baby daddy
gardener
Laugh when you can, Apoligize when you should, Let go of the things you can't change.
Posts: 132
|
Post by baby daddy on May 2, 2010 21:27:30 GMT -5
Have been reading some articles, obviously not enough, so I wanted to get some feed back and or advice on the subject. Indian corn sold as decorations in Markets, the seeds with wrinkels are "Sweet corn kernels. Yea or Nay Detasseling some rows or corn stalks. Read some where and watched a YouTube video on it, thought they said this was done for the pourpose of saving seed from those ears of corn. Joeseph had a good article on his blog with his mission statement and methods on his corn breeding, planting in blocks etc. It seems to me that if I was wanting to cross two varieties that it would make sense to detassle variety A and let variety B be the pollenator (male ) to achieve a cross, is my thinking correct on this.  Thanx - Johnny |
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 2, 2010 22:28:51 GMT -5
Indian corn sold as decorations in Markets, the seeds with wrinkles are "Sweet corn kernels. Yea or Nay Yes. (Unless they are wrinkled because of being damaged.) If you are trying to maintain a pure Indian corn, then no seed should be saved from these cobs because they have a recessive sweet corn gene in them. Detasseling some rows or corn stalks. Read some where and watched a YouTube video on it, thought they said this was done for the pourpose of saving seed from those ears of corn. Joeseph had a good article on his blog with his mission statement and methods on his corn breeding, planting in blocks etc. It seems to me that if I was wanting to cross two varieties that it would make sense to detassle variety A and let variety B be the pollenator (male ) to achieve a cross, is my thinking correct on this. Correct. By de-tasseling variety A, all of the pollen that pollinates the crop will be variety B. I can save the seeds from both rows. In the example above I would get an A x B hybrid, and the B strain would remain pure B. It was snowing here last week. I figure that I'll be planting my corn breeding patch in about 3 days. |
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on May 3, 2010 5:43:59 GMT -5
By de-tasseling variety A, all of the pollen that pollinates the crop will be variety B. I can save the seeds from both rows. In the example above I would get an A x B hybrid, and the B strain would remain pure B. But if you DON'T detassle... and you have 3 varieties growing in proximity... you'll end up with a sort of blend of all three. Correct? Our plot is a rectangle about 100' x 35'. On one end we have 2 store bought sweets and on the far end 2 store boughts that are supposed to not be sweet. In the middle is "OUR" corn. We will save seed from the plants where the 3 varieties meet with the idea of getting corn with qualities of all 3. Some sweet, some for flour/meal/feed. We are still pretty amazed that the corn we saved last year is popping up like crazy. Well, not amazed at the corn, more amazed that the neighbor who grew up gardening and farming told us that saved corn seed wouldn't grow. shhh... don't need "you know who" to over hear. Don't say the name, it's how they find you!    |
|
|
|
Post by bunkie on May 3, 2010 16:26:55 GMT -5
bd, dan/grunt posted a great link to saving corn seed. i can't find it, lost it when my computer crashed. it was about bagging ears i think...maybe dan can find it. here's anothr place we were talking about planting in clumps... alanbishop.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=banter&thread=2768&page=1#29693i had asked val that i "noticed too the corn is in small patches and planted very close together...does this help with saving seed?" she posted "for seed saving of corn, yes. Should the corns both tassel at the same time we can eclose one or both plotts with a plastic house until after pollen shed and the silks start darkeng and shrivelling." |
|
baby daddy
gardener
Laugh when you can, Apoligize when you should, Let go of the things you can't change.
Posts: 132
|
Post by baby daddy on May 3, 2010 20:06:18 GMT -5
Thanx Bunkie, interesting idea with clump planting and the enclosure, always like seeing pics of their garden...
Joseph ,Thanx for your input also, didn't occur to me about damage causing the kernel to wrinkle, could you expand on the damage comment. Hope the weather starts to break for you.
|
|
|
|
Post by grunt on May 4, 2010 6:58:16 GMT -5
Bunkie: I've looked at so many different versions/pages on seed saving (corn and others) that I'm not sure which one I posted. Here is one that seems familiar (and accurate) eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/COG/COG_P_97_05.htm |
|
baby daddy
gardener
Laugh when you can, Apoligize when you should, Let go of the things you can't change.
Posts: 132
|
Post by baby daddy on May 4, 2010 16:12:20 GMT -5
Thanks Grunt, the link to the article was very helpful and informative. I'm sure others will enjoy it also. I keep seeing Susan Ashworths name pop up, guess i will have to consider buying her book. Can anyone recommend a book geared toward Corn, or better yet , a book that has alot of detailed info on seed saving in general that deals with a few varieties of fruits and vegtables
-B.D.
|
|
|
|
Post by grunt on May 5, 2010 1:23:00 GMT -5
This covers pretty much all vegetables, but is a bit on the basic side www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html I'll keep my eyes open, and try to remember to post what I stumble on. |
|
|
|
Post by grunt on May 5, 2010 3:07:52 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by bunkie on May 5, 2010 9:31:32 GMT -5
great links dan.
i don't see the one you posted before....it had pics of putting bags over the developing ears, something like that.
|
|
baby daddy
gardener
Laugh when you can, Apoligize when you should, Let go of the things you can't change.
Posts: 132
|
Post by baby daddy on May 5, 2010 16:43:45 GMT -5
Thanx for the links Dan,, very informative thanx for taking the time to share
-Johnny
|
|
|
|
Post by JanetM on Jun 24, 2010 9:06:08 GMT -5
Hi! I have a question. I thought the corn 'needed' the tassels so they 'could' be pollonated? As I understand it, and I maybe wrong, each of those silks are attached to a ear of corn and are important for the ears to grow, so if you remove them, how does that work?Thanks
|
|
|
|
Post by stratcat on Jun 24, 2010 10:05:20 GMT -5
By de-tasseling variety A, all of the pollen that pollinates the crop will be variety B. I can save the seeds from both rows. In the example above I would get an A x B hybrid, and the B strain would remain pure B. Variety B donates all the pollen. |
|
|
|
Post by mjc on Jun 24, 2010 10:22:59 GMT -5
Tassels are the male flowers at the top of the corn plant...they produce the pollen. So if you want to control which pollen the plants receive, you can remove them from the 'receiver' plants and let the 'donor' plants provide all the pollen.
|
|
|
|
Post by JanetM on Jun 24, 2010 13:21:47 GMT -5
So, all the corn 'needs' is the silks and not any tassels, right? So does the silks 'pick up' the pollen from the wind, or do you take a brush and brush the pollen on each one? I am thinking they would have too, otherwise how would each corn cob get pollenated. I had been told, when I have had a corn cob not fully developed, that it was because not all the Kernals were pollenated, that only the full kernals were pollenated. Was I told wrong?
|
|
