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Rare corn can self-fertilise [video]
- dsalaj 3y ago"Grown for centuries by indigenous farmers in rural Mexico, this incredibly rare corn can self-fertilise. In episode three of 'Planet Fix', we explore how this wonder crop could help tackle world hunger, and even end farming's toxic reliance on chemical fertilisers for good!"
- Steven420 3y agoWhat does self fertilization have to do with ending farming's toxic reliance on chemical fertilizers?
- seiferteric 3y agoIn this case "self fertilization" refers to fixing nitrogen, not "fertilizing" in the sense of reproduction.
- seunosewa 3y agoKnowing exactly how much nitrogen they can fix is important. It's unlikely to be enough to take care of the nitrogen requirements of high yield corn.
- darknoon 3y agoIn the video it said something about modulating the amount of nitrogen fixation based on the plant's needs. Could mean that it's able to scale it up if its needs are higher, but I imagine this is part of the breeding work they're doing.
- rottencupcakes 3y agoTitle is very misleading. Perhaps it should be “Rare corn can fix its own nitrogen” Incredibly cool though.
- echelon 3y agoThat's arguably even cooler. It's such an essential part of plant biology.
- 13of40 3y agoI scrolled past the headline a couple times today because I thought it just meant self-pollinate.
- randomdata 3y agoWhat would be rare about that, though? Even the usual corn we see on the regular can self-pollinate. It typically doesn't, accepting pollen from its neighbours instead, but it can. It is suggested that in a typical field of corn, ~3% of the plants will end up being self-pollinated.
- Salgat 3y agoNothing, but self-fertilization is already an established term in biology which makes it confusing.
- randomdata 3y agoTrue. As a corn grower, I assumed it meant nitrogen fixation on first read and didn't even consider your usage as fertilization, per your usage, isn't something we need to think about much in corn. Fertilize much more commonly refers to application of fertilizer in my world.
- UncleOxidant 3y agoI just ordered seeds for a nitrogen fixing corn from the Experimental Farm Network.
- oneshtein 3y agoSold out. :-(
- omneity 3y agoI'm also super interested. Is it this one? [0] I have setup a monitor on this page using Monitoro [1] and it will send me an alert when the corn is not "sold out" anymore. Disclaimer, I'm the founder of Monitoro, you can sign up here [2]. And feel free to reach out if you need any help. [0]: https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/collections/grains/products/gigante-hominy-self-feeding-corn-grex https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/collections/grains... [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=050Y6NSIu6I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=050Y6NSIu6I [2]: https://monitoro.co https://monitoro.co
- ravenstine 3y agoSomeone is selling "nitrogen fixing maize corn" on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=nitrogen+fixing+corn https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=nitrogen+fixing+corn No idea if legit.
- mkmk 3y agoContext: Most plants pull nitrogen from the soil, and over time the soil becomes depleted and your crops grow more slowly. Bacteria in legumes convert atmospheric nitrogen to plant-usable forms, so historically you've needed to cycle nitrogen-"fixing" crops into your fields to 'restore' the nitrogen balance in the soil. Alternatively, you can use fertilizers, which supply N directly. This is potentially interesting because the corn acts as its own fertilizer, fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere.
- zwieback 3y agoWhat are the tradeoffs, does it taste as good and is the yield ok?
- randomdata 3y ago> taste as good Is that important? The corn (not to be confused with sweet corn) we grow now doesn't taste good, hence why we largely don't eat it directly, using animals or chemical processes to make it palatable.
- canadianfella 3y ago[dead]
- westonplatter0 3y agoPer https://news.wisc.edu/corn-that-acquires-its-own-nitrogen-identified-reducing-need-for-fertilizer/ https://news.wisc.edu/corn-that-acquires-its-own-nitrogen-id..., original research paper was published in 2018, see https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2006352 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jou...