Albino corn seedlings

So pretty, sad they wont live to mature. :(

OK, I'll bite (or apparently not). Why won't albino corn seedlings live to maturity?

Red Clay,

My guess is that the white plants have a defect and don't have any chlorophyll. They'll only live as long as they can pull energy from the seed. If they have some other pigment (somehow) that masks the green then they could still (possibly) grow.

David R

Oh that's just... logical. My duh moment for the day. I took SOME science in the pursuit of an English major. we covered THAT part.

I'm slinking back in my cave now. LOL.

; )

Yup that is correct. The only chance they would have lived is if they grew a green true leaf to feed the rest of the plant but that rarely happens.

So what causes this?

It's just a genetic mutation, any seed variety you grow always has the chance of popping up an albino seedling, but its very rare I just happened to get some crazy pack of seeds where I got many albinos.

The green plants will grow and mabye ill see if they show any crazy genetic traits!

Apparently the albino trait is common enough, or controllable, so that it is use in experiments. I found several research papers that used it to compare with regular corn. Keith, you might continue to get albino seedlings if you save seed from the corn you grow that had the albinos.

Ill definetly try! Although how do you save corn without it rotting first?

I was hoping for variegated plants look nice and produce tasty corn :)

To save corn seed you have to leave an ear on the plants until the shucks and kernals are dry - way past the fresh eating stage. Or as dry as you can get it in your climate - you may have to hang it inside to finish drying if you have wet weather.

I have never seen albino seedlings - very interesting! They are showing a little red, too - that might be as close as you can get to varigated.