Can Extra Sweet Corn Seed Be Kept?

[OkeeDon]

<font color="blue"> So, how about it Florida guys? Is this stuff the best there is in the Sunshine State? </font>

Nah. We keep the good stuff and ship the rest of it out to people who wish they had vegetables year-round. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[KubotaSteve]

Where I live there used to be a bunch of roadside vegetable wagons selling the local crops. You had to live around there to know which ones were legitimate though. It was always funny watching tourists go and buy field corn that people had went and picked out of a farmer's field without permission. I would think poor souls have their hearts set on some good corn and they are getting field corn!!!

 

[DAP]

Don .. I shudder to ask .. but it's startin to look like you're forgettin where you come from. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[DaveNay]

Hey Doug....why doesn't your dog run anymore on your signature? I thought that was really cool! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Dave

 

[Golfgar4]

Gee Dave, he's running when I view it. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Wood_Butcher_Dav]

I like field corn just as well as what is available in the supermarkets, that is if you pick the field corn at the right time. When in season I do stop by the local farmers market and their corn is hard to beat.

 

[DaveNay]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Gee Dave, he's running when I view it. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif )</font>

Computers suck.

Cleared my browsers cache, and now it works again. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Dave

 

[PineRidge]

Guys thanks for the heads up on saving the seed corn. I'll keep it high, dry, and cool for next year.

For those of you that might try growing a bit of sweet corn, I quickly learned that a single row or two of corn will never produce well. If you don't have a lot of room plant the rows shorter but make more of them. This way the corn can pollinate itself easily and the ears will mature well. Otherwise you might end up wasting your time and effort. Corn is fairly easy to grow and great tasting right from the garden.

 

[timb]

How are most folks planting their sweet corn? It's been more than a few years since I planted corn. This year I don't have time to deal with a big area but I wanted to get some in so I planted four fairly short rows by hand - too short to be even worth dragging out the planter. I actually bothered to read the package and it described planting FOUR seeds every 10" and thinning to TWO stalks at each position when they come up. I don't ever remember seeding that heavy but I did compromise and put in 3 seeds per - and of course got about 95% germination so I've got some thinning to do. I'll leave two stalks in at each position, I'm curious to see how this works out.

Tim

 

[PineRidge]

<font color="blue"> How are most folks planting their sweet corn? </font>

Tim I don't know about the rest but I use a 2-row Allis corn planter that I drag behind my TC-40D. It did a wonderful job of putting the seed and fertilizer where I needed it. The seed plates are interchangeable so you can drop 2 seeds if you feel the need to. I use the correct plate and plant only one seed at a drop as it's almost as much work thinning corn as it is planting it in the first place. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[SPIKER]

I can attest to the good tasting field corn, as when we were younger we ate a lot of it out of the back field, it was good for 2~4 weeks depending if it got enough rain then... didn't bother to try and freeze any as it wou;dn't taste the same as mentioned. blanching is needed and also needs to be blanched ON the EARS and dropped in ice water then drained and then cut off and frozen asap... varrying will not work. blanch IN preboiling water for about 1 min, then remove and only do a few ears at a time too many and the water cools too much. while water is re-warming you are cooling and cutting and then drop in a 2nd batch into boiling water while packing the chilled and cut corn. it can be done ON the ears but who has that much freezer room?


ok here is one question.

I'm wanting to plant some multi colored indian corn, how far appart should the patches be to keep from cross pollinating? I have 4 varritied, blue, red, multi colored and a marblized varrity. also want to keep it away fomr the sweet corn too, but I already used the opposite ends of garden for 2 rows of indian corn. and 20+ feet ot the sweet corn. anyhwo just wondering I know as far away as the bee flys right! lol anyhow just looking for a bit of advice.

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[kensfarm]

"how far appart should the patches be to keep from cross pollinating?"

An alternative to spacing the diff. varieties of corn if space is limited.. is to plant them at different timeframes.. so they're not silking at the same time.

 

[timb]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( how far appart should the patches be to keep from cross pollinating? )</font>
I believe I read either 20 or 25 feet recently to keep bicolors from yellow from white so I'd think that ought to be in the ballpark for most variaties.

Tim

 

[DAP]

Dave, your browser may be plum tuckered out.

 

[PineRidge]

Well so much for the extra sweet corn seed question. It seems we have had so much rain here in Ohio that many farmers are now on their 2nd or 3rd planting because of seed that washed away or rotted in the ground.

I started my second corn planting just today and hope to finish up tomorrow. Guess having too much seed worked to my advantage this season anyway, but I don't know if that's good or bad in this instance. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I'm hoping that we will still see a crop however late it may be. Sweet corn straight from the garden steamed on the grill in the husks and then painted with gobs of melted butter is very hard to beat in my opinion. Of course a requirement around here is that you need to wash it down with a few cold beers! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[timb]

Good luck with the replant. Mine has held up - got lucky down here in SW PA with the timing of the storms - the corn was germinated and up far enough to hold up to the late May/early June rains we saw. It's now 30"-36" tall. The recent cool weather isn't doing any good though. Neighbors corn was actually starting to fall due to "wet feet". Here's hoping for a warm September for you.

Tim

 

[PineRidge]

Thanks for the thought Tim, we will keep our fingers crossed. Mother Nature can be very strange and unforgiving at times.

Glad to hear that your crop is doing fine. I have seen some mixed results here in Ohio. I guess it just depends on how much drainage your property may have had during the really wet times.