Photo shows a small sample of my 2020 harvest (last year 2021 we were into a drought by planting time so I grudgingly skipped planting popcorn, and I am glad I did because it would have failed). There was actually much more diversity in my harvest overall, these are just some of the prettiest ears (vanity, I know). I am in the process of developing a northern climate, short season popcorn breeding population mix adapted to my regional soil type, which is why there is so much variation in the photo regarding colors, ear length, kernel type, etc. This is a very young
project, current variation is insignificant compared to what will be happening over time with future growouts. My strategy is to mix up and wild cross everything I can acquire. So far I have obtained many open pollinated varieties going back to the 1850s, USDA ARS GRIN acquisitions, North and South American strains of indigenous peoples, other foreign acquisitions, several private
landrace mixes, private experimental crosses, private experimental breeding lines, modern open pollinated and hybrid commercial varieties, inbred hybrid parent lines, and other fun stuff to play around with.
For now the focus is simply wild cross pollination and survival of the fittest. I am using staggered planting to randomly time cross pollination with strains that have significantly different days to maturity (DTM). Eventually I will reduce and then eliminate this staggered planting method. In 2020 with some luck I was able to wildcross a 90 DTM variety with a 120 DTM variety using this staggered planting method. I need a lot more of this to happen...
There are many other traits that will need to be selected for or against, currently I am only selecting against worst case examples I may come across. I will focus more on such things as the project progresses.
It is difficult to see in the photo but there are a few ears that contain pointed rice kernels. The rice kernel trait goes way back in time and is important to me primarily for this reason. One of my goals is to end up with an approximate 50/50 ratio of rice kernel to pearl kernel in the population and then let them fight it out for dominance. Currently I am at around 5 percent rice kernel so I have a long way to go to reach that goal.
This is a long term project that will never be completed, but that is not really the point anyway. The point is to keep a perpetually wild crossing, locally adapted population from which to continually observe and select out strains that show desired traits and weed out strains that show undesirable traits, so that the entire population will continually improve in overall quality. I have no intention of isolating out and stabilizing individual strains.
I am always on the lookout to acquire rice kernel popcorn seed from anyone who has such popcorn, and would consider trade or purchase. I am also very interested in acquiring the somewhat uncommon white variants that are randomly produced by the rice kerneled varieties "Dakota Black" and "Strawberry" if anyone might have such seed.
I am very interested in acquiring what I believe to be a somewhat older (1950s-1970s?) Australian variety called "Golf Ball" (see photo). It is possible that the variety is extinct. Any leads or sources for seed would be much appreciated.
I am also very interested in acquiring seed from any strains of the Mizoram Puakzo popcorn
landrace that is grown in northeast India. Again, any leads or sources for seed would be much appreciated. Photo shows what I believe to be a strain from one village, another interesting strain I have read about is an all red kernel. From what I understand basically every village in the valley has different strains, much like the indigenous populations of Central and South America.
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