Topic: sweetcorn cross pollination

[Mrs Ava]

Okay, wandering down the cross pollination route, I understand that if you grow 2 different F1 sweetcorns, they could cross pollinate and you might end up with less than sweet succulent corns.  What would be an acceptable distance between 2 different varieties?  I am hoping to lengthen the corn munching season next year as they went down soooooooooooo well, but it is pointless if the corns I am going to harvest are going to be starchy.

[cleo]

John will know more than me on this-I suspect that the distance is far too great for the average lottie.

But I really do not know-if they are both `supersweet` or such maybe it makes no difference ?

Stephan

[Wicker]

have been thinkiing the same Emma Jane but have already put an early and a later supersweet on my list and am willing to chance it!  Results were so good this year can only hope for the same again ...

[john_miller]

As Stephan mentions, if they are all supersweets then there shouldn't be a problem. There is only a small thread of genes that confer supersweetness and all supersweet varieties have these genes. If you are growing supersweets and sugar enhanced (se) or older varieties that have normal suger genes then 100m is the normal recommended spacing.
What you can do in the latter situation is either time sowing so that the different sugar level corns are flowering at different times, so no pollen from one is viable when another is flowering or plant supersweets upwind of se's or 'normal' corn. Pollen from supersweets will not affect the flavour of the others (which don't contain the other half of the gene sequence necessary for supersweetness) so it doesn't matter if the pollen drifts downwind, but, as you have read, se and normal corn do contain a gene sequence that will combine with that of the supersweets and reduce the desired excess sugar production. Planting downwind will reduce chances of this happening.

[derbex]

Hmmm -so realistically if you're worried you'll have to find out what your neighbours grow. A 100m radius would cover most of our site.

Also -guess who's on the leeward side of our site. Just as well I wasn't growing super sweets.

What are the chances of me using some old cobs from this year as seed? They're Kelvedon Glory -I don't think it's an F1.

Jeremy

[Mrs Ava]

Clear as corn coloured mud!  ;D  I have no idea what is downwind on our allotment, never understood that theory.  So, plan is, sow the earlies first, then the later ones later so they are both in flower at seperate times, early first, later ones later, so the pollen of the earlies will be all gone when the later ones start the business.  Even clearer huh!   ;D

[derbex]

EJ,

Upwind/windward is where the wind is blowing from -downwind/leeward is where it's blowing to. If you're walking, upwind is into it, downwind is away from it.

The prevailing wind in the UK is from the South West so SW would be upwind and NE downwind.

However, 'Sods Law of Sailing' states that the wind is always blowing the wrong way. Which is why you always sail against it -even if you're going the other way to when you were sailing against it before. I'm sure there's a gardening equivalent whereby a high will set in and the wind will blow from the NE just at the wrong time.

To be safe, I think you should plant the corn on a turntable with a dirty great vane attached to it. That way it will 'weathercock' and whichever way the wind blows the supersweet corn will be upwind and the rest downwind  ;D It would have the added bonus that the kids could use it as a roundabout in the off-season.

I can let you have an old sail at a very reasonable price to make the vane with ::)

Jeremy -the bored

[Mrs Ava]

hehehehehe Jeremy. Have to say tho, still don't get the wind issue, but hey ho, never had a wind problem before (ahem  ;)) so I don't suppose it will start being a problem now!  Tis blowing a gale this side of Chelmsford at the moment, and looking at my willow tree in the garden, I would say the wind was blowing from that way...no..over there....no, definately from that direction.....hang on....a hurricane!  ;D

Emma...the bored with housework and a cold...sniffle!

[Wicker]

Thanks for trying to explain that John, and I guess I'll stick to 2 supersweets and take my luck, only worry is how on earth I can workl with all the fingers crossed  :-\

[john_miller]

If you are just growing supersweets then you shouldn'thave a problem Wicker.
Jeremy, Kelvedon Glory was one of the first F₁ hybrids bred for U.K. production. Sorry to pass that on.
EJ: if you grew non supersweets this year and they went down well, or if you grew only supersweets, then are you not trying to foresee a problem that you aren't going to encounter? There is not a problem with sweetness in any corn of like sugar content, assuming the weather co-operates, even if cross pollination occurs. The problem you are referring to is reduction in suger content of se's or supersweets if they are pollinated by varieties that don't have the enhanced or supersweet genes, not that the kernels will be excessively starchy.
When I grew up about 100m from the Essex border in Hertfordshire the prevailing wind blew from where the sun is setting at this time of year- I don't think global warming has changed that yet! That is SW.

[Andy H]

Jeremy you were bored :-\

I know about lee side says he that dived in the lee side of wreck then ventured past bow and woooooooosh :Dwhere`s the wreck gone ::)

Tell me...

When the weather people say a northerly wind, is it going north as I reckon it s going in a northerly direction.

However a north wind should be from the north, The north wind doth blow, gonna be snow etc.

Would you agree?

I know you get the warm/damp,cool/damp,warm/dry & warm/damp from roughly the 4 directions of NE,SE,SW & NW.

[philcooper]

A North wind comes from the North

Phil

[Mrs Ava]

I plan to seperate my 2 varieties  by an upwardly mobile squash frame and a row of spinach, if it is still around by next summer!

[Sarah-b]

What's a squash frame Emma?

sb

[Mrs Ava]

On my new plot there are some huge wooden poles buried deep deep in the ground.  I originally planned to dig them up, but then remembered Doris Pinks explaining how she grew some of her squashes upwards on a framework/trellis system.  So, I decided to keep the poles in situ and make a framework or netting on them to grow my cucumbers and other trailing squashes up next year.  As these are smack bang in the middle on my new plot, I plan to grow the early sweetcorns one side of it, and the later ones the other.
Sorry for not explaining Sarah, don't know if I am coming or going some days!  :-\