Mixing Sweetcorn Varieties

[Farmer_Gyles]

Swift is actually a tendersweet variety

swift and sweet bounty were both from T&M and the packets both say they are supersweet .....

[Paulottie]

the bottles thing sounds like a good idea that might actually work .... i'll only have about 16 sweetcorn anyway ....

what happens with reversion??

i've checked the sweetcorn, the list is:
2 sweet bounty (supersweet)
6 swift (supersweet)
9 verve extra sweet (unknown)

i'll plant out, maybe tomorrow, and see what happens .... i might get lucky and find the extra sweet are supersweet too ....

What I mean is with a Hybrid variety you choose two parents with desirable characteristics and breed in isolation to acheive a first generation (F1). However if you take that generation and breed again (F2) you are not guaranteed offspring with just the desirable characteristics of the F1 generation but can find that certain less desirable characteristics of the grandparents pop up.

How true this is or how much it matters to an amateur grower is questionable (imho) and a source of constant experiment to me. Obviously seed merchants want to sell you premium expensive hybrid F1 seed (and persuade you you can reproduce them at home). However for the most part they are breed for consistency of harvest time and vigour/ look to suit commercial growers. (rather than flavour etc)

With sweetcorn it is quite easy to taste and judge your results, however like brassicas, squashes and runners a little more tricky to isolate. This added to the fact even in the F1 generation you can get quality problems if they are cross pollinated with some from the wrong group means breeding seed can be a long process and variable results not worth it for everyone.

However I have bred improve asparagus with F1 parents...imagine breeding apples from seed you'll need at least five years to see a result!!!...then it might be awful!!

PS No way to find out from B&Q then?

[Farmer_Gyles]

cheers for the info ....
i never save sweetcorn seed .... i rarely ever eat sweetcorn myself .... i'll be happy with a few cobs that the missus can cook on the bbq .... they don't need to be perfect, and we don't need 100% pollination, we'll be happy with some rather than none ....
i've done as much internet research on the verve varieties as i can, nothing found for "extra sweet" .... i'm not going to worry too much about it now .... i'm going to take a chance on it and see what happens ....

[Paulottie]

Sorry....I know you were not saving seed but you asked, were you starting to glaze over there? suck em and see then.

[Farmer_Gyles]

only glaze over when Her Ladyship mentions flowers .... if it's fruit and veg, i'm fine ....

[Two_Sheds]

only glaze over when Her Ladyship mentions flowers .... if it's fruit and veg, i'm fine ....

Fruit & veg won't get pollinated without pollinators (which need flowers for their food)


All the Olde Boyes who moan about my allotment flowers ~ should actually be thanking me for the explosion in our bee population