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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] blue corn pic and questions

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  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: carrieshepard@yahoo.com, Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] blue corn pic and questions
  • Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:53:46 -0400

At 11:42 AM 8/27/2008, you wrote:

Hi all,

I'm beginning to harvest the little bit of Hopi blue corn that I grew this year.

Can someone tell me more about seed saving for corn, like am I right that I should just save the kernels from the longer ears with the 12 rows?

Did the ears all come from the same seed? In other words, you started out with blue seed, but you got some blue variegated and some that were more red? If that's the case, and you want to select for just the blue, you'll want to eliminate any seeds that carry the genes for variegated blue and for the red. But you probably aren't going to do that in one generation. It may appear that the solid blue is dominant for color, but I don't think you know that yet for sure. I would collect seed from several of the blue ears, to keep as much as possible of the genetic diversity of other desired traits (you may not know what those are at this point but you don't want to minimize them either). Plant that seed, and if you get anything other than solid blue ears from the first generation of selection, you'll need to do the same thing again. But you might want to plant some of the other seed as well, in a separate area where they won't cross pollinate, because there could be other desirable characteristics that you don't want to completely lose.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com






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