Strawberry popcorn crosses

[Cotyledon]

In the image, on the left is Strawberry Popcorn X Japanese Hulless F4.
On the right is Strawberry popcorn X Bloody Butcher F4.



I am not sure if I will continue these lines but they are still interesting.

[Mica Winnower]

How do they pop? How is the flavor and shape?

[Jeremy Weiss]

I SUSPECT that many of the miniature corns I am experimenting with have strawberry as one of the ancestors, simply because, at the time I acquired them, I don't think there WAS another easily accessible North American corn with that sort of short, stubby cob (that shape is more of an Andean thing than a North American thing).

I also have seed of something I am almost sure is the result of a cross between Strawberry and some sort of field dent.   

[Cotyledon]

I've seen a lot of crosses with the strawberry popcorn genetics online in the last couple of years.

Rumor has it that the normal type is extremely good as polenta or in cornbread, it is okay as popcorn.

As for how these pop and the flavor, I've not tried them and will sow them and grow them out and then trial the result, if I choose to develop these further. I had actually intended the Butcher cross as a polenta/cornmeal type.

I've been moving away from this line lately, these two cobs were the only segregants that looked ideal for the recombined forms, most were not interesting, but these should be somewhat stable at this point if I am not mistaken. I am also limited in terms of room and have not decided if I will resow these lines. I've been pondering recruitment for developing lines further.

I'm trying to work with genetics lately that tassel and yield earlier and instead of using strawberry popcorn as the primary line I've turned to Tom Thumb popcorn. I just thought these two cobs were kinda cool and wanted to show them to potentially inspire others.

[Jeremy Weiss]

I've seen a lot of crosses with the strawberry popcorn genetics online in the last couple of years.

Yeah, I have to assume Indian Berries has to be at least part strawberry corn, given that it basically looks like Strawberry with white, yellow, purple and the pericarp colors and patterns added in.

I also managed to find three ears of what looks like the result of strawberry crossing with a (possibly miniature version of) Glass Gem (it doesn't have the short cob, but it DOES have rice type kernels, in the full Glass Gem palette.)

Part of the issue is that, when you cross Strawberry with any non pop/flint corn, you tend to get something that's not great for anything beyond ornamental purposes. It tends to be too small to be worth grinding for cornmeal, and no longer poppable. I may like to play around with my mini dents and sweet corn, but I don't for a moment think they'd have much agricultural use (well, maybe a mini rainbow colored sweet corn would be a hit with kid and parent gardeners).