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New Plants for Florida: Sweet Corn1
Brian Scully2Click here to view the print version.
Florida is now the largest producer of fresh-market sweet corn in the U.S., and farm-gate value annually ranges around $100 million. This success is directly attributed to the collaborative research efforts of Emil Wolf from the Everglades Research and Education Center (EREC) in Belle Glade, John Laughnan from Illinois Foundation Seed and George Crookham of Crookham Seed in Idaho. This public/private sector partnership started in 1959, and it continues to this day with a new generation of scientists. These original collaborators hoped to resolve the major production issues of the time, including extended crop shelf life and improved taste and quality. They believed that Americans would consume more sweet corn if it was available for a longer portion of the year and if it had better eating quality.
They turned to a gene discovered and published in 1949, called the shrunken-2 gene (sh2). It would provide the genetic foundation for the now ubiquitous "Super-Sweet" hybrids that permeate the marketplace both here and abroad, and it replaced the standard sweet corn gene known as sugary 1. But this effort was no quick success; it took nearly three decades for their work to come to fruition. By the middle of the 1980s, the Florida sweet-corn industry, along with the midwestern sweet-corn growers, quickly began to accept shrunken-2 hybrids.
Today, this industry is one of the most robust vegetable industries in Florida, and nationally, sweet corn is ranked second in consumption after tomato. Florida production uses about two dozen hybrids derived from about six different breeding programs. Over the years, the FAES breeding program, currently led by Brian Scully at the EREC, has contributed an array of products, including hybrids and inbreds, along with germplasm that serves as the raw material for the development of future hybrids.
For more information about sweet corn varieties, see:
HS 737 Sweet Corn Production in Florida
Tables
Table 1. Sweet corn germplasm developed and released from FAES.
Germplasm
Genetic Class
Date of Release
Florida 32 Inbred 1975
Florida 56 Inbred 1975
Florida Sweet Hybrid 1974
Florida Staysweet Hybrid 1978
Florida XP-7 Hybrid 1994
UFISH 8008 Inbred 1994
Zaplote Chico sh2 Population 2000
Snowstorm Hybrid 2001
UFISH 8029 Inbred 2001
NE-EDR sh2 Population 2001
NE-EDR su1 Population 2002
NE-EDR bt1 Population 2002
Zapalote Chico 2451F Population 2003
Footnotes
1. This document is part of Circular 1440, a publication of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, the Agronomy Department and IFAS Communication Services, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication date August 2003. Originally published as a booklet by IFAS Communication Services June 2003. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.2. Brian Scully, Associate Professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, Everglades REC--Belle Glade, FL. Circular 1440 is edited by Richard L. Jones, Mary L. Duryea, and Berry J. Treat, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.
Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Richard L. Jones, Dean for Research, publishes this information to further programs and related activities, available to all persons regardless of race, color, age, sex, disability or national origin. Information about alternate formats is available from IFAS Communication Services, University of Florida, PO Box 110810, Gainesville, FL 32611-0810.
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Larry Arrington, Dean.
Copyright Information
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