This one's got me perplexed. I've been gardening 40 years and this is a first. I planted a local variety of bloody butcher corn, seeds I got from a friend, and it's just now coming up. A small percentage of the plants are pure white. They seem to be just as healthy as the green ones. Any ideas why they are coming up like that?
Wow.... I've never heard of that & none of my reference materials have either. Let me be sure I've got this right: You have apperently healthy little corn plants, just like the others, except white? I would by all means call the local county extension agent and get pictures. Let us know how they do. Peace, poor_old_dad
Sounds scary, but you have mutations that scientists call "chlorophyll deficient lethals". For no apparent reason, the plants show changes in their leaf chlorophyll patterns, sometimes stripes and sometimes albino. Because these plants can't synthesize much sun, they grow slowly and die young. It was studied a lot back in the 20's. Then in the early 90's it was discovered that corn and other crops prone to mutation often carry duplicate genes that occasionally express themselves. Have you been putting spells on your corn? It's been so cold down here in the mountains that I'm just getting the seed out this weekend.
When I was propagating for a nursery we planted buckeyes for the indigenous fanatics and I'd say about 20% of the seedlings were albino or chlorphyll deficient. They did alright for about two weeks then failed to thrive. The seed was collected locally from a native volunteer along a creek bank. I always wanted to followup and do a study on it. But needless to say my life took a different direction. But I always wondered if the incidence of this was influenced by drought conditions, since we had been experiencing a three year drought at that time, and the majority of the year the creek was dry and the mother tree had to struggle to survive. Maybe in my next reincarnation I'll have the opportunity to see if drought has any influence.
Once it started raining like crazy and the hot sun came out, they all died. I think perhaps these white genetic mutations had something to do with something like inbreeding because this seed has been saved locally for at least 50 years... The rest is doing well.
That could be. And it may have been the cause of my little mutants as well. The mother tree being naturally occurring I somehow doubt it, but it is a possibility. You might ask your seed source what incidence they have observed in the past.
