Unraveling the mystery of miniature glass gem

Pulsegleaner

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Hi all

I was trolling around the web, and I found this article about Glass Gem corn

https://www.businessinsider.com/the...tely-surprised-by-the-colors-of-their-corn-27

Of particular interest to me was the following paragraph

"According to an account from Schoen, Barnes told him that the rainbow seed originally came from a crossing of "Pawnee miniature popcorns with an Osage red flour corn and also another Osage corn called ‘Greyhorse.’"

Note that line about "Pawnee miniature popcorns". This may give a clue as to something I began to encounter a few years ago, ears of corn with Glass Gem Color spectra, but miniature size. At first I was only finding this in an unlikely spot, a Canadian company that drilled holes in ears and stuck dowels in them for use as part of dried flower arrangements. But at least one year, a stand at my local farmers market had the same sort of corn for sale* so it must have been available on the market somewhere. But I find no definitive mention of it. All the Glass Gem I see for sale is the full sized one**. I of course have a large supply of seed from those ears I bought back then, but knowing a source could come in handy (plus, with the way critters eat my corn, NO supply, no matter HOW large is enough to guarantee keeping something)


*NOT my normal "weird corn" stand
** Though I did once see a picture in an article on glass gem (in Heirloom Gardener I think) that had a circle of ears in which a few were smaller. And looking through professionally packed packets of seed HAS shown me that there is some variability of kernel (and hence one would presume, cob) size.
 

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