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joseph · September 29, 2016

greenthumbomaha:

Thanks. That's my sister and nephew. Corn smut pores are wind-borne, so they seem ubiquitous in the environment. We treat it as a delicacy to be savored. That's another of those microorganisms that thrives on dampness. So I see it on a few percentage of cobs. Popcorn seems more resistant than sweet corn or flour corn. Perhaps some cultivars are more resistant than others. If I was losing a whole crop, I'd pay more attention to resistance. But since I'm only losing a few cobs in genetically diverse populations, I just don't save seeds from plants with smut. So technically, I am selecting against susceptibility to corn smut, but its a very casual selection process. If I were more serious about it, I would select against entire families of corn (siblings) if even one member of the family were susceptible.

I keep a supply of corn smut spores in my seed bank. This summer I intentionally tried inoculating some cobs. Didn't work very well. Only 1 try in a dozen was successful.

September 29, 2016	#191
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	greenthumbomaha: Thanks. That's my sister and nephew. Corn smut pores are wind-borne, so they seem ubiquitous in the environment. We treat it as a delicacy to be savored. That's another of those microorganisms that thrives on dampness. So I see it on a few percentage of cobs. Popcorn seems more resistant than sweet corn or flour corn. Perhaps some cultivars are more resistant than others. If I was losing a whole crop, I'd pay more attention to resistance. But since I'm only losing a few cobs in genetically diverse populations, I just don't save seeds from plants with smut. So technically, I am selecting against susceptibility to corn smut, but its a very casual selection process. If I were more serious about it, I would select against entire families of corn (siblings) if even one member of the family were susceptible. I keep a supply of corn smut spores in my seed bank. This summer I intentionally tried inoculating some cobs. Didn't work very well. Only 1 try in a dozen was successful.