So?

Alan

"Alan Holmes" wrote

So?


Try http://www.thomasetty.co.uk/vegetables/index.html

--
Regards
Bob H
17mls W. of London.UK

Alan Holmes writes

So?

Alan

Why do you want non-hybrid sweetcorn?




--
Kay

The non-hybrid sweet corn wont stay sweet very long after picking it. An
old saying here is that "if you are running to the house with a load of
sweet corn you've just picked for processing, and you fall down, throw it
away and go after another load". The point being that the sweetness didn't
last very long after picking.

The new hybrids will stay sweet for several days after being picked. If you
are going to pick only enough at one time to eat right away, non-hybrid will
be OK.

Dwayne (in Kansas)


"K" wrote in message
...
Alan Holmes writes

So?

Alan

Why do you want non-hybrid sweetcorn?




--
Kay

K wrote:
Alan Holmes writes

So?

Alan

Why do you want non-hybrid sweetcorn?

What the Hell _is_ non-hybrid sweetcorn?

--
Mike.

In article .com,
"Mike Lyle" writes:
|
| What the Hell _is_ non-hybrid sweetcorn?

Wild maize, or a true-breeding strain of it, eaten green. I ate a
lot as a child. Like most forms of banana, it has almost never been
seen in the UK.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article .com,
"Mike Lyle" writes:
|
| What the Hell _is_ non-hybrid sweetcorn?

Wild maize, or a true-breeding strain of it, eaten green. I ate a
lot as a child. Like most forms of banana, it has almost never been
seen in the UK.

My understanding is that maize isn't found in the wild, and exists only
in cultivated varieties. Is that understanding misguided?

--
Mike.

In article .com,
"Mike Lyle" writes:
|
| | What the Hell _is_ non-hybrid sweetcorn?
|
| Wild maize, or a true-breeding strain of it, eaten green. I ate a
| lot as a child. Like most forms of banana, it has almost never been
| seen in the UK.
|
| My understanding is that maize isn't found in the wild, and exists only
| in cultivated varieties. Is that understanding misguided?

Dunno. But it doesn't really matter. People distinguish true-breeding
strains of plums, Russell lupins etc. from hybrid varieties. Maize is
just another similar species.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article .com,
"Mike Lyle" writes:
|
| | What the Hell _is_ non-hybrid sweetcorn?
|
| Wild maize, or a true-breeding strain of it, eaten green. I ate a
| lot as a child. Like most forms of banana, it has almost never been
| seen in the UK.
|
| My understanding is that maize isn't found in the wild, and exists only
| in cultivated varieties. Is that understanding misguided?

Dunno. But it doesn't really matter. People distinguish true-breeding
strains of plums, Russell lupins etc. from hybrid varieties. Maize is
just another similar species.

Ah, like British Rail before they vandalised it, I'm getting there. So
he perhaps wants a variety which isn't an F1 or F2. I imagine he has
his reasons.

--
Mike.

In article . com,
"Mike Lyle" writes:
|
| Ah, like British Rail before they vandalised it, I'm getting there. So
| he perhaps wants a variety which isn't an F1 or F2. I imagine he has
| his reasons.

Yup. Perhaps he is into self-sufficiency, but this is the wrong
country to try that with maize :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"K" wrote in message
...
Alan Holmes writes

So?

Alan

Why do you want non-hybrid sweetcorn?

So I can save the seed and get the same variety for the next year!

Alan





--
Kay

Alan Holmes wrote:
"K" wrote in message
...
[...]
Why do you want non-hybrid sweetcorn?

So I can save the seed and get the same variety for the next year!

I don't think it would work; as I mentioned before, I think all sweet
corn, like all our cereals, is the product of hybridisation. It depends
how choosy you are, but the best bet would, I suppose, be to try to
find a few older non-F1 varieties and try them all. I imagine three
years would be quite ample to discover which one was the most stable.
The problem would be, as Nick says, that this country hasn't really got
the climate for maize, so your selection would probably not be as
useful a cropper here as the expensive recent hybrids which have been
bred for earliness in our conditions.

Your trials would, of course, be plagued by cross-pollination unless
your estate is very large. You could use a separate polytunnel for each
variety, though.

Having said all that, I admit that I'm thinking theoretically, and off
the cuff at that; you might in fact find that some of the progeny of
one of the new hybrids came up with the goods. But you'd still have to
devote a fair bit of time and space to the project.

--
Mike.

In article . com,
"Mike Lyle" writes:
|
| So I can save the seed and get the same variety for the next year!
|
| I don't think it would work; as I mentioned before, I think all sweet
| corn, like all our cereals, is the product of hybridisation. ...

That isn't quite the reason; so are many vegetable and fruits, and you
can do that with at least some varieties of most of the long-established
ones. See below ....

| It depends
| how choosy you are, but the best bet would, I suppose, be to try to
| find a few older non-F1 varieties and try them all. ...

Er, WHAT older non-F1 varieties? The main thing that enables maize
to grow at all in the UK is the fact that extreme short- and cold-
season F1 varieties have been developed. It isn't long ago when it
was almost unknown here!

But there is a worse problem. Even those (and the feedstock varieties)
don't ripen properly here, so the chances of getting viable seed are
poor. In some years, maybe - in others, no chance.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
ups.com...

Alan Holmes wrote:
"K" wrote in message
...
[...]
Why do you want non-hybrid sweetcorn?

So I can save the seed and get the same variety for the next year!

I don't think it would work; as I mentioned before, I think all
sweet
corn, like all our cereals, is the product of hybridisation.

I don't think this is universally right Mike. I know that some of the
old forms of sweet corn can still be bought (at least in Oz) but I
don't know how they'd go in a cooler UK growing season (although given
that many UK gardeners seem to have access to tunnel houses etc, then
that should help it grow. The firm mentioned below has a range of
corn including Bali and Anasasi corn
http://www.edenseeds.com.au/content/main.html

Farm1 wrote:
"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
ups.com...

Alan Holmes wrote:
"K" wrote in message
...
[...]
Why do you want non-hybrid sweetcorn?

So I can save the seed and get the same variety for the next year!

I don't think it would work; as I mentioned before, I think all
sweet
corn, like all our cereals, is the product of hybridisation.

I don't think this is universally right Mike. I know that some of the
old forms of sweet corn can still be bought (at least in Oz) but I
don't know how they'd go in a cooler UK growing season (although given
that many UK gardeners seem to have access to tunnel houses etc, then
that should help it grow. The firm mentioned below has a range of
corn including Bali and Anasasi corn
http://www.edenseeds.com.au/content/main.html

When I said "hybridisation", I didn't mean recently: as far as I knew,
the recognisable ancestor arose in prehistoric times, and there wasn't
a true species in the wild. In the absence of our botanist, Stewart
Robert Hinsley, I've Ggld up a scientific article, which shows I'm
wrong, but partly right!
http://sciencecareerst.sciencemag.or...storic_gm_corn
or
http://tinyurl.com/trxog

It's very interesting if you like that kind of thing: if I may dare to
summarise, maize does have a single wild ancestor, called teosinte, but
it doesn't look like maize. The ancestral mutation wasn't a hybrid,
though all our forms are its hybriid descendants, and it did suddenly
come about in prehistoric times. There was once a view that "Indian
corn" came from extinct ancestors, but that's been shown to be wrong by
modern genetic studies.

In any case, the big objection to the plan is Nick's, reinforced by
you: the virtual impossibility of ripening seed in the British climate.

--
Mike.