Cold Hardy Perennial Corn, has anyone attempted?

[wildseedvt]

I have had the notion since I started gardening in my early teenage years that a perennial corn is possible. My notions/ideas/daydreams may annoy some of the more scientific members of this and other forums, but I honestly believe it is possible.
Is there any documentation of people attempting to create such a thing? I'm pretty sure I read somewhere about perennial (tropical) corns/relatives, but never cold hardy.

Ideas, opinions, links?

[nicolas]

Corn or Maize (Zea mays) is one of the most important staple crops on the planet. Perennial corn could slow or reverse the degradation of sloping lands around the world that are inappropriately used to grow annual maize. Scientists and backyard breeders have been working toward this goal for many years, and have made some limited progress. Diploid perennial teosinte (Z. diploperennis) is a wild relative which is crossable with annual corn. Several other wild corn relatives have recently been found by scientists. Maize can also be crossed with more distantly related hardy perennials including Eastern gammagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides) and the related dwarf Fakahatchee grass (T. floridanum).

The Land Institute has made substantial progress towards developing perennial corn. Their breeders report that with sufficient funding a perennial corn could be ready for field tests in as little as ten years. One challenge is that the perennial rhizomes that overwinter the plants are not cold-hardy, so their breeding is focused on deeper rhizomes that survive below the frost line. Of course this consideration is not important in the tropics where millions of people rely on corn as a staple.

Recently the US Department of Agriculture has begun to show interest in perennial corn breeding. If they were to dedicate a tiny fraction of their budget to this effort, great progress could be made.

www.perennialsolutions.org/perennial-cereal-grains-a-promise-requiring-patience-and-prioritization

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I have been playing around with this. Hybrids between Zea diploperennis and Zea Mays are compatible, and the offspring are fertile.

I planted many thousands of genetically diverse corn seeds looking for frost/cold tolerance. About 42 of the most cold tolerant were selected for continued selection. Crosses with Hopi pink survived very well, so I think that there are some genes in that variety that might prove useful. I have grown this population since then selecting for cold/frost tolerance each year. The population does very well in cold/frosty weather compared with other corns.

I also grew rhizome forming teosinte. It is not winter hardy in my zone 4 garden. I can bury it 18" deep and it will reliably survive the winter. I was intending to attempt to cross the teosinte with my frost tolerant corn, but the teosinte does not flower in my garden. Some of the Hopi corn seeds have the trait of emerging from soil when planted a foot deep. I wonder if this trait could prove useful in developing a winter-hardy perennial corn?

I suspect that there are differences in how the rhizomes form among perennial teosinte plants. What if I could select for winter hardiness by selecting for rhizomes that form deep underground instead of near the surface of the soil?

To continue working on this project, I would need to find a day-neutral perennial teosinte, or would need to collaborate with growers in more southerly areas that could make the cross between my frost tolerant corn and a perennial teosinte. I hear rumors that day-neutral perennial teosinte exists, but it hasn't made it to my garden yet.

Zea diploperennis rhizomes.

[MikeH]

Perennial maize development would probably require making crosses using germplasm from one its two perennial teosinte relatives, Zea diploperennis or Zea perennis. Zea perennis, despite its

tetraploid chromosomal count, has proven to have promise as a parent to cross with maize (Tang et al., 2005). Zea diploperennis has been successfully crossed with maize, and while some

progeny did have strongly condensed rhizome-like structures and were fertile, they did not have fully developed rhizomes like that of the perennial parent (Camara-Hernandez and Mangelsdorf,

1981 )


Annual vs. perennial grain production.pdf (322.89 KB), page 5

[MikeH]

Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Maize



Click to download from Library Genesis

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Nov 19, 2014 12:35:07 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

To continue working on this project, I would need to find a day-neutral perennial teosinte, or would need to collaborate with growers in more southerly areas that could make the cross between my frost tolerant corn and a perennial teosinte. I hear rumors that day-neutral perennial teosinte exists, but it hasn't made it to my garden yet.

Woo Hoo!!! When I was sorting through my seed stash the other day, I discovered that I already have seed for  [Corn X Zea diploperennis]: Ames 13502 and Ames 13503. Guess I aughta plant it this summer.

[starry]

Dec 21, 2014 19:35:58 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

Nov 19, 2014 12:35:07 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

To continue working on this project, I would need to find a day-neutral perennial teosinte, or would need to collaborate with growers in more southerly areas that could make the cross between my frost tolerant corn and a perennial teosinte. I hear rumors that day-neutral perennial teosinte exists, but it hasn't made it to my garden yet.

Woo Hoo!!! When I was sorting through my seed stash the other day, I discovered that I already have seed for  [Corn X Zea diploperennis]: Ames 13502 and Ames 13503. Guess I aughta plant it this summer.

Did you get those seeds in a trade Joseph or did you request them?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

The [Corn X Zea diploperennis] seeds came to me as a gift from one of my collaborators. He went on a mission for a couple years and sent me his seed stash before leaving.

[natekleinmanefn]

I'm very interested in this conversation. Joseph, would love to swap some seeds with you. We almost got Zea diploperennis to produce viable seed over the winter (in a greenhouse in Philly, after digging it up from our field in South Jersey), but it didn't ripen all the way (I think the plants were too stressed from the move and irregular watering). Luckily, the rhizomes made it through the winter and are growing back nicely. Same for the Zea perennis (flowered, no seeds). Both were started last spring from seed, so I'm optimistic that these two-year-old plants will actually produce seeds for us here this year, at some point. We've already started some other corns and hybrids in the greenhouse in case the perennials start to flower again this spring.

We have quite a few other teosinte seeds from the USDA to try this year, but I don't believe any of them are perennial.

In regards to your search for collaborators, my partners and I have launched an effort called the Experimental Farm Network this year. After a couple months of recruiting this winter (primarily through facebook), we have over 300 people on board, in 43 states (including Hawaii), so we can easily match you with some folks in more favorable climates for collaboration. We have some experienced, even professional corn breeders among our ranks, who might be interested.

I wish the Land Institute would share their germplasm. Their argument about funding is probably valid, but if they had 300 volunteers working on it, even with just their few professionals, they could probably make some more rapid strides. Participatory plant breeding is the only way to go (hence the EFN).

At this point, I think it would be great to cross diploperennis with as many hardy, powerful heirloom corns as possible. I'm not surprised you've found the pink Hopi corn to be so strong (planting 1 ft deep is pretty amazing). The best corn around is the indigenous stuff (for us, no surprise, it's the Lenape white flour corn known as Puhwem... sometimes 6 or 7 ears per plant...). If you have some of the pink Hopi to spare, along with anything else, we'd happily take some and redistribute it to growers in various climates, including some southerners whom we could task with crossing it with diploperennis...

PM me to explore further, or email [e-mail]. Thanks!

[nicolas]

Hi natekleinmanefn nice to see you here too !

I think the hybrid seeds of Joseph came from GRIN and it seems you have a good access to the genebank I've sown seeds of the hybrid a few days ago, curious to see if they'll overwinter here (iirc the rhyzomes are not very cold hardy ...)

Take a look at
Ames 13502 Ames 13502 (NC7)
Ames 13503 Ames 13503 (NC7)

[natekleinmanefn]

Thanks! Turns out we're already growing 13502 ourselves, so I'll be interested in reports on 13503!

Have any of you ever tried popping teosinte seeds? I'm curious how it appears/tastes.

[nicolas]

I only have the 02 myself