Speckled Self-Feeding Grex

A semi-stabilized gene pool deriving from the work of Mike Fortune, farmer and plant breeder in Asheville, NC. Mike worked to cross daylight-sensitive Peruvian/Andean corns (usually impossible to bring to maturity in higher temperate latitudes, at least without very special conditions) with corn varieties such as Painted Mountain that are not daylight sensitive. This helps introduce genetics that allow some of the Peruvian/Andean traits to come through, while also making it easier to get a crop out of the plant in the average U.S. growing area. In this case of this "Speckled Self-Feeding Grex", genes for visual appearance from the Peruvian variety "Pisccoruntu" are present, which means the corn often has dramatic large speckles on the kernels, similar to the spots of a Holstein cow. The variety also possesses the trendy trait of producing some gel on its aerial roots, which is thought to feed/harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria that help the plant get enough fertility/nutrition in poor soils. I have grown this gene pool for a couple of seasons and I am selecting for two main things - appearance (lots of the cow-spots), long-slender ears over short-fat, and earliness. I have not specifically selected for aerial root gel, though the trait is likely still present. The population still produces some taller, later plants and some fatter/more rounded ears but the percentage of long-slender ears and earliness has greatly improved. Incidence of spotting is frequent. Please request only under the understanding this is still a gene pool with room to still select for your desired traits, and that you may get some different phenotypes appearing in your population.