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Corn bro here. For those of you who don't remember or weren't in these threads earlier this season, I'm breeding my own locally adapted corn. Some of it is coming in, and I have some pictures.
A quick recap of some of the things that I've done:
I started a few years ago with multiple cultivars, planted them all together and let them pollinate each other promiscuously. I then selected (mostly) the best ones for seed, but I do want to maintain at least some of the genetic diversity in case some new bug or disease moves in, or something else changes. It's a balancing act between adaptation to my environment and genetic diversity. The idea is to have corn that always produces something that is beyond organic. I have used no pesticides or herbicides, nor have I used any commercial fertilizer. Just compost and very well aged manure.
Another thing that I have done is planted them a wee bit too close together to force them to compete with each other. Since there is a lot of variation, this seems to work fairly well at separating the adapted and non-adapted.
I live in a desert, so in the past, I was somewhat abusive when it came to water. I was less so early on this year, but at this point, it is coming up on a full month since I've watered it. The past abuse seems to have paid off. My rain gauge says 2.47" during that period, and temperatures have ranged from the upper 80s to triple digits.
As you can tell from pic related, I have some pretty good variety. I have yet to get any pure white cobs yet, which is fine by me. Colored hominy is a novelty that makes people's eyes light up like a little kids.
