A Seed Saver's Garden

Pulsegleaner

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@Pulsegleaner I just read by funny coincidence on a seed website a blurb about 'Tuxana' corn; in the description she mentions someone named Jonathan Spero and how she got this corn from him, and she goes on to say that she starts this corn indoors mid-May and transplants mid-June. I was surprised to read that since corn transplants are generally unpopular, but maybe it is not so uncommon after all. It might be worth considering for some of your precious and rare corn that you breed and have limited seed that you wouldn't like to lose. I think the lady is in NS.
It's DEFINITELY worth considering when I get to the end of the project (with the miniature sweetcorn kernels), since there I have VERY little (all together, collected from the three ears that had them, I have maybe 40 kernels total, and, as the three do not really resemble each other significantly, I should probably grow each one separately, so that's even less.)

Basically, I'm going down the list based on what I still have the most of and descending so it (at least if I keep it to the small stuff, I have nearly as many full sized corns to play around with as well) would run something like this.

Next year : Red ear I found elsewhere that appeared to be cross between strawberry and some field dent, with red kernelled dent from the stand added. I I recall all together that was about 638 kernels, so at 5-6 per hill (all of the stuff is old, so I factor for lowered germination) that should fill all of my 10'x10' (which I can theoretically push out to an 11x11 or even 12x12, if I have to.)

The mixed colored long eared dent with the tendency towards purple tones. May be a gourdseed (based on kernel shape) but if so, also either a shoepeg type or one with very messy rows.

Solid magenta dent, long ear. Only some kernels dented, but those have the deepest dents of all of my corns. Kernels REALLY irregular in shape, so HOPE saved ones as viable.

White yellow and pink dent, stubby ear, gourdseed, 24 rows (actually, I could have sworn it had 32 rows when I took it apart, but since I have been told that 24 is the maximum number of rows on an ear known, I was probably mistaken.
The sweet corn kernels, plus possibly the leftovers of the flour corn ones (since there are only three of those left.)

At some point in this process, I may also take a year off to grown miniature glass gem (of which I have a pint container of kernels, PLUS four intact ears, since this is the only one I have SO much of I could probably plant it directly and know the animals COULDN'T eat all of it before some grew too big for them to be interested in. Would have to do over two planting season, as three of the four intact ears are a different type (basically a miniature rice type corn with the Glass Gem palette.) I also have two seed sample from other people who claimed to have miniature glass gem, which are different from mine, and can get two more on Etsy if I so choose.)

And, as I said, I have plenty of full sized corns to work with as well, Checkered King (a stippled kernel three color dent) Freckled king (similar, but the kernels are narrower), the medium sized one with the magenta speckles and the tan pericarp, some stippled crystal flints/pops (Glass Gem is a crystal flint/pop in my classification system), Old Soft Soap if I have any left (a corn whose pericarp is so smooth and slippery it's hard to keep the kernels in your hand!) Paintbox (basically a full palette flour corn), and all of the Andean odds and ends I got from both the bodega haul and the later bodega bins. I may still have some Volta white lying around as well (I'm probably too cold for that, but if I could, It might be interesting to take the two non-white kernels I have (the stuff should really be called Volta Mostly White) and see if I can up their frequency (based on pictures I have seen from Ghana, someone may have already done that with the yellow, but it looks like they haven't with the purple).
 

Jack Holloway

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@heirloomgal Tuxana is available at Restoration Seeds. They have a few other interesting corns as well.

Also, I think @Pulsegleaner mentioned a lack of indoor space to start all the corn he would need for transplant. Also, looks like you have lots of projects for all your corn. I hope you are in your teens so you can get them all done!
 
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Jack Holloway

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I know! It's crazy that I'm accumulating all this corn and you can only grow one/year! :barnie

I am secretly rolling over the idea in my head of finding a field (renting it) where I can grow another type, so at least 2/year. It's a dream for now....
My yard guy just sprayed the blackberries today. I'm hoping 🤞I'll can grow stuff this year. Also have a friend that has 2+ acres in the country I'm going to ask if I can rent a garden space from her. She let someone grow some corn from Mexico (that they can't find up here) last year, so maybe ....
 

digitS'

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Lofthouse -

Gene Pool approach, Utah.

I have been transplanting sweet corn for about 6 or 7 years. Last year, I realized that there was room too spare on one side of the corn patch and things were a little crowded on the other side. So, moved plants with a shovel some time after they had been set out. There was little difference in their performance.

Steve
 

heirloomgal

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In the first couple years that I was gardening (zero experience), I had planted both a sweet corn and some other kind in the same year in one plot. Somewhere along the way I read that two different types of corn in the same area was a bad idea and could wreck both for their respective uses. I asked my neighbor (yes, I clearly didn't think this through because this is the burbs and his garden was literally next door) if he wanted the sweet corn because I couldn't 'keep it'. lol He couldn't bear to see me throw the plants away, so he came over with a wheelbarrow. The plants were at least three feet, maybe 4, tall at this point. When I saw the magnitude of this enterprise I questioned it, but we persevered nonetheless. At the end of season he shocked me by presenting me with an armload of super delicous yellow sweet corn. I still remember that day as my friend was visiting and we made a soup from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook using that corn called 'Sante Fe Chowder'. It was one of the most delicious soups, using corn, that I had ever eaten in my life. I should look that recipe up again.
 

Pulsegleaner

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Oh, I almost forgot (if I may veer off corn for a sec).
Remember a while back I mentioned encountering those gigantic black skinned soybeans in that Japanese grocery store? Well it turns out that, by sheer luck, I still HAVE some! Obviously, some spilled on the floor when I got them and got mixed in with the layer of assorted junk there. Now that I am doing a room cleanup the RIGHT way (actually sorting the stuff out rather than tossing it all into random bins just to get it off the floor for a little while, some of them are re-appearing. I've already got a handful (even factoring in for the fact that pressure and insects have done a fair bit of damage) and, based on where they are showing up, I suspect that, when I get around to having the room to push the couch all the way out to clean under it, they'll be even more. I have no idea of any of them are still good, but come next spring, I'm willing to try.
 
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