Ryan Huish

Wow, yeah, sure enough Baker Creek is selling it! That's cool. So from the description there, it seems like there are no actual Maize Morado genes in there, but only selected from Painted Mountain corn? Or was Maize Morado originally thrown in the field at some point?

I thought I'd update you all on my little maize project. I went ahead and planted all the cultivars I mentioned originally (with the addition of Calhoun Creek and Apache Red) (about 250 plants total), but planted a second isolated crop with only the sure dent cultivars (Bloody Butcher, Jimmy Red, and Blue Clarage) to keep out the flour genes in that line. They're all doing well. We did a no-till method in the corn field where we overwintered the steers (plenty of manure). We planted far enough apart so that we could mow between the mounds (with grass mulch on the mounds) to keep the grass/weeds down and it's working well. Regarding the anthocyanins, I think it is important to differentiate between plants with high anthocyanin stalks/foliage and plants with high anthocyanin seeds. There are some of the latter that don't have dark stalks/foliage that seem to do better (are more vigorous and don't necessarily bloom early). For example, my green-leaved, black-kerneled Kulli corn (Maiz Morado) is just as vigorous as the others and blooms around the same time. (In case there was any confusion about the original topic of this forum thread, the "anthocyanin content" was referring to the seeds, not the foliage. (I'm selecting for dark kernels, not dark leaves.) It is fine and interesting to learn about others' observations with the darker foliage though.)

I hope to send another update with the results in the fall!

Thanks for your input, Andrew Barney. I am selecting against any purple leaves. The Maiz Morado has very dark purple kernels, but the leaves are green. Andrew, can you tell me why you don't breed with flour corn? For this year, I may decide to detassel the flour corn plants and just let the flint/dent corn pollinate them, that way I keep the flour-mix lines separate to see how they turn out before I decide to allow them to cross pollinate the others.

The flour corn cultivars I'm growing are Maiz Morado (a.k.a. Kulli corn) (though Wikipedia labels it as a flint (Zea mays indurata)) and Jerry Petersen (though Jerry Petersen is listed as flint, flour, or dent depending on what website you happen to be on, though most don't specify. I have found no information on its history besides it is an heirloom bred in the Dakotas. (Anyone know its history? I've even contacted GRIN NPGS (Germplasm Resources Information Network with the USDA's National Plant Germplasm System) and they haven't given any word about it.) The Jerry Petersen seeds I have seem to be a mix (I grew them in isolation in a previous year on my farm). Some have the typical dent on the top of the kernel, some look more like flour, some more like flint. So I am assuming it has mixed ancestry and it works/dries/tastes/grows fine here. So maybe it is ok to mix them. (The other corn cultivars I'm growing this year for cross pollination are Bloody Butcher (dent), Jimmy Red (dent), Blue Clarage (dent), Apache Red (flint), Calhoun Creek Red (flint/dent mix).

Does anyone suppose that maybe the dent corn was originally made from a cross between flint and flour types? In my mind, the dent phenotype seems to look like an intermediate between the flour and flint anyway (see diagrams below). So maybe crossing the three isn't that bad.

Sand Hill Preservation Center suggests that "Flour corn is best adapted to areas where heavy rains are not common. Rain at harvest time can mean a total crop lost as the softness of the kernels allows fungi to grow rapidly". They may have a good point. Anyone else experience this? Thinking in my wet Appalachian mountain habitat, I should just stick to dent and flint corn types. The Maiz Morado is a flour corn (from what I understand?), so am thinking maybe not including it in my little cross-breeding project. I was also planning to include Jerry Petersen blue corn; some sites classify it as flint, some as flour. Anyone know what it actually is? (Google isn't helping with this one.)

Thanks Joseph! Hey, I was born in Cache Valley, where you are! Nice place. Your response was reassuring, thank you. Dent corn makes good grits too. Dent corn has intermediate characteristics between flint and flour corn (perhaps reflecting its breeding history?) and is used for a lot more than just animal feed. Jimmy Red (a dent corn) is a sure favorite of Sean Brock, a popular Appalachian chef, for making grits and cornbread (See the NPR story at https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/02/574367086/from-hooch-to-haute-cuisine-a-nearly-extinct-bootleggers-corn-gets-a-second-shot). We prefer earthy, hearty, gritty cornbread anyway. But yes, throwing in the flour corn genes may make the grits have a different texture; perhaps we'll just have to adapt our taste buds' expectations, depending on how the traits show up in future generations; we'll see how it turns out. Jerry Petersen Blue is a flint corn, so that may balance it out.

Good questions, William. Thanks for your response. I've only grown Maiz Morado for one year. Only a few of the stalks produced good cobs like the one pictured in my post, the others were not that great (small, odd shaped, some stalks with very small vestigial "triplet" cobs or no cobs at all... some of the problems were due to Japanese beetle style foraging, but not all), and I don't think the genetic diversity is that great. The cultivar is originally from the Andes, and then grown in New Mexico to adapt to northern hemisphere for some years before being sold to the seed company I got it from (Baker Creek). The Andes and New Mexico are very different than the wet and rich Appalachians. I originally thought I'd just keep doing selective breeding of this one cultivar, and that may have worked out, but after that first year, I decided to bring in some heirloom Appalachian dent corns that had better flavor and to speed up the local climate adaptation and increase genetic diversity. So if my ONLY goal was highest anthocyanin content, I'd stick with Maiz Morado, but for the other traits, I need more genes mixed in.

You asked for more details about the other traits I seek. Yes, stronger stalks to prevent lodging during heavy rains/wind (Blue Clarage trait), pest and smut resistance (Blue Clarage), I'd like to have several ears per stalk (Bloody Butcher trait), really good rich nutty flavor (trait of Jimmy Red (and to a lesser extent Bloody Butcher)). All of these are more locally adapted to my region, so will provide good genes there perhaps. From what I understand, Blue Clarage, Bloody Butcher, and Jimmy Red are all dent corn. Maiz Morado is a flour corn, and Jerry Petersen Blue is a flint corn? (though they are all "field corn" and can all be used for flour).

I am concerned about flowering time. I don't know what to expect there. In future years, after finding out when each one flowers, I may need to stagger plantings so they flower at the same time. But then the agro-ecotype ("landrace") I'm wanting, I don't want them blooming at different times, so I'd have to then select for consistent flowering time too, unless there's some benefit to a diversity of flowering times? (Wish I could time the flowering to avoid the Japanese beetle onset so they won't be eating the silk/stigmas!)

Does anyone know if there are other field corn cultivars resistant to pests and diseases that I should consider?

Ryan

Hello. I'm planning a field corn (maize) selective breeding program in the Virginian Appalachians. I thought I'd run my plan by you all to get your input and opinions. We plan to use it for cornflour (mainly cornbread and grits), and for animal feed (chicken, pig). I am trying to maximize the anthocyanin content (dark colors), rich flavor, and disease/pest/lodging resistance. The candidates that we already have seeds for are Jimmy Red, Bloody Butcher (for their good flavor and dark red color, though Jimmy Red has lodging issues I hear), Blue Clarage (good rootworm/smut/lodging resistance, and dark blue color), Maiz Morado (a.k.a. Kulli corn, Black/Purple corn, has the highest anthocyanin content (one of our cobs from last year's crop pictured here)), and Jerry Petersen Blue (I just have a lot of seeds from a previous season that I thought I'd include because it had good flavor and decent anthocyanin content). The first three are Appalachian heritage dent corn cultivars (we live in the Appalachian mountains of Southwest Virginia in our own cove/valley, well-isolated from other corn fields.)

My current plan is to plant all these in the same field each in their own documented multiple rows (interspersed with each other) so I can keep track of what's what and maximize cross pollination. I will plant 70 to 100 seeds of each cultivar. I was considering cutting off the tassels of all cultivars except for one to keep one "true", but that may not end up being the best for my final end-goal. With corn breeding does it make a difference if the genes are inherited from the staminate (male) vs. the pistillate (female) flowers? I am hoping they all flower at about the same time; they all have maturity dates of 100 to 110 days. After the coming years of selective breeding, we're hoping to end up with a locally adapted, healthy "landrace" corn.

Thoughts? Critiques? Ideas? Any other suggestions? Would you suggest other cultivars, or not including some of these? Foresee any problems with crossing dent and different types of flour corn? Since my seeds have been open pollinated (from the original source) do I need to be concerned with cytoplasmic male sterility? If so, how do I avoid that, just check each year for sterile males to pull? I doubt any are resistant to Japanese beetles? We have issues with them eating down the pistillate silks, reducing the successful pollination.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Ryan