Landrace Gardening: Sweet Corn Breeding

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Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. The current batch features landrace gardening.

Sweet Corn Breeding

I am breeding an open pollinated landrace of homozygous sugary enhanced (se) multi-colored sweet corn on my farm in Paradise Utah. I call it "Paradise Sweet Corn" in honor of the town where it was developed. Paradise sweet corn contributed genes to "Lofthouse Sweet Corn" an su/se hybrid which is named in honor of my father who has gardened for decades in Paradise.

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Understand sweet corn genetics. There are three main genes: sugary (SU) is the regular sweet corn which is moderately sweet, sugar enhanced (SE) which is a little sweeter, and shrunken or supersweet (SH2) which is intensely sweet. Of these, the sugary enhanced (SE) gene is considered easier for farmers to work with than the shrunken (SH2) gene. People vary as to how much sugar they want in their corn. These varieties need to be isolated from other types of corn, and from each other, or they will produce undesirable ears.

However, the genes will cross and produce viable seed, so if you're willing to do a lot of selection work after the fact, you can use this to adjust features such as creating a multicolored sweet corn or one better adapted to your locale. By this means it is possible to dehybridize corn cultivars. Just take care not to mix in anything you don't want, such as frankencorn. Landrace, heritage, or open-pollinated stock will be safer to work with than commercial hybrids.

Some sweet corn to try ...

* 'Astronomy Domine' Sweet Corn (landrace) -- Experimental Farm Network

* Candy Astronomy Landrace Sweet Corn -- Penn and Cord's Garden

* High Carotene Sweet Corn (landrace) -- Experimental Farm Network

* Maricopa Sweet Corn -- Native Seeds Search


* 'Bellingham Blue' Sweet Corn (local organic, California) -- White Buffalo Trading

* Buhl Sweet Corn (heirloom) -- Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co

* Candy Mountain Sweet Corn (open-pollinated, supersweet) -- Penn and Cord's Garden

* Corn, Honey Cream Sweet (Organic, open-pollinated) -- Giving Ground Seeds

* Corn Seeds (open-pollinated) -- Seed Savers Exchange

* Corn Seeds (non-GMO, heirloom, open-pollinated, organic) -- True Leaf Market

* Corn, Sweet -- Annie's Heirloom Seeds

* Corn, Tuxana Sweet (open-pollinated) -- Snake River Seeds

* Festivity Sweet Corn (open-pollinated with variability) -- Quail Seeds

* "Hopi Blue" Sweet Corn seeds (High Protein, USDA Organic, open-pollinated) -- White Buffalo Trading

* Mountain Mama (open-pollinated) -- Wild Mountain Seeds

* Native Indian Heirloom Sweet Corn Black Aztec Seeds -- Dyson's Botanicals

* "Painted Hill" Indian Sweet Corn (USDA Organic, Oregon) -- White Buffalo Trading

* Sunshine Sweet Corn (open-pollinated) -- Victory Seeds

* Sweet Corn, Double Red (normal sugary SU, Organic) -- Adaptive Seeds

* Sweet Corn Seed, Organic Dorinny (Heirloom, open-pollinated, GMO-free) -- Wood Prairie

* Sweet Corn, Golden Bantam (open-pollinated) -- Heaven's Harvest

* Who Gets Kissed Sweet Corn (open-pollinated, organic, sugary enhanced) -- Hawthorn Farm

* Zanadoo Sweet Corn (open-pollinated, sugary enhanced) -- Quail Seeds