Isolate Corn? Avoid Cross-pollination? Hah! LOL

[applestar]

Here are some fun corn you can grow if you INTENTIONALLY cross/hand-pollinate your corn

I don't know what I'm doing, though. All I know is that the shrunken kernels are likely due to the the (sh) genes that make the sweet corn hybrid varieties sweet. I'd love it if you could comment on what you see. Any thoughts? Tips? Advice for what to do next?


Harvested today -- Kandy Korn x Glass Gem F2, self pollinated and/intentionally crossed with available pollen from Mirai350BC, Ashworth, Double Red Sweet, volunteer that might be Bloody Butcher.




I'm definitely going to save the seeds from that top one with ALL the different colors separately. That one is a beauty. DD jokingly asked if she could EAT that one – I told her she can eat what grows from them next year




Harvested a few days ago

MIrai350BC cobs -- .Lots of shrunken kernels? Some are shrunken but GG like?


In the next group, same top and bottom as above but the middle one is Ashworth for comparison


Here are more Ashworth



Mirai350BC x Double Red Sweet F1

[applestar]

The Ashworth kernels all seem to have that translucent quality that the Miral kernels don't. Is that the normal Ashworth kernel color -- are those self'd? I was curious, so I examined the remaining Ashworth seeds. I couldn't capture it very well, but I think they do.



So I'm thinking the yellow and white kernels on the cob in the bottom photo have the Ashworth translucence, but there are also purplish to nearly black shaded ones which I'm guessing could have come from (KKx)Glass Gem or the Double Red Sweet... And this cob also has the completely shrunken Mirai type kernels. This one is really neat and I'm going to save the entire cob as seeds for next year.

[applestar]

I was told that the bottom cob with all the different colors and wrinkly translucent yellow and white as well as some purplish kernels are showing the sugary (su) genetics of sweet corn, and that the shriveled up-looking kernels are showing the genetics of shrunken (sh) sweet corn.

I'm not sure if we are seeing sugar enhanced (se) or supersweet (sh2) in there, too? According to wiki "Mirai varieties for example have sh2, se and su genes in all kernels."

So this is all very promising. Its actually the shiny domed kernels that are more likely to be popcorn-type (in other words -- Glass Gem) although they are the prettiest.

I'm planning to save and grow the best-looking shrunken and sugary kernels next year -- Corn rotation in the Spiral Garden, my biggest bed and the spiral configuration provides for great natural corn pollination -- especially the colored ones, in hopes that they will cross-pollinate each other and produce multi-colored sweet corn.

[applestar]

This one is a volunteer -- no idea what it is. I was hoping it was Bloody Butcher because it was growing so big and sturdy, but now I'm wondering it was bird or rodent-dropped seed. It had field corn characteristics including exposed tip.

I self'd it as well as hand pollinated with Mirai350BC, KKxGG F1, Ashworth, and probably Double Red Sweet, too, though I don't know which "took" (well, the lavender/purple kernels are probably KKxGG.F1, right?)

Is yellow dominant or is red dominant? If it IS Bloody Butcher red, adding green would make brown... Or would it?

These kernels sure look like dent corn to me...but some of them look like green/black influence from GG. In GG, some of the "darkest green" and "not quite black" kernels are the same or similar, and made me remember that black and yellow paint mixed together make dark green....

[applestar]

This is Double Red Sweet corn. I cannot get over how GORGEOUS it is -- the whole plant! I wonder if this one is good for dye-making, too? (SusanW, are you reading this?)



I had three plants but only this one managed to grow a cob. I had intended to replenish my seed stock, but ended up hand-pollinating with Mirai350BC as well as self... So I will post this here.


...thinking I might be seeing some wrinkly and/or shrunken kernels... Will know for sure after the cob dries a bit