Another new experiment with corn

[Alan]

So, in my endless search to get every known color and shade of corn kernal bred into sweet corn I have settled on one final corn experiment to fill my time for the next 10 years.

Whilst browsing the selections from the Vermont Bean Seed Company I came accross a listing for something I have probably seen listed a hundred times, but for some reason this time it stuck with me and I thought "Wow, how cool would that be in a sweet corn varriant."

So, I'll be placing an order for a good amount of Earth Tones Dent Corn and I'll have to pick out a white sweet corn or two for breeding purposes and we will see where this goes in a year or two.
-Alan

[americangardener]

Sounds like an interesting experiment.

I'd like to see how this turns out in a couple years. Maybe in the future when people talk about bi-color sweet corn.. "it'll be what color?".. won't be the standard white/yellows anymore. And people will look back and say .. that Alan Bishop was the one who pioneered the multi-colored sweet corns.

Good luck on your project..
Dave

[Alan]

hahah, that would be cool! I am really interested in trying this out, specifically looking for those pastel colors in sweet corn form, maybe call it Estora or something like that...who knows, it might be the next big thing one day!

The only thing I am mildly confused by is what to use as the male parent and what to use as the female, i'm presuming that I want to use the sweet corn as the female and the dent as the male but am not sure yet.
-Alan

[Dewdrop]

Nov 11, 2007 11:49:37 GMT -5 Alan said:

to get every known color and shade of corn kernal bred into sweet corn 

I'm curious, are you still working on this experiment? 

[seedweneed]

To Allen, about developing a multi-colored sweet corn.

This is Dave Christensen, who developed Painted Mountain Corn.

You basically want to develop a line that has some yellow starch and some white starch. On top of that will be aleurone layers that are either blue, lavender, or clear or combinations of those. You are not working with many genes.

I think it is a good idea to cross to Earth Tones. I suspect it has the pastel gene. The lighter shades allow new colors to form when the colors mix, instead of the darkest color blocking the other out.  This allows for many intermediate shades and rainbow combinations.

I suspect that the same genes exist in Glass Gem. I have pastel genes in my Painted Mountain, but they are fewer.

ADVICE
Earth Tones has both white and yellow starch. You could cross to either a white or yellow sweet corn, or bi color. I would probably chose white.

I don't think it matters whether the Earth Tones is the male or female parent.  If you use the plant that is most adapted to your climate as the mother plant, you might get a little more local adaptability from the female mitochondria.  No one knows for sure.

COLOR BLOCKER GENES
Be cautioned that very often lines of pure white or pure yellow lines of corn contain color blocker genes that dilute or block pigment on the aleurone layer (blue or Lavendar). If your neutral colored popcorn carries these color blocker genes, it may take decades to escape them.

Solution. When you plant your white line of sweet corn, put pollen from a solid blue test line onto the silk of a few of the ears, or even the second ears on the plant. If you get every kernel that is true blue, you do not have color blocker genes. You can use the plants that got the Earth Tones pollen for your new project.

If the test cobs have blotchy blue, speckled or pale kernels, you will want to restart your project with another line of white (or yellow) sweet corn that does not have the color blocker genes. You might plant more than a few potential sweet corn parents in case some lines have the wrong genes.

BLUE vs PURPLE

Here is another breeding nightmare you may encounter.  The original gene for colored aleurone is PURPLE.  BLUE is the product of modifier genes.  Apparently people loved blue and many Native people bred for blue. It may take more than one modifier gene to create blue.  When crossing to white or yellow corns they may or may not have the modifier genes that are needed to create blue.  And instead of getting blues you will get purples, like grapes or plums.  It may take  you longer to restore the blue colors dependably if only one parent has the modifiers.  This is another reason to cross the Earth Tones to more than one line of sweet corn.

I think that Earth Tones has colorless hulls. If you introduce colored pericarps (hulls), keep in mind that every kernel on the cob will have the same hull color. You may not want to get those genes into your line.

Your new friend, Dave Christensen [phone]

[blueadzuki]

Feb 22, 2022 1:34:34 GMT -5 seedweneed said:

Earth Tones has colorless hulls. If you introduce colored pericarps (hulls), keep in mind that every kernel on the cob will have the same hull color. You may not want to get those genes into your line.

Your new friend, Dave Christensen [phone]

Are you sure? All the Earth Tones corn I have ever bought appeared to have pale brown pericarps (that was always the problem I saw in it, the brown pericarps made the corn colors duller than they could have been.). It's been a while since I bought any, so I suppose they could have cleaned that up.

[seedweneed]

I have never grown Earth Tones. I have only seen the photos. If there are brown pericarps in the gene pool, that would ruin the colors.  I suspect that pericarp color would have come in from unintentional crossing.

I communicated with the man who created the ancestors of Earth Tones many years ago. He had planted a dark colored corn from Mexico in his garden. Some pollen blew onto his yellow dent corn. He soon discovered a huge array of shades in the crossbreds. Apparently, the Mexican corn carried the pastel gene and fortunately neither line carried blotchy, speckled nor color blocker genes. Every kernel was beautiful! Beginners luck!

He selected specific colors of kernels to create mosaic art pieces. They were amazing with almost every color of the rainbow.

Sometime after he died Earth Tones appeared on the market. I am guessing that someone mixed all his colors together. I would like to learn the story.

In my opinion, earth tones would be a lot prettier with smooth round domed kernels. Get rid of the dents.

PS. I added a little more information to the original message above.

[blueadzuki]

Well, The seed I bought came from actual seed packets (the kind you buy in the store). So if there was such a cross, it occurred pretty far back in the line.

And it is interesting you said that about Earth Tones, since I have an ear that is more or less exactly that! Two or three years ago I bought some "Indian" corn from a farmer's market stand that had decided to grow out Earth Tones and Oaxacan Green that year, and wasn't that careful about if they crossed. Besides an ear with a few sweet corn kernels on it (which probably came from sweet corn that they had grown earlier in the year) I wound up with an ear that had full pastels, opaque color, and no dimples. As the ear is still intact, I can't tell if it is "cap" (like dent without the dent), "shell" (all soft starch with a thin hard starch shell all around), or true flour (no hard starch at all). But it certainly matches what you describe very well. It even has the hard to find sea green kernel color.

While we are discussing colorful corns, I should mention that I also have what amounts to a miniature Glass Gem corn. Three of them, in fact. There's the one that looks like a straight miniature version of the standard, which I have a LOT of. That came from two sources, some corn ears on sticks being sold out of Canada as home décor, and a different farmer's market stand. The second is one I got on eBay, which, while still small, is larger than the first. And the third is three ears (almost assuredly sibling ears) that have the same color palette and size as #1, but have rice type kernels instead of pearl type.

[flowerbug]

thanks to all here who talk about this topic. i don't grow corn currently but i do enjoy reading about people who do and very happy to have someone who is working on new varieties here talking about their experiences.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Though Alan Bishop long abandoned this forum, I believe he did in fact finish this project. Unless this was a separate project from his original landrace sweetcorn.

Joseph Lofthouse kept his variety going. It is called 'Astronomy Domine' sweetcorn. You can find it on the EFN Experimental Farm Network or from Baker Creek Seeds. The modern strain does not have as many deep purple kernels as the older strain.