To: "'Melissa Kacalanos'" <mijwiz@yahoo.com>, "'nafex mailing list at ibiblio'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [nafex] OT a bit- Saving hybrid seed (corn)
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 08:06:57 -0600
Thank you. I will look for a different variety for next year. See saving
looks like a poor idea for me
Naomi
-----Original Message-----
From: nafex [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Melissa
Kacalanos via nafex
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2014 7:03 AM
To: nafex mailing list at ibiblio
Subject: Re: [nafex] OT a bit- Saving hybrid seed (corn)
Corn suffers severely from inbreeding depression, so the only varieties
worth growing are hybrids (crosses between two inbred parents) or
populations with enough genetic diversity to be vigorous. It would take a
pretty big field to maintain enough genetic diversity in a population, and
you're not going to get it by starting with one hybrid.
Gardeners have had some luck stabilizing hybrids of, say, tomatoes, since
they don't suffer from inbreeding depression so much. But not corn.