swetcorn

[chriscross1966]

Someone needs to develop an open-pollinated variety with both taste and long-lasting sweetness. No reason why it shouldn't be done; the only problem is the number of plants you have to grow to avoid inbreeding depression.

Where's the commercial advantage to a seedsman in doing that.... sweetcorn is prolific in terms of germination success per seed so you only need to seed-save however many plants you want next year plus 10%... They sell you seeds once and never again.... at least anywhere where sweetcorn is grown commercially.....

chrisc

[chriscross1966]

[Vinlander]

The problem with breeding sweetcorn is that they are from Central America - not the highlands either (which gives runner beans and potatoes a head start and makes them relatively easy to manipulate).

The story of how they emerged in the first place is a real humdinger - there are endless legends of how it happened involving the local gods but basically they were breeding the local grass 8000 years ago and they suddenly got this chromosomal fluke that made sweetcorn.

The basic stock was therefore a long shot in the first place - that kind of thing leaves little leeway in the genes. On top of that they were almost entirely unsuitable for the UK. This helps to explain why it took decades to breed the necessary earliness into them, to my mind it was sheer luck that any flavour was retained at all!

The odds get longer and longer every time you try to breed for something else. I think the 'retain sweetness' gene broke the bank.

It's always possible to get the exact mix of genes you want - just like it's possible to win the lottery. In 20 years time you might get a tendersweet variety that retains the old sweetcorn flavour (or at least as much as we ever had in this country) - but why should that bother us?

We don't need to wait for the lottery to make a big win - we can take the old varieties, pick them, eat them - all within 30 minutes - it's not rocket science...

Cheers

[laurieuk]

Having tried many varieties over the years have now settled for Applause, Have grown it for the last 3 years with great results. Had a bit of a problem finding seed this year but ok in the end.

[superfowell]

Premier Seeds on the eBay shop has loads of great seeds including the Hopi blue sweetcorn all for 99p each with 60p postage. It's 60p postage no matter how many you buy so the more you buy the better it is!

[saddad]

Hi Superfowell and welcome to A4A...
you will be sent to the seedaholics corner if you start posting things like that..  ;D

[cornykev]

OH got me 3 packets of Incredible f1 from Wilko's yesterday, 3 packets for £2.50 = 120 seeds.  ;)      ;D ;D ;D