Glass Gem

charline · November 25, 2015

I got Glass Gem corn in the last swap and they did very well. Beautiful colors.
There is only one problem. I had 5 plants (5 others were eaten by my horses...

), 3 of them produced small grains like pop corn and two of them produced very large grains.
Which of them should I keep for further growing? which is the right one? or doesn't it matter?

joseph · November 25, 2015

Glass gem has highly variable phenotype. The archetypal photo is of a popcorn type.

Tormato · November 28, 2015

And, time for me to maybe "burst your bubble".
I wanted you to enjoy growing it.

I'm not sure if you can keep a stable seed supply with only a few stalks. With sweet corn, I've heard 100-200 plants are needed to keep seed stable. I don't know if this applies to Glass Gem.

joseph · November 29, 2015

I was one of the first people to have Glass Gem corn for sale. I had seed for sale before the fellow that introduced it to the world. I was selling Glass Gem in packets of about 120 seeds. People were subdividing it into packets of 10 seeds and reselling it. Over the years, I have watched a lot of genetic drift, as people grew out those 10 seed packets and started reselling the seed.

I don't worry much about it. last summer I helped a farmer in Idaho pick an acre field of Glass Gem corn, and he is selling it in 50 pound bags, so the off-types will eventually be diluted as the original genetically diverse population gains market share.

The original looked like this:

November 25, 2015	#1
charline Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: France Posts: 688	Glass Gem I got Glass Gem corn in the last swap and they did very well. Beautiful colors. There is only one problem. I had 5 plants (5 others were eaten by my horses...), 3 of them produced small grains like pop corn and two of them produced very large grains. Which of them should I keep for further growing? which is the right one? or doesn't it matter?

November 25, 2015	#2
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	Glass gem has highly variable phenotype. The archetypal photo is of a popcorn type.

November 28, 2015	#3
Tormato Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: MA Posts: 4,971	And, time for me to maybe "burst your bubble". I wanted you to enjoy growing it. I'm not sure if you can keep a stable seed supply with only a few stalks. With sweet corn, I've heard 100-200 plants are needed to keep seed stable. I don't know if this applies to Glass Gem.

November 29, 2015	#4
joseph Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake Posts: 1,244	I was one of the first people to have Glass Gem corn for sale. I had seed for sale before the fellow that introduced it to the world. I was selling Glass Gem in packets of about 120 seeds. People were subdividing it into packets of 10 seeds and reselling it. Over the years, I have watched a lot of genetic drift, as people grew out those 10 seed packets and started reselling the seed. I don't worry much about it. last summer I helped a farmer in Idaho pick an acre field of Glass Gem corn, and he is selling it in 50 pound bags, so the off-types will eventually be diluted as the original genetically diverse population gains market share. The original looked like this: