Gaspe flint corn

[897tgigvib]

I made it to Garden Addicted.

I joined TEG just under a year ago.

Have to get that TEG garden book project going one way or another.

 

[VicJ]

I've grown Gaspe here in Fairbanks Alaska. I found out about it because it was used in breeding the earliest sweet corn of all--Yukon Chief. The early tasseling genes are evident in Yukon Chief (bred here in Fairbanks by the University of Alaska); one time I grew out about 8 of the very earliest sweet corn cultivars I could find (I remember Orchard Baby, Ashworth, and Fisher's Earliest were among them). Yukon Chief tasseled out two weeks before any of them. If you want an early, open pollinated sweet corn, I don't think there is anything earlier (thanks to Gaspe).

 

[thistlebloom]

Welcome VicJ!

That's interesting about the Yukon Chief, I haven't seen that one. I have grown Orchard Baby though, and it was early, but tiny.
How did you like the Yukon Chief?

 

[levisthered]

Like marshall I have found this site looking for Gaspe flint corns seed and not being able to get any from either of hte canadian retailers who have it. Would any of you folks that do have it be willing to sell some to me? Like marshall said it could be a very important strain of corn some day. I would like to propagate a sizable amount of it. to have a fair amount on hand and maybe do some reasearch on how it can perform in kansas heat and dry. Thanks again Levi

 

[897tgigvib]

Howdy, and welcome to the forum Levi. Make sure you remember your login stuff and visit often. Make sure you do 10 posts so you can do all the features here like photos and stuff.

I have a good amount of the seed now. I'm not very good with the postal stuff being that I live so far from the nearest town, but I'll send you some. No need for to pay me.

The Gaspe Corn plants are shockingly small. Knee high to a 10 year old, barely. The ears are only as long as a finger, and some are shorter, but they are well proportioned. Some say they are not the prettiest thing but I think they are. Gaspe is a Flint corn, yellow for sure. My seed comes from plants that I grew at the same time as Japonica Striped Maize, but I truly do not think any crossed. The Gaspe was twice as fast to tassle, at least twice as fast, and I was harvesting the Gaspe while the Japonica was just tassling, oh, I found a few more Gaspe cobs when I was taking the plants out. None of the Gaspe kernels showed the deep purple color of the Japonica. On the off chance you do get any that crossed, they will be much taller, much.

Gaspe has the tassle already in the formation stage in its seed. I read that on some website from an Argentina University study. I kind of think they will do well in a hot region too. Lots of varieties that are tough for northern conditions are just plain tough, which means they are also tough for southern conditions.

If you are thinking about crossing Gaspe, make sure you plant the other variety a good number of weeks earlier, or even month(s) earlier. Also, Gaspe's silk and cobs are inches from the ground. I think careful non splash watering and a good clean mulch will help the cobs fill out better.

Fun little corn to grow!

 

[canesisters]

Ok.. HOW did I manage to miss this thread??

You know what? I think that if I had planted this when I started the sweet corn, I would be harvesting now!! This is going on my list for next year!

 

[897tgigvib]

It's my "home" thread Cane.

Cane, let me know if you want me to send you some seed too. I'd kind of think Gaspe Flint Corn could be planted 3 months before first.

In like, 60 days you may find your first DRY RIPE CORNCOB. By 90 days you've picked most of them. By 100 days you're taking the plants out and finding a few more small cobs hiding.

 

[canesisters]

Yeah, I know. That was cute, watched ya grow from a little sprout to a garden addict.

Thanks for the seed offer, but my garden is so small, I think I'll hold off on adding anything else that I don't already have seed for.
Next year, however, I'm thinking about making a few more of my little circles, and devoting each one to more of each thing. Depending, of course, on what does well this summer.
(IF Summer ever gets going, that is)

 

[levisthered]

I totally understand about being far from the post office i farm about 5 miles from mine so it sometimes takes me a while to make it in. I am still very interested in the seed so what all do you know about it i want to know as much as i can. what do you know abouit plant breeding and crossing. I don't know very much at all right now but am looking forward tro learning. I will try to get it figured out about how to send a PM but this forum is a little different that the others i have used in the past. What I would really like to do is make soemthing that would be very short season like the gaspe have a reasonable yield and be tall enough to harvest conventionaly. I found out about it looking for something about crops like corn and cotton i had learned about in my ag history class back in college that had very short maturities that you could feed and cloth your family or village with but fell from use with the advent of people having other people feed and clothe them so yeilds had to go up. I am niether endorsing or condemming the way that civilization has went. so are you going to try to get it to cross with the japanese corn this year it would be neat to see what happens there I may try to find some flour corn to try to make a dent cross and see what happpens. very exciting thanks a million!
Levi

 

[897tgigvib]

Lol, Cane, a "patch" of Gaspe Flint Corn can be a circle 3 feet in diameter with 9 plants in it... If you plant bush beans near it, give extra space. Last year my nearby bush beans overwhelmed a couple of the Gaspe Flinbt corn plants. Gaspe plants are like, smaller than a zinnia!

well, a full sized zinnia, thinking about it...

Levi, to cross corn, one variety has to have all tassles removed. Those will be the F1 seed plants to save the seed from. They have to be "timed" to silk out when the male plants that still have their tassles are in good tassle making pollen.