Strawberry popcorn

[bobbin]

Hi all.I want to grow STRAWBERRY POPCORN for a bit of fun. I know it shouldn't be next to regular sweetcorn to avoid cross pollination,but does anyone know what distance is safe? Has anyone else grown it? It seems easy to grow. Any tips?
Thanks all.

[bretty666]

Hi. im growing some this year and have already devised my plan of action..i dont know what diatance is safe but im doing all my varietys close together bit seperated with plastic sheets you may find between rows of packed meat from wholesalers?? Mine come from a company that make lardons.i will just devide when tassels show...but...if it gets too hot.........will the popcorn pop

[Chippy Minton]

Not sure that you need to avoid cross pollination. My understanding would be that you'd get the strawberry popcorn this year but then you couldn't use the 'seed' to get the same next year. At least that's how it works with fruit (chillies, toms, etc.)

Happy to be corrected though, live and learn, that's the motto of the day

[Kristen]

Hi all.I want to grow STRAWBERRY POPCORN for a bit of fun. I know it shouldn't be next to regular sweetcorn to avoid cross pollination,but does anyone know what distance is safe? Has anyone else grown it? It seems easy to grow. Any tips?
Thanks all.

A "long way" Sweetcorn is wind pollinated, so pollen will travel on the wind ... you are likely to still get some contamination at 75M, and contamination of a super-sweet variety by a popcorn variety will cause significant detriment.

If you sow them such that they "flower" at different times that will fix the problem. I imagine that popcorn are much slower than the short-crop varieties bred for UK, so sowing the Super-sweet one early, and the Popcorn a bit later (same time may even be enough if it is a lot slower).

I would plant the super-sweet into the prevailing wind, and the popcorn "down wind", so that most cross-pollination is NOT of the Popcorn pollinating the Super-sweet

Not sure that you need to avoid cross pollination. My understanding would be that you'd get the strawberry popcorn this year but then you couldn't use the 'seed' to get the same next year. At least that's how it works with fruit (chillies, toms, etc.)

Happy to be corrected though, live and learn, that's the motto of the day

Definitely doesn't work like that for Sweetcorn - although its the only crop that I can think of where that is the case.

As with other crops cross-pollination will effect the outcome of any saved-seed that is sown next year, as you say.

However, with Sweetcorn cross pollination will also effect the sweetness of the corns (i.e. when you eat them), and in particular cross pollination of regular varieties with super sweet varieties will result in rock hard corns amongst the soft/sweet corns, which will seriously detract from the enjoyment

[bretty666]

Yhanks for that kristen...will my idea work?

[Kristen]

Yhanks for that kristen...will my idea work?

A barrier might work, but the tendency is for air "currents" to go up-and-over such barriers.

Sowing such that they don't flower at the same time, and removing the tassels after you think that the silks have been pollinated enough (bit risky because if you do it too soon you will have unfertilised corns in your cobs at harvest time), would be the best approach