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Post by landracecollector on Jan 12, 2016 19:24:55 GMT -5
Only a few members on here I have seen know about or at least grow landraces and maize from Peru. They are very diverse and stunning. I have been working with them since I was 14 and they truly are a challenge to grow but it is not impossible. My collection spans nearly 300 landraces and over half of those are from Peru. I'm currently working with Baker Creek to acclimate the Peruvian varieties they received from Peru. It's odd to consider all corn originated from teosinte and then the diverse maize in Peru originated from Confite Morocho, the ancestral popcorn to all corn. Even the ancestor to all modern swet corn originated there-Chullpi. I'm proud to grow it as well and the ancestral Peruvian popcorns.
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Post by maicerochico on Jan 12, 2016 21:56:03 GMT -5
I have worked with every group of tropical maize except for the lowland South American popcorns (Pira, Chococeno, Avati Pichinga, etc.), and I must confess that Andean races are my least favorite. They are very fussy about being grown anywhere outside of the Andean highlands and are the most difficult group to adapt to temperate conditions as a whole. For reference, I have grown the following:
Confite Puneno Confite Puntiagudo Cusco Gigante Morado Canteno Ancashino Rabo De Zorro Piscorunto Granada San Jeronimo Kulli
Only the two confites have any sort of potential for improvement in temperate zones, but that will take some dedication. Cusco Cristalino Amarillo and Piscorunto are daylength neutral for pollen production, and some collections will even shed before Corn Belt Dents, but they either neglect to form ears at all, or silks emerge 20 - 30 days after pollen shed. What ears do develop typically rot under any amount of humidity. The other listed breeds are a complete waste of time, except as experimental trait donors.
A friend of mine in North Dakota has been working with Andean highland corn for years and has gotten some good results out of Cusco Cristalino Amarillo. New Zealand is using moderate doses of San Jeronimo corn for cold tolerance. In both cases, the Andean materials had to be crossed with something else to be useful.
I am currently maintaining a population of Cusco maize (Cargill Cusco) that will produce good crops in temperate areas and is 15/16 Andean by pedigree (C. Blanco, C.C.A., and C. Gigante). It carries genes from a Minnesota dent corn population that make it photoperiod neutral. If you want to maintain Andean landraces in the US, I suggest crossing them onto this material and then reselecting temperate adaptation from later generations. You will make faster progress doing this vs selecting within pure, exotic Andean populations.
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Post by DarJones on Jan 14, 2016 1:40:57 GMT -5
Do either of you have a pure Cusco Gigante or a temperate adapted Cusco Gigiante that you can share seed of?
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Post by landracecollector on Jan 14, 2016 12:24:13 GMT -5
Do either of you have a pure Cusco Gigante or a temperate adapted Cusco Gigiante that you can share seed of? I very much wish I did fusionpower. I have been trying to locate some seed of that landrace and have yet to find any. I'm looking for some of it myself if anyone has any and wishes to share.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 14, 2016 13:55:53 GMT -5
So long as you are content with the plain white kind, I can pick up a bag the next time I go to the Latin American Supermarket.I'd imagine a 2lb bag should be enough to meet EVERYONE"S seed growing needs (unless you were planning to plant an acre of it). Assuming of course that the commercial version is "Pure" enough for you.
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Post by landracecollector on Jan 14, 2016 23:45:06 GMT -5
So long as you are content with the plain white kind, I can pick up a bag the next time I go to the Latin American Supermarket.I'd imagine a 2lb bag should be enough to meet EVERYONE"S seed growing needs (unless you were planning to plant an acre of it). Assuming of course that the commercial version is "Pure" enough for you. The pure white kind is the most common form of the landrace. It does exist in more colorful forms but those are subraces/subforms of it. The plain white will be fine with me if you can get some! Given of course it is truly Cuzco Gigante.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 15, 2016 6:59:46 GMT -5
Well, the bags say "Maiz Cusco". Unless there is another large Andean corn that is called Cuzco, with nickel to quarter sized kernels, I assume they are.
I know about the more colorful forms. There's the chinmarked one Baker Creek has (You seem to already have that one). Theres supposed to be a version with purple pericarp. And I have found one or two in my life that seemed to be yellow (though given where I found them whether these were really yellow Cuzco or really big of the other kind (the commercial name for the other kind of Andean corn seems to be either Montana (Mountain, I assume) or Huacatay (or something like that) with a Cusco'ish kernel shape, I can't tell (they could have been crosses, for all I know.)
But message recived , The next Time I'm at the bodega, I'll pick a bag up (preferably, I'll use the one I know that sells it out of a bin, so I can try and skew in favor of really good kernels)
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