It’s a tasty treat during any movie, it can be mixed with sticky syrup to form chewy balls and it’s one of the most popular all-American snacks — popcorn, it can please even the most picky of palates.

However, it isn’t by accident that the white, fluffy kernels can be found in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes. Excellence and variety in kernels has been attained as a result of the hard work and perseverance of diligent popcorn breeders, including Iowa State’s Kenneth Ziegler.

After receiving funds for his project in 1981, Ziegler, a professor of agronomy, has been working to develop a material that can be used to produce new hybrids. Through the years, Ziegler said he has developed much improved source material with attractive traits.

He said when he thinks he has produced a new, desirable material, he gives it to private companies that use the new source material to develop their own inbred lines to produce new hybrid lines.

“Once we release a new source population, it still takes eight to 10 years for a private company to develop a new commercially acceptable hybrid line,” Ziegler said in a press release. “But with this research, we are providing a much-improved source of germ plasm to private companies.”

In addition to the work he does to improve the quality of the hybrids to match taste buds, Ziegler said he also does research to develop hybrids that are easier to grow and harvest.

Stalk lodging and breakage, and popping expansion are issues Ziegler targets with his research. “I am always trying to improve expansion to make bigger, better, palatable flakes,” Ziegler said. “I want the seed coat to shatter.”

As part of his work, Ziegler has to pop the popcorn in order to see his research is going.

Ziegler said he does most of the popping around Christmas time, when he pops about 4,000 ears. Each ear is given both a popping expansion value and a rating that judges the number of hulls left after popping. The goal is to get the least number of hulls left after popping.

“When a kernel of popcorn explodes, we want the hull to shatter into very tiny pieces,” Ziegler said.

Many different sizes of popcorn poppers are used for Ziegler’s popcorn research. There are poppers that can pop samples that range from 30 grams to 250 grams, he said.

Despite all of his success in this field, Ziegler said he thinks there is more room for improvement in popcorn. By the spring of 1998, Ziegler said he hopes to release four new inbred lines and one new source population.

“I plan on hopefully improving the popcorn plant,” Ziegler said.