand shell the corn. Would growing a short/early variety of flour or sweet corn (like Gaspe Flint or Yukon Chief) next to a taller/later variety of popcorn further decrease the likelihood of crossing? Do most popcorn varieties have shorter stalks??
Fusionpower, yes, that list would be of great help! Thank you!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 2, 2014 11:20:50 GMT -5
If you can get a 3 week separation of flowering times then the two crops are essentially isolated. That might mean a 5 to 6 week separation in planting dates if planted in cold spring weather.
The height of the plants doesn't matter for crossing. Except that if a short plant showed up in the tall patch, or a tall plant in the short patch, then you could strongly suspect that it was a hybrid and chop it out. The popcorns that I have grown tend towards being 7 to 9 feet tall. The shorter season popcorn plants in my patch tend more towards being 6 to 7 feet tall.
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