Hopi Turquoise Corn

With his blue sweater and blue face mask, this visitor was eager to learn about the matching Hopi turquoise corn. With unique heirloom varieties, it is important that different cultivars of the same species of crop do not get planted together, as cross-pollination might occur. Traits that give crops different adaptations might get lost when pollinated with another variety. Since corn relies on wind for pollination, placing a brown paper bag over the tassels can possibly prevent cross-pollination. Another technique would be to plant corn varieties that have different maturity durations so that when each corn variety is ready to pollinate they are separated by at least some amount of time.