Comments - Celt's Garden - Bellingham Blue Sweet Corn - Transition Whatcom2024-03-28T23:26:24Zhttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=2723460%3ABlogPost%3A72158&xn_auth=noHi Walter, the red color of t…tag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2011-11-22:2723460:Comment:735762011-11-22T00:04:07.703ZCelt M. Schirahttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/CeltMSchira
<p>Hi Walter, the red color of the all red ears in flour corn is the pericarp color. The pericarp is part of the mother plant, uninfluenced by pollination. When you grow out the kernels, the ears might be red and they might not. </p>
<p>The stripes are from gene jumping. Transposons inactivate the color at some points, causing the stripes. </p>
<p>As for heirloom corn countering the degradation from GMO drift, that's a very interesting question. Heirloom corn was selected over a long period to…</p>
<p>Hi Walter, the red color of the all red ears in flour corn is the pericarp color. The pericarp is part of the mother plant, uninfluenced by pollination. When you grow out the kernels, the ears might be red and they might not. </p>
<p>The stripes are from gene jumping. Transposons inactivate the color at some points, causing the stripes. </p>
<p>As for heirloom corn countering the degradation from GMO drift, that's a very interesting question. Heirloom corn was selected over a long period to give some yield even in a bad year. GMO corn is designed to give excellent yields with all the conditions right. Even the advocates of GMO corn say that it does badly in response to the typical abuse of subsistence farming. </p>
<p>I'm working on I'd say to go ahead and mix it up next year. </p> Krista, sure, just like that,…tag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2011-11-21:2723460:Comment:735742011-11-21T17:19:46.050ZCelt M. Schirahttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/CeltMSchira
<p>Krista, sure, just like that, what you said. There are dozens of relevant corn genes and genes that turn on or off other genes, and the wide cross shuffles then up, just like dropping a deck of cards on the floor. The first pass of selection is to choose sturdy, good looking plants to save seed from. The pros call that selecting for a good frame. The next selection step is to collect ears with a tight husk wrapping and good pollination. There are two naturally occurring types of sweet…</p>
<p>Krista, sure, just like that, what you said. There are dozens of relevant corn genes and genes that turn on or off other genes, and the wide cross shuffles then up, just like dropping a deck of cards on the floor. The first pass of selection is to choose sturdy, good looking plants to save seed from. The pros call that selecting for a good frame. The next selection step is to collect ears with a tight husk wrapping and good pollination. There are two naturally occurring types of sweet kernels. The old one is sweet (su), recognizable by the way the kernel collapses in flat planes as it dries, and the new one is sugary enhanced (se), recognizable by the small parallel crinkles in the top of the drying kernel. Su corn inspired the directions to put the pot on to boil and then go out and pick the corn. Se will actually stay sweet long enough to buy the ears at the Farmer's Market and then take them home and put the kettle on for dinner. Neither will stay sweet long enough for the industrial agriculture model, hence the development of sweet corn with the shrunken (sh2) gene, which we don't have to worry about since not only does it taste like high fructose corn syrup instead of corn, it's highly unstable and useless for breeding open pollinated sweet corn. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>A wide cross between an open pollinated sweet corn and a flour corn will typically have su, se and floury kernels. By picking su and se kernels from ears you like, you can move the corn in the desired direction. Larger ears, all blue, etc. Or pick out floury kernels to start developing a Whatcom Blue Flour corn that doesn't suffer miserably in our climate like Hopi Blue. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The kicker with all subsequent courses of action is space (and time and attention and water.) The next step is to grow out a lot of something that looks promising from the wide cross and select again, putting us well on the way to a stabilized variety. </p>
<p> </p> Celt: awesome information, th…tag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2011-11-21:2723460:Comment:736672011-11-21T05:37:18.890ZKrista Romehttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/KristaRome
<p>Celt: awesome information, thank you for providing it and doing the research. I appreciated the chance to learn more about what you were really doing out there with that blue corn. :) I am still a little baffled about crossing sweet and flour corn, if you take the wrinkled kernels, you'd get the sweetness, but are you thinking that you could also be getting good other traits from the non-sweets, like productivity, larger cob size, and such while preserving the sweet quality?</p>
<p>Celt: awesome information, thank you for providing it and doing the research. I appreciated the chance to learn more about what you were really doing out there with that blue corn. :) I am still a little baffled about crossing sweet and flour corn, if you take the wrinkled kernels, you'd get the sweetness, but are you thinking that you could also be getting good other traits from the non-sweets, like productivity, larger cob size, and such while preserving the sweet quality?</p> The elder fellow who brought…tag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2011-11-07:2723460:Comment:724122011-11-07T06:18:53.551ZShannon Marishttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/ShannonMaris
<p>The elder fellow who brought his Bellingham Blue corn the first annual seed swap is Gene Montague. He lives in the lower Alabama hill and loves to answer questions about gardening!</p>
<p>We are honored that he shared his treasured heirloom corn with us! </p>
<p>Thanks for the follow up and corn lesson, Celt!</p>
<p>The elder fellow who brought his Bellingham Blue corn the first annual seed swap is Gene Montague. He lives in the lower Alabama hill and loves to answer questions about gardening!</p>
<p>We are honored that he shared his treasured heirloom corn with us! </p>
<p>Thanks for the follow up and corn lesson, Celt!</p> Go for it and more power to y…tag:transitionwhatcom.ning.com,2011-11-07:2723460:Comment:723132011-11-07T01:48:33.511ZCelt M. Schirahttp://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/profile/CeltMSchira
Go for it and more power to you. Red corn is complicated stuff. The stalk color gene is different from the genes for red leaves or a red pericarp. They all combine in different ways and other genes affect whether they are expressed or suppressed. Breeding a stabilized red corn is quite the undertaking. Never shy away from a challenge, eh Walter?
Go for it and more power to you. Red corn is complicated stuff. The stalk color gene is different from the genes for red leaves or a red pericarp. They all combine in different ways and other genes affect whether they are expressed or suppressed. Breeding a stabilized red corn is quite the undertaking. Never shy away from a challenge, eh Walter?