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[Market-farming] Synergistic, Sweet Gene and Sweet Breed Sweet corn types
- From: "Wyatt Jones" <wyatt_jones AT netzero.com>
- To: <Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: [Market-farming] Synergistic, Sweet Gene and Sweet Breed Sweet corn types
- Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:43:34 -0400
What a weird day. It rains 2
inches in 15 minutes then almost immediately there isn't a cloud in the
sky, Hot and muggy of course, then an hour or so later its dark again and
pouring like before, the cycle repeating over and over. Its been going on
this way since noon and my pasture is flooding, I think I might start canning
beans or make some jam. Was hoping to get some fall crops in. Oh well at
least I got my corn cultivated yesterday. Anyway I got started on this
research and thought it might be of some interest.
To give you an
idea about pricing differences in the synergistic corn I'll list some
here. My neighbor told me that Harris, a seed company in New York (
my friend told me they were out of Kentucky LOL), is expanding their
untreated and organic lines and I called them to confirm that so I guess I'll
keep an eye on them. They say their corn isn't GMO but they don't test for
it like Fedco so there is no guarantee unless you test it yourself and confront
them with that information, which is beyond my means. Maybe if a few
other people and I bring it up a few times they will at least start testing
the organic seed as they seem genuinely interested in getting a good
standing in the organic seed market. Fedco finds GMO in sweet corn
seed all the time, I don't remember if it was last year or the year before but
they rejected the tuxedo sweet corn and some others they received because of
it. Harris claimed there was no such thing as a GMO sweet corn but if
there is GMO field corn around it can certainly get into the sweet corn genetics
pretty easily. They were VERY surprised when I told them of Fedco's
findings so, even though they seem sincere, I have to
wonder about them as I would think, being a seed company, they would know about
such things but maybe they just needed somebody to open their
eyes. Still one would think they would be more educated about such
things and I wonder what else they don't know. I'm really
hoping Fedco gets some larger qtys of Serendipity with a qty break on the
price, they have their problems but I do think they are worth the trouble and
they try pretty hard. I hope they get some other synergistics, Sweet
Breed and Sweet Genes (triplesweets) in the future, including some white ones
like Avalon or Sweet Ice.
Synergistics are (se x se) x (se
x sh2) Sweet Gene's (Se x Se) x (Su x Sh2) and Sweet Breeds are
Se x (Su x Sh2) I've noticed that all the Sweet Breeds I found
are early corn, while the Sweet Genes tend to be later corn, Synergistics
are all over the board. Not sure if thats a coincidence or there is some
reason for it. I have noticed that the triplesweets have a more
tender texture than the synergistics which is good or bad depending on your
requirements, won't take rough handling which isn't a problem for me.
Haven't had any experience with the Sweet breeds but they are supposed to have
similar qualities to the Sweet Genes which would make sense given their
genetics. All the varieties I've seen of these three of these
types have a small cob and so a smaller diameter ear though they do have very
deep kernels. That seems to confuse some customers used to large cobs as
the ears look bigger and it seems like there is more edible corn on the cob when
in fact they are pretty comparable in that respect
There is Mirai Corn, it combines the
Su Se and Sh2 types but they're not telling exactly how, apparently it is very
popular in Japan and the sweetness is compared to that of sweet fruit or
melons. Marketing hype or reality? Don't know, but I read conflicting
information about how fussy it is about growing. Some claim
it can tolerate drought band hot weather better than other varieties ,
other that it needs more water. I think it is simply an augmented
Supersweet (se stacked on top of a Sh2 gene, not sure how that works but its
genetic and texture are similar to a synergistic but its sweeter, almost too
sweet for my taste) myself and Harris Seeds lists it that way. As
such it definitely need more water and likes the heat, not a cold weather
variety at all though some of the new Xtr-tender varieties are listed as more
tolerant to somewhat cooler soil. I've grown the Xtra-tender 374a, another
augmented supersweet white corn and it was great though a bit too sweet for my
taste, the squirrels came for miles around and I found cobs EVERWHERE. I
thought the wind knocked over the whole stand at first but the
stalks were knocked away from the windbreak and I couldn't figure out
how that was possible till I saw the little buggers making off with the
ears. The squirrels would knock down stalks and when the cobs hit the
ground all the birds went for it including the doves, never saw anything like
it, It was a real wildlife party I can tell you LOL, They were having a
good old time and I didn't get many ears of corn, though I didn't find one worm
or any evidence they had been there. Isolation is an issue
though. The Mirai company strongly suggests selling its corn at
$6 a dozen! The seeds sell for about $5.50/1000 to at qtys of
100,000, a little more than most synergistic but a little cheaper than Montauk
and the other augmented supersweets although its hard to correlate the two as
the Xtra-tender is sold by the pound instead of a seed count. Johnny's
lists the seed count of the xtra-tenders to vary between 2500-5500 which makes a
huge difference but they don't say which is which, Harris lists the seed count
of all but the xtra-tender 277a (2900sds/lb) and 282a (3300sds/lb) as
3000sds/lb The Maria
varieties had similar counts for he most part but the 301BC was listed
at 4000 sds/lb and at $300/50000 seeds its $24.00/lb. probably have
problems with seed plates with that one.
Cultural information for growing
Mirai Sweet Corn. • You need to
have a well prepared seedbed and continued good conditions. • When
populations are good expect excellent yields of nicely packaged attractive ears
with superb tip fill and irresistible kernels. I asked Jordan's a while
back about untreated corn but they stopped responding when I asked. They
seemed helpful until that point but I never got a response after I asked about
it though I repeated sent e-mails requesting that information so I have to
assume they don't deal in untreated seed though I don't know for sure. I was
thinking about ordering other items till I got that treatment as their prices
seemed very reasonable. Definitely NOT good customer relations in my
opinion.
Note: I assumed 2500 sds/lb unless I
saw seed counts specified, that is probably a very conservative estimate but
that was what Johnny's claimed for synergistic averages though they
gave a range of 1700-3500. The types I actually found counts for
individual types were considerably higher than that average and even a bit
higher than the maximum Johnny's gave, Maybe those types that had a higher
count specifically mentioned them to show that their prices were more reasonable
than a first glance would indicate for marketing reasons, again not sure but
that seems a reasonable hypothesis. Johnny's data has proven very
reliable in the past, judging from my experience so I tend to trust their data
more than most.
White
Avalon Triplesweet (Rust resistant
Sweet Gene) 82 day 8x1.85"
Southern
states: 50lbs $440.00 ($9/lb)
Jordan's: $550
($11/lb)
Misquamicut Synergistic 78 day 8.5"
x1.8"
couldn't find pricing on this
one
Sweet Ice -Sweet Breed 74 day
couldn't find any size data but it looked about the size of Polka
sensitive to rust, not too disease
resistant but good cold soil germination and vigor
Harris 100,000 sds $487
$12/lb
Bicolors
Serendipity Triplesweet (Sweet
Gene) 82 day 8x1.85" 3860 sds/lb
Quickly becoming a
standard
Southern states 50lbs $400
($8/lb)
Jordan's: 50lbs $490
($9.80/lb)
Fedco 10 lbs $150 ($15/lb) No
larger unit size available for 2009
Providence triplesweet ( Rust
resistant Sweet Gene) 82 day 8"x1.85" (rust resistant Serendipity
type)
Montauk synergistic 80 day 8"x16-20
row
Jordan's 50lbs $627
(12.5/lb)
Johnny's 100,000 sds (about 40 lbs)
$719 ($18/lb)
Polka synergistic 65 day
A new variety that I grew this year,
quite impressive to me, one of the quickest and very good. Sets
ears fairly low and short stalks, 5' or so Jordan lists the ear at
8.5x1.7" Johnny's lists it more accurately by my experience at 7 1/2"
14-16 row. Most were around that size but it varies more than it probably
should, A few were as large as 9 inches and some were more
like 6" Excellent flavor and very sweet. I've had customers say it
was the best they ever had but its early corn and the very tips didn't always
fill out but I've found that to be normal in very early sweet corn and since it
tapers quite a bit toward the end there isn't much loss of kernels, its more a
cosmetic issue. With the
smaller cob all these types have, some customers thought they were overly small
but they had quite a bit of edible corn, very deep kernels. Still customer
perception is a factor and its their money. I'm selling it pretty well in
Yellow Springs, a college town and making headway in the country but I do get
people turning their noses up at it because of the perceived size. Those I
get to try it come back for more though. Its available from Johnny's in both
untreated and organic nutrient based (Natural II) treated which I found works as
well a the traditional treatment , maybe better. The organic
treatment costs about 20% more but I plan to use it for my early
corn. With the better germination rate it at least balances out anyway and
might be in fact a better buy
Jordan's 100,000 sds $326
($8/lb)
Johnny's 100,000 sds $457 ($11.5/lb)
Frisky synergistic
67day 7"x12-14 row
Johnny's 100,000 sds $457
(11.5/lb)
Kristine Synergistic 80 day
8.5x1.9"
Jordan's 100,000 sds $470
($12/lb)
Cameo synergistic 82
day 9x2.1"
Jordan's 100,000 sds $466
($11.50/lb)
Charmed
Yellow
Honey Select Synergistic 78 day 8.5x2" 3640 sds/lb
Jordan's 50lbs $500
($10/lb)
Applause Synergistic 73 day 8x1.8"
(Bodacious type)
Jordan's 100,000sds (about 40lbs)
$400 ($10/lb)
Harris - Available untreated
20lbs at $13.50/lb 100lbs at 11:50/lb
Well I could go on but hopefully you
get the idea. These sweet corn types seem to be catching on pretty fast as
they are very sweet with good flavor and keep longer in the field and
refrigerated, as long as 10 days refrigerated, without most of the problems
associated with Supersweets, including the tougher eating quality. Organic
and untreated availability lags behind the ones contaminated with
chemicals but that's the world we live in unfortunately
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-
[Market-farming] Synergistic, Sweet Gene and Sweet Breed Sweet corn types,
Wyatt Jones, 08/11/2009
- Re: [Market-farming] Synergistic, Sweet Gene and Sweet Breed Sweet corn types, Bill Shoemaker, 08/18/2009
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