Open pollinated corn interest

levisthered · #1 09/06/13, 10:08 PM

Hello all, I am an amature plant breeder looking at getting into the seed business professionally. while I am still a few years away from my first commercial offering I thought I would talk to you folks and see what your interests were as far as corn went. I do intend to offer open pollinated corns in my catalog and am in the process of increasing such op's as bloody butcher, Ried's dent, Lancaster sure crop, eureka, silver mine, truckers favorite, and several others. I will also be offering hybrids of my own. Non GMO not because of any fear I have of them but the red tape the owners of the traits require you wade through is severe and the price of the parent plants is very prohibitive. So I just wanted to gauge the interest in the homesteading community and see what you all thought thank you and good evening
Levi

FarmboyBill · #2 09/07/13, 03:57 AM

Ive planted Reids several years. Im going to try Wapsi? or something like that next time. Have you taken protein readings between OP and hybred corn? If so, what differences do you see.
I notice, all the ones you name, I think, are sold by RH Shumway.
Where is your farm. Im in Okla.
Do you feed cows? OR whatever, do you notice a likeness between the animals eating one type, as to the other?

levisthered · #3 09/07/13, 07:52 AM

no I have not taken any nutritive readings on anything I am growing but I do intend to do so. To be perfectly honest I got the largest part of my germplasm this spring, plant breeding has only been a hobby up till now. so I never really kept enough around to do much in the way of testing. I am from western Kansas and grew up feeding cattle, our farm made the switch to RR then bt just like everyone else did, one thing we noticed was the cows didn't want to eat the bt stalks. they would but not as happily, the bt stalks also didn't want to rot down as readily. I would guess that as fare as silage goes op's would definitely make a better product than gmo corn. As far as conventional hybrids I don't know yet. I am inclined to think that they would be more or less equal. perhaps some difference in taste
thanks
Levi

fatrat · #4 09/07/13, 08:09 AM

If you are wanting to make your own corn hybrids you should be able to get the inbred parent lines free or at an affordable price from the state universities and USDA. They will provide small amounts to seed companies and researchers. I have received a few samples of seed from the state universities and USDA. Normally they wouldn't give them out to the public but because they were once common and now no longer available commercially they did give them to me. I've offered seed to some of the smaller seed companies and since then some of them have started selling it again. Dave Christiansen at seedweneed has some good information on breeding corn. You might also consider selling some OP varieties that are not commonly offered. The USDA has all the varieties they keep listed on their website.

rambler · #5 09/07/13, 08:56 AM

Some commercial farmers use open pollinated corn for silage yet, as some of those make a lot of tonnage per acre.

Paul

Horseyrider · #6 09/07/13, 12:24 PM

I'm not a grower, just an end user with a desire to buy OP feeds for my livestock. It's nice to know the interest is returning.

**Terri** · #7 09/07/13, 12:46 PM

I asked the state extension service about regulations about offering seeds and they told me where to look. I have not had a chance to go through them all but they seem extensive.

They did give me a site to go to to see what seeds have been patented, and again I have not gone through them yet.

I do not think that everybody who sells seeds on-line follow all of the regulations, but I should be able at least to choose seeds that have not been patented.

I would not want to get biggish unless I followed the regulations or the state would shut me down. I think that I could sell a few packets without any risk.

Bellyman · #8 09/07/13, 07:22 PM

I think it would be an interesting undertaking to develop a really sweet OP sweet corn. There are a few varieties of somewhat "sweet" OP corn but nothing that would even come close to a Silver Queen type corn.

Really sweet varieties of corn are just something that's not available in the open pollinated world... yet.

Probably would take a lifetime of work but it's something I wouldn't mind messing around with myself someday if I should happen to find that I have the time and space.

FarmboyBill · #9 09/07/13, 08:18 PM

Its funny that, MOST farmers in my area back in the 50s including us just went out into the corn field when the corn was still in the juice stage and get there sweet corn, and, the really funny thing is that,, in the 90s when I was selling to the Tulsa Farmers Mkt, that older people WANTED field corn for their sweet corn. Myself, cause we got seed catalogs, I KNEW there was such a thing as sweet corn, and always wondered how much sweeter it could be than the field corn, but was plenty satisfied with field corn sweet corn.

fatrat · #10 09/08/13, 12:24 AM

If you ask me the sweet corn sold today is way to sweet. It doesn't even taste like corn anymore. It just tastes like sugar. I prefer field corn instead or the old OP varieties.

FarmboyBill · #11 09/08/13, 12:42 AM

Thar ya are

fatrat · #12 09/08/13, 10:00 AM

I bought a couple dozen ears of sweet corn at Walmart this summer and it was so sweet I couldn't eat it. It was absolutely the most awful stuff I'd ever had, just sweet but no corn taste. It was a struggle to eat just two ears over two days. After that I just threw the rest of it to the chickens and got my fresh corn from my OP field corn patch instead. I just can't eat this sweet stuff they call corn today. I don't know how people can stand the stuff.

arabian knight · #13 09/08/13, 01:46 PM

That is why a lot of places now call sweet corn Candy Corn. (Candy Korn) I love it. I only look for "Candy Corn" sign on roadside sellers of Corn. Yum Yum
That is what is popular now and is what people want to buy and eat. Nice and sweet.

jwal10 · #14 09/08/13, 01:56 PM

I still eat what we grew in the 60's around here for the canneries. It is still grown for the canneries. It is called Golden Jubilee. I don't buy ear corn for roasting ears but have eaten some that is very tender and sweet that had little taste, good but bland. Corn is so subject to age of ear both in stage and how long it has been picked. I pick in the morning with dew still on and process before the heat of the day. Roasting ears are pulled, shucked, into the pot of boiling water for 3 minutes, cooled slightly, buttered and down the hatch....James

arabian knight · #15 09/08/13, 02:03 PM

Just look at the list of Super Sweet corn varieties that are grown in Iowa. As you can see only TWO are old style regualr sweet corn. The rest are either Supeer sweet or Sugar enhanced LOL

Name/type Season* Color

Standard
Seneca Horizon early yellow
Silver Queen main–late white

Sugar-enhanced
Alpine main–late white
Bodacious main yellow
Delectable main bicolor
Incredible main yellow
Jackpot main bicolor
Kandy Korn main yellow
Legend early yellow
Precious Gem main bicolor
Seneca Sensation early–main white
Silver King main white
Temptation early bicolor
Tuxedo main yellow
Wizard main bicolor

Super sweet
Candy Store main bicolor
Challenger early–main yellow
Confection early–main bicolor
Early Xtra Super Sweet early yellow
Honey ‘N Pearl main bicolor
How Sweet It Is late white
Illini Gold main yellow
Northern Super Sweet early yellow
Northern Xtra Sweet early yellow
Phenomenal main bicolor
Silver Xtra Sweet main white

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/pub...ons/pm1891.pdf