Sweetcorn cross pollination

My first greenhouse sowing of sweetcorn was not very successful so I bought another packet of seeds with the intention of sowing them direct. They are a different variety to the first ones and the packet warns that they should not be sown near a different variety because they will cross pollinate. Makes sense but so what if they do, will the resultant cobs be adversely affected?

 

Yes :(

However, if sown [sufficiently] later they will pollinate at different times, so that will be OK

You also need to consider what your neighbours are growing (particularly on an allotment where other crops will be very close to yours) and as such it can be worth buying a single variety communally and save a few bob too - e.g. Moles Seeds sell Sweetcorn (well, all seeds ) in bulk.

 

Thanks for that Kristen. Are the affects such that the cobs will be uneatable or (as I suspect is the case) the results just can't be predicted?

 

The cobs may be severely deformed, a mix of kernel types, all sorts. Whether they would be edible I don't know, but they may very well be unattractive at best, and even if they are visibly attractive you may lose sweetness.

You would be eating the seeds of a secondary cross, no telling what the outcome is. Can't think of another crop where you eat the seeds such that a cross might effect the harvest (rather than the next generation if you were to plant the cross-hybridised seed) as mostly you eat the "fruit" rather than the seeds.

 

P.S. I have read of people saying that even varieties of Sweetcorn where the packet said "Can be safely grown with other varieties" were deformed and not usable.

 

I've also read of warnings about not letting sweetcorn cross pollinate, so I grow the agricultural feed stuff (for our hens) well away/downwind from the 'proper' eating cobs for us.

 

Thank you both. Answer is clear - take note of the warning!