"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
from "Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow contains these words:

I didn't mean it to sound like it wasn't possible to produce corn
in
Britain that wouldn't be vialbe (given the right parent plant). I
thought rather the reverse. Given the talents of Brit gardeners
and
the resource of a decent sized tunnel or green house then I though
that it should be possible. It'd probably require growing the
corn in
a block and hand pollinating by shaking the silks together but the
heat provided by the housing should be enough if it was a sunny as
opposed to an overcast summer.

Sorry Fran, looks like your server missed some vital posts
earlier in
the thread.

It is fairly easy to crop sweetcorn in the UK, outdoors in the
open,
but variety and timing is crucial. Once it's transplanted outside
(usually June), no protection or hand pollination is necessary
though I
do always grow it in blocks (for wind pollination). We just ate the
last
of ours last week.

Because Britain is so far north, I can only grow varieties
specially
bred to produce a crop in corn's relatively short growing season at
UK
latitudes and lightlevels. Usually labelled something like "90 day"
or
"Northern".

I must be missing something here but I understood that the question
orignally asked was about growing corn which, as specified in the
subject line, was non-hybrid??????

I've been back to the earlier posts and also to google groups and I
still have the same understanding - non-hybrid was defintitely what
was specificied by Alan Holmes and also restated as being able to
"save the seed and get the same variety for the next year".

I know you've grown sweetcorn successfully but you wrote of growing a
short summer hybrid variety which wasn't what Alan asked about.

To grow non-hybrid corn successfully, I think that more heat would be
required than to grow the hybrid sort of corn that you said you've
grown (and perhaps more light too as you mention but that wouldn't be
known till attempted) .

I wouldn't expect that Alan who wants non-hybrid corn seed would find
it easy to get in the UK (and I use the non-hybrid term loosely as I
agree with Mike Lyle who wrote that all corn/maize had evolved from
the wild form eons ago).

However, having said that, the Anasazi and Bali sweet corns which I
mentioned and gave a site for, are both ones which would fit the bill
for being as close to non-hybrid as it's probably possible to get
these days. And, as both come from much hotter climes than those of
the UK then I think that it would need the sort of heat such as found
in either a greenhouse or tunnel house.

BTW, the Anasazi corn only has a one that has a 81-90 day maturity
rate http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/49737/index.html . Both vaieties I
mentioned come from more basic societies where seedsaving is still (or
was at the time seedsaving societies arrived on the scene) common.