Corn question

[Cosmo spring garden]

I have been growing painted mountain corn for few years now. This was the first year I intentionally separated the painted mountain from all the other corn I grew (over 500 feet away). In the past year I grown the sweet corn, painted mountain and glass gem in the same 15k(?) square foot garden.

Question: do you see the wrinkled kernels? Are those crossed with sweet corn since that's what dried sweet corn looks like?

I only planted the non wrinkled kernels but lots of the cobs still had the wrinkle kernels on them.

 

[heirloomgal]

There are probably folks here who can respond to this much better than myself, but I would guess this is likely the case. I don't say that because I can identify any cross pollination from the photo, but because corn saved for seeds requires huge isolation distances since it is wind pollinated. More than one variety planted in the same, even large garden, is highly likely to cross. However, there are exceptions. Can you recall if the corn varieties were shedding at the same time? Therein probably lies the answer. Some corn seed savers will plant more than one type of corn in a given area, but varieties that will shed pollen weeks apart. If your 3 varieties did that, shed their pollen at well spaced intervals, than your seed is likely to have remained pure.

Very beautiful corn variety!

 

[seedcorn]

Unfortunately for you. Yes, cross pollinated. It is almost impossible to not get cross pollinated corn unless you separate them by a large distance-1/8 mile or longer.

The good news is that if you sort out the wrinkled kernels, you should have a high percentage of what you desire. By having 2 distinct types, it was in your favor. If both were flint types, I would not suggest that.

 

[Zeedman]

There may be some Glass Gem crossing in that corn too.

I suspect that I will be dealing with that issue as well, although to a lesser extent - with the same variety. Lot sizes are large in my sub-division, and most of my adjacent neighbors have double lots. No one nearby has grown corn, so I felt confident that use of ear & tassel bags would be unnecessary. Well, the neighbor upwind of me decided to grow corn in his back yard this year. Had I seen that, I would have used the bags I had on hand.

There are some yellow and white kernels in my Painted Mountain; since this is the first time I've grown it, don't know if those colors are part of the color palette for the variety. There are no shrunken kernels. I planted quite early, so hopefully PM beat their sweet corn to tassel.

 

[Okiepan]

I have been growing painted mountain corn for few years now. This was the first year I intentionally separated the painted mountain from all the other corn I grew (over 500 feet away). In the past year I grown the sweet corn, painted mountain and glass gem in the same 15k(?) square foot garden.

Question: do you see the wrinkled kernels? Are those crossed with sweet corn since that's what dried sweet corn looks like?

I only planted the non wrinkled kernels but lots of the cobs still had the wrinkle kernels on them.

I had the same thing happen with my hickory king and sweet corn , guess they were to close as well

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I have a quart jar filled with sweet corn kernels I have picked off ears of ornamental corn. It happens a LOT.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

I have a quart jar filled with sweet corn kernels I have picked off ears of ornamental corn. It happens a LOT.

Have you tried growing the sweet corn kernels? I am going to try next year.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Have you tried growing the sweet corn kernels? I am going to try next year.

It's on my planting table, but the problem is I have a LOT of corns I need to plant urgently, and that one isn't at the top of the list. Add on I'm still working out how to get the right time balance that will let me plant the corn directly in the ground (so it will grow properly) and not have the animals eat all the seed the moment it goes in.