David E. Ross wrote:
On 6/7/2008 10:33 AM, markm75 wrote:
I've heard a few variations on this.. was curious if anyone had any
thoughts..

I've heard its ok to plant the white corn and the bicolor at the
same
time, as long as you aren't saving seeds.. i've also heard to not
do
it as they will cross pollinate and result in tough kernels.

Or.. i've heard that its ok, as long as you say, plant one one week
then wait a few weeks and plant the other variety...

Any thoughts on this? I dont have 100 feet to separate the
varieties
either.. more like only a few feet

Thanks

When cross-pollination occurs, the effect is seen in the plants
grown
from the resulting seeds. The seeds themselves (corn kernels in
this
case) reflect the plant on which they grow.

This is best illustrated by Japanese plums. To set fruit, Satsuma
plums require cross-pollination from a different variety of Japanese
plum. Often, Santa Rosa plums (which don't require
cross-pollination)
are used for cross-pollinating Satsuma plums. The resulting fruit
on
a Satsuma tree are clearly Satsuma plums. However, planting the
seeds from such plums will not produce a Satsuma tree.

However Satsuma trees are not hybrid corn.

With corn, follow the recommendations of the seed producer with regard
to cross pollination. For some varieties it doesn't matter, for
others one can lose the benefits of hybridization that way.

The time delay in planting can be effective at preventing cross
pollination by staggering the time at which the plants are in flower,
but one needs to study the details of the life cycle of the corn
varieties being planted to know how best to do it--get it wrong and
you can end up having two varieties that if planted at the same time
would not have cross pollinated due to different maturation rates
cross pollinating because of the staggered planting dates.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)