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Maize has more human induced genetic diversity than any higher order organism. There are many "heritage" maize varieties grown for various reasons - my favorit

by breput 6y ago

Maize has more human induced genetic diversity than any higher order organism. There are many "heritage" maize varieties grown for various reasons - my favorite is a type of popcorn that grows very small kernels (search for "tinybutmighty popcorn"). That said, this seems like mostly an advertisement for a brand of bourbon whiskey. Most of the specialty maize varieties have a similar origin story, usually with some drama about the "last owner" or "one field left".

evgen 6y ago
Absolutely the best popcorn! I became so obsessed with it that I have my parents smuggle over ten pounds or so every year. While maize has some of the widest genetic variation Out there, in practice I think it is paradoxically the most frequent monocrop you will see. Lots of genetic options but each field will have almost no genetic diversity.
wolfhumble 6y ago
Would love to try, and love the name! :-) This video gives a little more info that I found useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3AIJH1oAMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3AIJH1oAMY
at_a_remove 6y ago
A brand that I had a hard time trying to track down, by now, unless I wanted a long drive to another state.
mikro2nd 6y ago
Due to the genetic diversity and maize's character as an outbreeder, this variety has already gone through a severe genetic bottleneck due to it having been rescued from only two ears of corn. Generally, in saving maize seed, we look to save seed from a population of at least 100 plants (not ears) to maintain the intrinsic genetic diversity. So the present-day variety is really not the same as the original variety. Too much of the genetics has been lost.
blaser-waffle 6y ago
> Most of the specialty maize varieties have a similar origin story, usually with some drama about the "last owner" or "one field left". Most of them? You've been seeing tons of these articles about heirloom corn? Show me. This is common with most heirloom plants -- usually a small cluster lives on somewhere. I find it hard to believe it's an ad for whiskey when it's written by NPR; if anything, it's NPR trying to find southern farm news to appeal to certain parts of the US that would otherwise be outside of the NPR demographic.

by breput 6y ago

evgen 6y ago

Absolutely the best popcorn! I became so obsessed with it that I have my parents smuggle over ten pounds or so every year. While maize has some of the widest genetic variation Out there, in practice I think it is paradoxically the most frequent monocrop you will see. Lots of genetic options but each field will have almost no genetic diversity.

wolfhumble 6y ago

Would love to try, and love the name! :-) This video gives a little more info that I found useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3AIJH1oAMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3AIJH1oAMY

at_a_remove 6y ago

A brand that I had a hard time trying to track down, by now, unless I wanted a long drive to another state.

mikro2nd 6y ago

Due to the genetic diversity and maize's character as an outbreeder, this variety has already gone through a severe genetic bottleneck due to it having been rescued from only two ears of corn. Generally, in saving maize seed, we look to save seed from a population of at least 100 plants (not ears) to maintain the intrinsic genetic diversity. So the present-day variety is really not the same as the original variety. Too much of the genetics has been lost.

blaser-waffle 6y ago

> Most of the specialty maize varieties have a similar origin story, usually with some drama about the "last owner" or "one field left". Most of them? You've been seeing tons of these articles about heirloom corn? Show me. This is common with most heirloom plants -- usually a small cluster lives on somewhere. I find it hard to believe it's an ad for whiskey when it's written by NPR; if anything, it's NPR trying to find southern farm news to appeal to certain parts of the US that would otherwise be outside of the NPR demographic.