Did you grow out any grain or sweet corn? How’s it doing?
1 Like
I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate the GTS mix into my existing grexes. If I interplant I expect everything will get lost. I’m considering planting a GTS pollen donor block, and then hand-transferring pollen into a succession-sown gaspe (one of the few sure things to ripen here) to capture as much of the genetics as possible and grow on from there. I have a month to decide before it goes into the ground. I suppose I could also transplant it into a crossing block with seed-sown gaspe to try and even the days to pollination, there aren’t very many seeds.
5 Likes
Mine have tons of tillers, is this common for this variety? I realize it could be due to favorable conditions as well, just wasn’t sure if multiple tillers that (hopefully) form ears was something that was selected for.
So far I haven’t needed to water since planting. The weather here has been perfect with warm temperatures, but not hot, and rain every 7 to 10 days.
2 Likes
Since so much of the mix was made up of longer maturity requirements it would probably be best like you said with the pollen donor block because you’re unlikely to get actual corn from the mix but the genetics can be carried over to the gaspe mother. The timing might be kind of difficult on that. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
It’s a highly diverse mix so I am unsure if many of the parents tillered. Either way, they look beautiful and doing well. Great to see!
Is there any information anywhere about the breeding process to create this corn? Just interested to know how many varieties etc.
It was a mix of corn people sent in from around the US. Some landraces and some pure lines/heirlooms. It was about 30 total different samples that were mixed together.
So this is a grex, correct?
No, this is a mix of corn because the seed came from many different people, locations and are all somewhat distinct populations of corn with varying levels of genetic diversity. Once they are allowed to grow together and cross pollinate with each other, which is what you are letting them do, the next generation will be a grex.
I got a later start than I wanted but I have sweet corn seedlings poking out. Since I’m using peat pots (probably the last year I’ll use them) I can see roots even in the pots that don’t have a seedling yet. Looks like I’m getting really good germination rates.
1 Like
Oh okay, thanks! I wasn’t sure if y’all had done to grow out yet or not. I’m actually glad this is the case since I can breed it to my liking from the start.
1 Like
Some more progress photos. They have started to tassel. The biggest stalks are around three and a half to 4 ft tall.
3 Likes
It is very interesting to see these plants so short, with so many tillers, and beginning to tassel. There is a bit of 60ish day corn like gaspe in the mix so maybe this is it. I’ve never grown gaspe so I am unsure.
That is some interesting looking corn. All the tillers, makes me think a bit of genetics from teosinte could be in play. Although, the growth habit looks a bit different from what I’ve seen in teosinte. I don’t believe I ever seen an out of the box, inbred variety that does that quite so much.
Tasseling while very short is interesting as well. I saw a lot of that back when I experimented with western flour corns and very short season sweet corns from the north into Canada. I think it is genetic but also related to accumulation of heat units or growing degree days.
DGG
I wouldn’t recommend going too far down the rabbit hole of researching that or wasting time tracking it unless you just have nothing better to do, like I did. Simple observation of what your plants do is generally all a person really needs to do.
Again, regardless of what is going on or how it eventually turns out, right now it is some beautiful looking corn.
1 Like
Yes I am somewhat concerned about the early tasseling, but since the ones tasseling now are close to 3 ft tall that seems within the range of normalcy for sweet corn. The heavy tillers is quite striking, and very attractive. Since the whole point of growing this is for the fun of it, I won’t be disappointed regardless. It’s very hard not to fertilize though 
edit: I went and measured the ones tasseling. 2 were exactly 3ft, 3 were around 2ft. So it seems some could be tasseling to early.
1 Like
