F1

[Peggy Sue]

Well I was inwardly digesting quite well til para 13 when I saw redcurrent instead of recurrent- was more intersting that way!

[Odsox]

You did better than me, I got as far as - "[0004]Maize is bred through techniques ...."

[MKG]

Made me wonder how the human race would have got on had they had their sexual organs on their tassels and ears.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

When I was little we called a willy a tassle. Just never called girly bits 'ears'.

[Gem]

I have tried growing from seeds from plants from hybrid seeds (make sense yet?). I have found that in most cases the first harvest is pretty sucessful but each consecutive seed production is less useful and you loose genetic integrity as time goes by.

I have a decent bio background but am not very good at explaining it.. A good and easy example is something salady like rocket, bolts easily so you can gain plenty of succesive generations in one year and it is quickly obvious that the resultant crop is a bit rubbish... It still grows but unless you have time, energy and resources to develop plants for a specific purpose (eg bolt hardy) then it tends to genetically diversify into a less useful form..

So I find I still buy seeds every few years.. I can however go for a year or two without buying certain seeds and getting half decent (usually container) crops from the resultant harvests.

Did that make sense? Hope so!

Gem

[dave45]

not sure I understood all that... is it worth me trying to save my own sweetcorn seed to grow next year or not?

[MKG]

Bu**ered if I know, Dave. It looks like it may be, but then again ...

If I were you, I'd run an experiment with seed from this year's crop - but don't use it for all of your plants. And Gem's experience makes it look like you'll eventually have to re-buy seed anyway.

Mike

[grahamhobbs]

Read the bit about cutting off the willy of one and ..(sorry the tassles of one ) and the .. of the other...gives increased vigour. (Need to cross 2 distinct varieties each year).

[Peggy Sue]

Do you think there is any chance we may be getting the wrong end of the stick here?

You know I'm now really glad I have heritage not F1, I feel alot less cruel to my sweetcorn with all this willy chopping off

[dave45]

Well the experiment has been done, and I conclude that :

there seems to be slightly more variability in the plant height, cob size etc
But they taste pretty darn good!

so its well worth saving your F1 corn seeds (dried a cob on a windowsill and picked off the seeds by hand then stored in an envelope) - at least for the first year! F1 corn seeds are expensive (2 quid for 25 seeds?) - and you get LOADS of seeds from a single cob - probably 10-20 packets worth!

[Millymollymandy]

Glad to hear it was a success! I'd better not save mine this year as I've got 3 different varieties all planted right next door to farmer giles' bloody maize, again! 3 years in a row.

[dave45]

try it !

experimentation is good :-)

[Millymollymandy]

Hmmmm not sure, what if his is genetically modified/Monsanto impregnated? No, I know for sure he sprayed herbicide later as THANKFULLY he avoided the row next to my veg patch and the weeds growing there have dwarfed that row of maize compared to the other weed free ones. can you tell which is mine and which is his? Red net bags are to see if it will keep the birds off who have been munching my cobs.

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