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Post by canadamike on Feb 15, 2010 20:41:34 GMT -5
Alan, start Chires very very early and the other one late...better plant the other a couple of times to make sure of pollen exchange...
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 21, 2010 4:05:54 GMT -5
I'm starting a sweet corn breeding project this spring. Hoping to develop an open pollinated multi-colored sugary enhanced sweet corn landrace that thrives in my 2 acre market-garden in the Rockies. garden.lofthouse.com/sweet-corn-breeding.phtmlI have acquired seed from many indian tribes and locations: Apache, Cherokee, Mayan, Mandan, Hopi, Aztec, Anasazi, Navajo, Peru, Nevada, Missouri, Great Basin, Painted Mountain, etc. Two varieties are from Oaxacan, thought to be the birthplace of corn. I am including an open pollinated sweet corn with waxy endosperm from Asia. I am planting mothers from other multi-colored sweetcorn breeding efforts including Rainbow Inca and Long Island Seed Project's Fiesta sweet corn. I am trying to obtain seeds for Painted Hills, and Sparkler. Too bad about the Astronomy Domine crop failure this year.  Eventually it will be segregated into two populations: One for bountifully irrigated gardens grown on Great Basin silty playas, and one for the non-irrigated gravely highlands. |
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Post by bunkie on Feb 21, 2010 9:50:12 GMT -5
welcome to the forum joseph! looks like a fun project you have growing there. will be looking forward to pics.
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Post by johno on Feb 21, 2010 11:47:09 GMT -5
Welcome Joseph! Great to see another corn breeder here. My strain of Astronomy Domine didn't fail, if you want to swap.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 21, 2010 14:56:36 GMT -5
johno: A seed swap would be great... My contact info is at: garden.lofthouse.com/address.gif I have lots of fun Moschatas and more of some varieties of corn than I will use for my project. silverseeds: My current thoughts for the dry-land breeding project are to plant deep, early, and well spaced with a quick maturing variety that can take advantage of the winter moisture stored in the soil. And keep it well weeded!!! I am expecting that the Hopi and Painted Mountain lines will help with this strategy. I draw my inspiration from photos of Hopi gardens. An alternate strategy would be to take advantage of the late summer monsoon, but that is not as reliable a moisture source for me as winter snow. A variety that could be seeded in the fall and lie dormant until spring would be amazing... I think I'll add that to my screening criteria... Plant 100,000 seeds in the fall and see if any of them have what it takes to survive the winter and grow in the spring. Has anyone in snowy climates noticed corn seeds surviving in the ground and volunteering the next spring? I have two dryland fields: First: Elevation 5900 feet 10" of rain a year arriving in about one storm per month. Rocky/Hilly. Much of it runs off. I think catch-basins around each plant would help. Second: Elevation 4900. Silty/clay flatland with about 15" rain that arrives in more gentle spaced out showers so it sinks in rather than runs off. The higher elevation field warms up earlier in the spring. I've been reading this site for years... Finally decided to participate. |
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Post by Alan on Feb 21, 2010 20:17:06 GMT -5
I'm starting a sweet corn breeding project this spring. Hoping to develop an open pollinated multi-colored sugary enhanced sweet corn landrace that thrives in my 2 acre market-garden in the Rockies. garden.lofthouse.com/sweet-corn-breeding.phtmlI have acquired seed from many indian tribes and locations: Apache, Cherokee, Mayan, Mandan, Hopi, Aztec, Anasazi, Navajo, Peru, Nevada, Missouri, Great Basin, Painted Mountain, etc. Two varieties are from Oaxacan, thought to be the birthplace of corn. I am including an open pollinated sweet corn with waxy endosperm from Asia. I am planting mothers from other multi-colored sweetcorn breeding efforts including Rainbow Inca and Long Island Seed Project's Fiesta sweet corn. I am trying to obtain seeds for Painted Hills, and Sparkler. Too bad about the Astronomy Domine crop failure this year. Eventually it will be segregated into two populations: One for bountifully irrigated gardens grown on Great Basin silty playas, and one for the non-irrigated gravely highlands. What a fantastic project my friend, developing that sugary enhanced trait is a lot of fun and a lot of headaches and I certainly wish you luck my friend. The Astronomy Domine didn't completly fail, just got ate by deer, luckily I had enough left over seed, plus that of wat survived, and a good backup from Johno to get me going again, I should have about 5 lbs of seed (now that I've added some new genetics) to growout this year and I'll gladly send you a sample this fall. J. Sperro here on the site should have Sparkler and probably painted hills in samples for sale like he did last year for $5.00 or so, hopefull he will chime in. Welcome to the fold my friend and glad to have you here! |
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Post by Alan on Feb 21, 2010 20:21:49 GMT -5
Regarding corn seed overwintering, it does happen quite often here, but we probably don't get anwhere as cold or snowy as you do, but we do get several volunteers, most of which I generally in the past have added to Astronomy Domine when there is a population high enough to give me good pollination so I can see the traits. I certainly think you could likely develop a corn in this way and there are perrinial corn lines, one of which I am currently growing via Tim Peters, once the seed is increased I can send you some of it.
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Post by darwinslair on Feb 23, 2010 4:21:33 GMT -5
The only thing I have thought of breeding (and maybe will do this year) is crossing Bear Island Flint into Painted Mountain. Painted Mountain obviously contains many of the same genes and has identical tasseling dates. The Bear Island Flint produced a little more heavily for me, but they were in different years. We will see how it goes. If I simply manage to plant and maintain what I have set up for myself I will be impressed.
Tom
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Post by hiven on Feb 23, 2010 9:35:58 GMT -5
Have anyone try to cross Japanese stiped maized with sweet corn ?
I imagined Japanese striped maize bearing sweet corn, how nice ! It not only very ornamental but also edible (sweet corn!), would it be possible or just a wishful thingking ?
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Post by canadamike on Feb 23, 2010 14:17:03 GMT -5
It sure is possible, and especially since japanese is a pop corn of sorts.
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Post by mybighair on Feb 23, 2010 16:20:46 GMT -5
I actually attempted that cross last season, but the weather wasn't the best (it never is in truth) and I didn't get seed to mature. I'll be trying again this season.
It'll be interesting to see if the striping is dominant or recessive.
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Post by Alan on Feb 23, 2010 16:41:33 GMT -5
For those who haven't had a chance to look at the link Joeseph left about his sweet corn project, be sure to do so, his bullet points of hows and why's is excellent and is probably something similar to what I should have been writing for every project I've worked on. I'm getting better at record keeping now and will publish my stuff from now on, but I wish I'd have thought of it years ago. garden.lofthouse.com/sweet-corn-breeding.phtml |
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Post by hiven on Mar 2, 2010 16:22:16 GMT -5
Mynighair, I will be growing Japanese striped maized and some sweet corn this summer, will try to cross them. The only problem is, the sweet corn is a F1 type which means I will have to stabilize the cross... not sure what to expect  . Let's exchange notes ? I actually attempted that cross last season, but the weather wasn't the best (it never is in truth) and I didn't get seed to mature. I'll be trying again this season. It'll be interesting to see if the striping is dominant or recessive. |
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Post by raymondo on Mar 3, 2010 4:47:07 GMT -5
All this corn talk has got me interested. Well, that and my recent failure at growing some flour corn for a friend. I've decided to do a little breeding looking for an early maturing, drought tolerant, poor soil loving flour corn. My summers are often characterised by long dry spells with intermittent flooding rains and I garden on crappy clay.
I have three varieties of corn to work with. Actually, it's probably two varieties and a mix. I have some Red Aztec, Red Nib and a mix called Indian Ornamental with seeds of all different sizes, shapes and a couple of different colours. I may just spend next season bulking up the Indian Ornamental mix from my current 200 or so kernels. It's more likely though that impatience will get the better of me and I'll jump in and plant everything together.
Is it possible to identify a good flour corn by eyeballing the kernels? If so, what do I look for?
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 3, 2010 7:46:15 GMT -5
About the only adive I can give you with regards to selecting good flour corn by looking at the kernels is as follows; most flint/flour corns have areas of hard starch and soft starch (in the case of "true" flour corns it's nearly all soft. for the best "flour" you want as much soft as is feasible (plus hard is diffciult to grind with home type grinding devices) hard starch in the kernel is transparent/translucent soft is opaque. except in cases where the corn kernels are very dark (red or deep purple) you caqn usally see this with the naked eye. For those that are dark the simplest method is to put the kernels on a light table (or if you dont have one, get a good flashlight (make sure, if its and LED flashligh that it has a window over the LEDs) you can stand up on its end with the light facing up to you. put the kernels you want to look at on top so that the light shines trough them pick out the ones that have the least light coming though, for a flint this usally looks like an all opaque kernel or at least one where the transparent areas are restricted to the very sides in two strips. Discard, however any where the light and dark areas do not look regular and symmetrical this usally means the kernel is damaged or diseased (you may also want to pass on any really dark purple, as this is often so dark that it will look completely opaque no matter what and you will never really know) this is you growiung stock. after a generation or two it should be all floury.
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