Ruby Queen F1 Sweet Corn

[jayb]

I grew Ruby Queen (se) a couple of years ago and loved them, I started some seeds off in the propagator. I had a few doubts if they would germinate as the seed are a few years old now and although not brilliant, germination looks to be about 50 %, which is fine and gives me about 25 -30 seedlings. I'm going to plant these in the poly-tunnel, not because they need it for growing, just I want to grow another sweetcorn type and don't want them cross pollinating so I hope by staggered sowing I'll be able to save seed from both. I've also started off some Ruby Queen F2 seeds, possibly cross pollinated with other se varieties which I may plant alongside and let them mingle.

I thought I'd log their progress as it might be useful to compare these to Ruby Queen F2 progress.

Ruby Queen F1 by jayb 35, on Flickr

[Silverleaf]

Wow, look at the colour of those! Just gorgeous! I assume the cobs are red too?

[Galina]

Jaybe Kapuler

Yes indeed you can let them mingle, select for red wrinkled kernels and discard any that are not red and not wrinkle seeded. Sweet corn is unusual, whilst its seedcoat is maternal material, it is however see-through and the colour of the next generation shines through. This makes it very easy to save for red only.

I agree they look lovely even as seedlings. Guess the tassels are also red?

[jayb]

Wow, look at the colour of those! Just gorgeous! I assume the cobs are red too?

Yes pretty red cobs, although I thought they tasted best when the colour was not fully developed.

Guess the tassels are also red?

Yes, from memory they were red, not as intense as some I've seen though, like Double Red or some of Painted Mountain.

I tried to pick out the wrinkliest looking and reddest seeds from the F2 I saved, which are the ones I'm think I'm going to grow alongside Ruby Queen F1. It's amazing being able to tell a variety has cross pollinated just by how the seeds look!

[jayb]

Ruby Queen F1 from a later sowing being grown as part of mix for seed.