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Post by meandtk on Apr 6, 2018 13:47:38 GMT -5
If I select for certain traits, how long does it take to stabilize a variety of corn? I think I could actually get 2-3 generations in one growing season, if I began early enough.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 6, 2018 18:26:18 GMT -5
I see people talking about stabilizing varieties all of the time and I sometimes wonder about it. To properly stabilize a cross you will have to grow hundreds of plants of each generation and select those with the traits that you want and then grow hundreds of those. I guess that you keep doing that until the majority of the resulting plants have the traits that you desire.
On another forum a poster was saying that she was de-hybridizing a tomato variety but she was only growing 4-5 plants per season and that is not how it is done.
I really don't know how long it takes to stabilize a new variety, I just thought that I would add my thoughts.
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Post by meandtk on Apr 6, 2018 19:49:06 GMT -5
brownrexx, Sorry. I should have specified that I am not crossing. I am taking two colors out of a corn that has 4-5 colors. I want to narrow to the two selected colors.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 6, 2018 22:20:44 GMT -5
Sorry, I don't know how many generations of selection it takes to stabilize corn.
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Post by Gianna on Apr 6, 2018 23:11:27 GMT -5
I really don't know how long it takes to stabilize a new variety
I would imagine there is a range of time and it probably depends on which traits you want to stabilize, and how many genes are involved. And some species with perhaps a larger gene pool would take longer than others.
In other words, I have no clue....
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Post by horsea on Apr 7, 2018 0:08:11 GMT -5
Well, I guess that this is why people go to university and study advanced Plant Science/Microbiology etc. etc. So the process of developing new varieties can be sped up. I do believe they have their methods, whereas you & me would do it the way they did it in the olden days.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 7, 2018 8:47:20 GMT -5
depends on which traits you want to stabilize, and how many genes are involved Absolutely true but I think that I remember reading that color in corn is not as complex as some other traits. I think that I remember someone saying that they were growing glass gem corn and kept selecting one color and just planting that color. I don't think that it took too long before they got all one color BUT corn pollen is very light and blows through the air easily so if there is any other corn growing nearby, including field corn, then it can pollinate your corn and change the color.
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Post by spacecase0 on Apr 7, 2018 11:17:11 GMT -5
the color is very easy to select for as you can clearly see it. and from what others tell me, selecting for light colors is faster than selecting for dark colors. selecting for a light color will likely happen in one season. selecting for darker colors might take 2 seasons. but if you keep selecting for that color, most of your harvest will be that color right from the start and continue that way from your selections.
if you start with less than about 100 seeds, make sure to back cross it to the original seeds, and then select for your color again. an example of when you would need to do that if you had only one kernel with a color you really wanted.
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Post by horsea on Apr 7, 2018 12:15:45 GMT -5
brownrexx, Sorry. I should have specified that I am not crossing. I am taking two colors out of a corn that has 4-5 colors. I want to narrow to the two selected colors. I'll bet you are going for the beautiful light purple/mauve to be found in multi-colour Indian corn! It seems to be a non-dominant trait, ie, there's way more dark or yellow in these kinds of corn. Or so it seemed to me when I used to grow this.
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Post by meandtk on Apr 7, 2018 13:29:54 GMT -5
brownrexx , Sorry. I should have specified that I am not crossing. I am taking two colors out of a corn that has 4-5 colors. I want to narrow to the two selected colors. I'll bet you are going for the beautiful light purple/mauve to be found in multi-colour Indian corn! It seems to be a non-dominant trait, ie, there's way more dark or yellow in these kinds of corn. Or so it seemed to me when I used to grow this. You are partly right. I want the beautiful purple as well as the yellow. I'd like to retain those two colors. I think I'll plant those two colors later in the year so that I don't get any cross pollination from other varieties.
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