Flint corn landrace selection

I've been over my head in corn. Was able to really start making some interesting selections this year, trying to get more of Mark Reed's corn in my gene pool, and well as some other flint corns I picked up at a local seed library. Carol Deppe's Cascade Ruby-Gold definitely makes up a significant foundation of my corn population, though.

One of the most fun that I found this year was a cob that had split into four individual cobs, which ultimately provides more grain for the same amount of space... assuming the lack of airflow doesn't cause it to rot in storage. I have specifically isolated these multi-finger cobs, and so long as everything goes well in storage, I want to maximize this trait in future generations. Since I'm shelling by hand, this unusual shapes do little harm, they bring me a lot of joy to find them in the garden, and they maximize my yield per plant... especially if those genetics are ultimately able to combine with those of the plants producing my largest cobs.

My previous best cob was about a third of a pound. This year my best cobs are over half a pound. Things are really kicking into high gear!

I'm especially looking for colors that aren't present in my main population and continuing to maximize diversity.

I'm selecting against cobs with loose husks that allow the rain and critters to get into the kernels. I'm selecting in favor of red husks, because they're nice to look at, as well as cobs that flop over as they ripen, as that protects them from any early rains.

Have already made my first batch of hominy for the year and am looking forward to enjoying much more of my own homegrown grain throughout the year. I'm dreaming of tortillas, tamales, and corn bread as well, if I get motivated to do anything more than hominy.

Here's a video of my selection process:



And here's a small selection of pictures of my plants. I especially love growing them in this clumping fashion, as it's considerable faster to plant than neatly space stalks. It also seems to confer protection from the wind and a sufficient trellis for my cherry tomatoes. I also got my largest cobs yet in spite of all the competition, so I was able to select for plants that really thrived in this style of planting.

Lovely project. Great color scheme.

I have noticed that plants containing an overabundance of purple in the leaves tend to grow slowly and produce poorly.  In coolish climates, a bit of purple in the leaves tends to favor productivity.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Lovely project. Great color scheme.

I have noticed that plants containing an overabundance of purple in the leaves tend to grow slowly and produce poorly.  In coolish climates, a bit of purple in the leaves tends to favor productivity.

Thanks! Have a few other interesting colors I don't have pictures of yet, but hopefully I can remedy that tomorrow. Really hope that one that I found is one of the striated creamsicle colored kernels from Mark's population.

We definitely have cooler average temperatures, even if we get some pretty high temperature spikes late in the summer. Tend to have some purple striations on the leaves because of that, but this year there were basically pure purple stalks. Smaller cobs overall, but also seemed a bit earlier. Will be interesting to see if and how those traits show up in future generations.

And thanks, as always, for the inspiration! 😁

Hey Mathew, great to hear from you!

Those purple husks look just like those on the pure strain of the old Mexican landrace that I used because of its natural worm resistance. The ears look very similar as well as far as size and shape, but the kernel type is way different. Pure Zapalote Chico is a soft flour corn with a bit of a dent. I select to keep those purple husks because once I lost the short fat shape of ZC it's the only hint its genetics are still in there, well other than that the worms don't bother it.

Mark Reed wrote:Hey Mathew, great to hear from you!

Those purple husks look just like those on the pure strain of the old Mexican landrace that I used because of its natural worm resistance. The ears look very similar as well as far as size and shape, but the kernel type is way different. Pure Zapalote Chico is a soft flour corn with a bit of a dent. I select to keep those purple husks because once I lost the short fat shape of ZC it's the only hint its genetics are still in there, well other than that the worms don't bother it.

I knew it had to be your fault! 😂 Actually really happy to see these genetics, as I've started using the Haudenosaunee (Iriquois) method of braiding corn and marking the braids that are for seed with flowers made from the extra corn husks. The red husk definitely makes for more stunning flowers.

I can confirm that I didn't have a worm problem this year, but I haven't yet had a worm problem. Predators were exceptionally active this year, including an insane number of yellowjackets compared to previous years, so I don't know if worms would have stood a chance anyway. Certainly saw fewer worms on my brassicas this year as a result.

It actually makes sense that it was predominately a flour corn and is showing dent characteristics, since my existing population was strictly flint corn, and dent corn is just a roughly 50/50 mix of the unique starches from flint and flour corns which dry down at different rates, creating the infamous dent. THAT isn't something I'm looking to carry forward, even if I want to capture the colors. Carol mentions in one of her books that the one starch only cooks well in moist heat, and the other in dry heat, so you end up with a finished product that isn't entirely cooked, or else you have to cook it in the way traditional Italian polenta has been since the introduction of dent corn to the old world, which is to boil it forever followed by baking it forever.

I think I had one or two other varieties that I picked up from the seed library. One was just listed as "ornamental" corn and is a flint with popcorn leanings. The one cob from those seeds that I found in my population this year is a gorgeous jet black, though, and I'm eager to get more of those anthocyanins in my population (though, so far I haven't been able to find any color that's relevant nutritionally, since it's almost always only in the outer layer of the seed which is removed in the nixtamalization process. It all just ends up being yellow.)

Matthew,

That's an interesting bit of info you mentioned.  I have some corn that I can only describe a "flinty dent" it's predominately Bloody Butcher in appearance with flint-like kernels with a slight dimple as opposed to true dent creased or round flint.  As I don't yet have a grinder, I'm just planning on doing hominy for pozole (soups).  I found a very nice Mexican market that had "Cal", so now I've got the piece I was missing.  Now I just need the time, lol.

I'll likely try some fried as corn nuts, as a side dish of just hominy with butter & diced ham, & as an ingredient in stews.

What is everyone's take on dark red corn flavor when nixtamalized as hominy?  I read that Hopi Blue flint has 30% more protein than other corns.  Have you noticed different flavors with different colors?

Cy Cobb wrote:I'll likely try some fried as corn nuts, as a side dish of just hominy with butter & diced ham, & as an ingredient in stews.

What is everyone's take on dark red corn flavor when nixtamalized as hominy?  I read that Hopi Blue flint has 30% more protein than other corns.  Have you noticed different flavors with different colors?

I'm mostly not using extracted oils anymore, except during the peak of the gardening season when I'm working hard enough to burn off the higher calorie density foods, but was discussing corn nuts with a friend the other day and will certainly be experimenting with those. They were always one of my favorite snacks in my old life.

As far as color goes, I can't say much. I know that Carol discusses the breeding work that went into Cascade Ruby-Gold in either The Resilient Gardener or Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties. I'm forgetting my corn anatomy, but basically the color can occur in two places, the outer layer, or the inner layer. Many varieties have a transparent outer layer which shows the color underneath. With Cascade Ruby-Gold, the color is in the outer layer, and it's the reason why each cob is a solid color in spite of the fact that there are many colors overall, whereas if the color was underneath you'd end up with  a mix of colors on a single cob, as you see with other landraces. Once you nixtamalize the corn and that out layer comes off, then you're just left with yellow hominy, regardless of what color the kernels were to begin with.

Obviously there's blue corn that remains blue even after processing, and so there are varieties that exist that will maintain their color after nixtimalization, but everything I've processed and eaten so far has just been yellow underneath. The beautiful black cob that I found this year might have been my one exception, but given that I only ended up with one cob and I'm saving it for seed, I won't know until I get more in future generations and am able to actually eat it.

That said, blue corn tortillas have occasionally been popular here and I don't recall them tasting especially different to other corn tortillas. Maybe a bit? But I would be as likely to attribute any slight difference in flavor to the quality of the corn that was used as compared to what the typical tortilla is made from. Still, it overwhelmingly just tasted like corn.

Mathew Trotter wrote:

With Cascade Ruby-Gold, the color is in the outer layer, and it's the reason why each cob is a solid color in spite of the fact that there are many colors overall, whereas if the color was underneath you'd end up with  a mix of colors on a single cob, as you see with other landraces.

Not quite, I don't think. the outer layer, or pericarp is most often transparent or translucent enough that if the aleurone layer, or even the endosperm varies the ear will show up different shades of the same color. Aleurone is a thin layer of cells under the pericarp and from what I've seen is the most variable and unpredictable of all. If there is no color in the aleurone layer but the endosperm varies between yellow and white the ear might be two shades of the pericarp color. If there is color in the aleurone and it is variable, you might get lots of shades.

Carol's CRG is colorless in the aleurone as I recall, with uniform endosperm.  All CRG I've seen from anywhere other than directly from Carol is contaminated with color in the aleurone, so the ears show up with multiple shades.

Mark Reed wrote:Not quite, I don't think. the outer layer, or pericarp is most often transparent or translucent enough that if the aleurone layer, or even the endosperm varies the ear will show up different shades of the same color. Aleurone is a thin layer of cells under the pericarp and from what I've seen is the most variable and unpredictable of all. If there is no color in the aleurone layer but the endosperm varies between yellow and white the ear might be two shades of the pericarp color. If there is color in the aleurone and it is variable, you might get lots of shades.

Carol's CRG is colorless in the aleurone as I recall, with uniform endosperm.  All CRG I've seen from anywhere other than directly from Carol is contaminated with color in the aleurone, so the ears show up with multiple shades.

Had to find the section in The Resilient Gardener. Carol describes the pericarp as variably translucent or opaque, with the color in CRG appearing in an opaque pericarp. She also describes it as having 5 distinct colors. Two different reds, two different golds, and a yellow. She addresses aleurone color more generally, but doesn't mention it in relation to CRG. And in Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, she says that pericarp is determined by the mother plant, not the seed genetics. So if crosses did impact seed color (i.e. by making the pericarp more transparent) they wouldn't show up until the following generation. Which matches my experience. All of my CRG shows up as single-color cobs in the 5 colors described, in spite of what else is growing with them. Any variation shows up later. But yeah. Most of the color variation is indeed in the aleurone, so if the mother plant loses the genetics for opaque pericarps, you would end up with a lot more different shades. But for me, just the 5 so far, except for the non-CRG stuff that I planted. The next generation will be fun. 😁

Yep, the pericarp is just part of the mother plant, no different than the leaves or roots so it won't be affected in the visual appearance of the F1.  I've very rarely seen pericarp so totally opaque that it completely masks, no matter what is under it but if there is nothing to mask or if what is being masked is all exactly the same, then you still have a uniformly colored ear. I'm not sure how pericarp color is inherited, is it dominate or recessive? Is it qualitative or quantitative?

The seeds I sent you, along with the Zapalote Chico for worm resistance have CRG in their ancestry along with an old northeastern flint called Bronze Beauty. Bronze Beauty also has variable pericarp but in varying shades of tan, orange, brown and white. I don't remember were the starburst or chin mark pattern pericarp came from but it's in there too. I think it might be from separate genes than the other colors because it can show up on any of them.

I want my flint corn to eventually have a very wide range of pericarp color and the CRG plus BB seems to have done the trick, ears come with or without the chin mark in all the colors. I also have a bit of contamination of aleurone color, which I do not want but haven't completely gotten rid of. I don't know how it is inherited either, but I think it is recessive and extremely quantitative. Being recessive makes it hard to get rid of in a small population where you don't want to cull a nice ear because it has a couple of off-color kernels. I know it can be selected out though because Carol did it when she made her Manna series of flour corn from Dave Christenson's Painted Mountain, I just don't know how long that took and I suspect she grew bigger populations than I can.  

Hoping for some more pics from this year's crop.