You know them. You probably either hate or ignore them.
And we're out to really understand them.
Corn Suckers.
I am excited to associate myself with this project currently taking place in Dr. Ciampitti's lab at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, in partnership with Corteva Agriscience and the Kansas Corn Commission.
Tillering in corn is a widely debated topic for producers, agronomists, and researchers alike - mostly because no one really understands what makes them tick. Opinions regarding tillers are one of my favorite parts of this project thus far, and I love seeing the social component brought into the conversation.
We have been trying to breed tillering traits out of corn for literally centuries, because our goal as the agronomy community has always been the uniform, single-stalked field of identical and predictable corn plants. But what if the tillering trait was actually useful for some situations? Like low densities with limited irrigation capacities? What if they could boost yields further than a prolific single-stalked hybrid? What if they could provide some insurance for bad stands or high temps during main stalk pollination?
I hope to be able to provide new perspective to an old problem with this project and look forward to what we find out!
So, should we be "suckers for tillers"? Or will corn tillers always be "for suckers"? Stay tuned.