Corn breeding question

[tz]

Hi all,

I am hoping some of you can answer a couple of questions I have. I plan to cross two sweet corns this year, Ruby Queen (red) and Delectible (bicolor). Both are se and have similar disease resistances. They are about 8 days apart so I though it would be nice to develop a multicolored corn with a bit of spread to its production in my little garden.

My questions are these:

1) How will choice of mother parent affect color in the first generation? Which would you detassel and why?

2) Does it matter which kernels I save to grow next year if I predominantly want red and mixed color ears (is mixed color possible)?

3) What colors can I expect? Yellow, red, white? green?

4) Both are hybrids so I don't know how much of a mess the outcome will be. Any insights?




Thanks,

TZ

[DarJones]

Ruby Queen is the shorter maturity variety therefore you would detassel the Delectable. Plant twice as much Ruby Queen as Delectable so you get good pollination and spread the plantings out over at least 2 weeks. Maturity in corn is notorious for being easily modified by temperature so you have to take a few precautions to ensure pollen is available when needed.

Ruby Queen is a red aleurone on top of yellow endosperm. Delectable is a bicolor yellow and white. The combination will give a mix of yellow and white kernels with an overlay of red on about half of them. Keep in mind that the endosperm is triploid so you will have a wide range of variation from white to yellow to red overlay.

One caution, the genetic base of this corn will wind up being very narrow. I would suggest using at least 4 different se types if you want to develop an op version.

DarJones

[joseph]

I did a similar cross in the 2010 growing season: [Ruby Queen] X [Precocious, Bodacious, Incredible]. The pollen donors were 65, 75, and 85 days to maturity. I chose to detassel the Ruby Queen because I was using the same pollen donors to also pollinate Flour and Flint corns.

The Ruby Queen kernels were all reddish implying that it's a dominant trait so 50% of kernels the following year aught to be reddish. When the F1 seed segregates I'm expecting white, yellow, and red kernels on the same cob.

I planted 4 rows of detasseled corn and then 3 rows of jumbled up pollen donors. That pattern was repeated across the field. I planted more pollen donors than necessary so that I could take their cobs to market, and I didn't want to risk market corn not being fully pollinated.

I also pollinated Astronomy Domine multi-colored sweet corn with the same pollen donors.

This is much more genetically diverse than the Ruby Queen cross: more colors, more shapes, and more variety in days-to-maturity. I have plenty of seed available if anyone would like to trial some. I'd only ask for a report about how it grew and how you liked the taste and colors. Send me a personal message. It's an F1 hybrid (su X se) so it won't breed true.

Open pollinated corn is about 30% to 70% F1 hybrids, and about 70% to 30% selfed, so there won't be a mess. There will just be open pollinated sweet corn.

I'm growing Astronomy Domine seed this year as small patches of individual colors, and as large patches of blended seed. That aughta give me lots of options. My se+ open pollinated sweet corn is more limited in it's color palette but I'm growing it the same way as small patches of like colors, and as blended seed. More colors aught to be available at the end of this growing season.

[tz]

Thanks guys, that was the info I was looking for, including the bit about the yellow endosperm of Ruby Queen.