Corn...

I understand that corn crosses easily. Does that mean I should not plant my Broom Corn near my Veggie Corn?

Does the cross effect the current year's crop, or is it like tomatoes - the seeds might mutate for future, but the current year's crop comes true?

And what's up with popcorn? Is it a whole 'nother breed?

Ditto Indian Corn...

So many questions!

Broom corn is a sorghum. All the others are Z.mays which cross readily. Since the seed is the edible part of corn for the most part, yes it affects this years crop. So, you need to isolate by time or distance all of the Z. mays.

Good thing I asked!

As always, thanks for your response and assistance! You're the best!

WOW, I learned something new. I didn't know that about corn. I am going to try and plant corn for the very first time this year in my garden and I am going to plant two varieties. The first is Sugar Buns Hybrid from Parks Seeds and Trinity Bicolor from Johnny's. I looked on the package of seeds and it didn't say if they were a Z.mays or not. So, are these varieties Z.mays? If they are, How far apart do they need to be planted to isolate by distance and how many weeks apart do they need to be planted to be isolated by time?

Sequee~ I am glad I came across this thread. Thank you for asking this question. I had no idea that corn crossed so easily and that it effected this years seeds. I too thought corn was like tomatoes.

Farmerdill~ Are you familiar with these varieties that I want to plant? Do you know the distance and time required to help prevent crossing between the two?

Field corn, sweet corn, ornamental/Indian corn, popcorn are all Z. mays. Sugar Buns and Trinity are both short season Se type. A cross will not greatly affect eating qualities. Since Sugar Buns is a yellow and Trinity a bicolor, the cross would result in a bicolor, probably just a few grains on the yellow corn but if appearance is important. Trinity is about a week earlier than Sugar Buns so if you plant the trinity in blocks about a week earlier than Sugar Bun, you should have two weeks difference in bloom time which should be sufficient.

Speaking of corn...I was thinking a friend of mine (from Iowa) had mentioned something about putting a dab of olive oil on the top of the corn, while it's still forming the silks, ...to keep the grubs from getting in there (supposedly they didn't like going thru the oil or something). Has anyone tried this??

Thanks for the quick response Farmerdill!! I hope you don't mind answering another question. I was going to stagger my planting of corn every two weeks so that I can have successive harvests. If I plant each variety every other week am I going to have a problem with crossing?

Here is an example of a planting schedule:
May 9th. Trinity
May 16th. Sugar Buns


May 23rd. second planting of Trinity
May 30th. second planting of Sugar Buns

If I kept this up until July 4th. is the every other week going to cause problems? Do I need an off week when I don't plant anything between the first and second plantings? (Such as NOT planting anything on May 23rd.) I hope this question makes sense. Maybe this is a dumb question. Sorry!!

That should work fine. Like I said the only appreaciable difference with those two is appearance. Home gardeners really only need to worry, when planting sweet corn, about the SH2 (supersweet). Those tend to have starchy, rubbery kernals when crossed with other types of corn including other types of sweet corn.

Thanks Farmerdill!! You are the best!

If you aren't going to save the seed from your corn to grow next year it doesn't make any difference when you plant it. This years corn should be true to type. The seed won't come true from the hybrid variety anyway next year.

One way to keep the non hybrid true to type if you are saving the seeds is to grow them in a large block - and just save the seeds from the centre of the bed, as these should only have been pollinated by their close neighbours, not from your other plants.

Pat, They are not worried about saving seeds. but since one eats the seed of corn it is affected the first year. Example, If one plants a white hybrid (Silver Queen) and a same season yellow hybrid (Golden Queen) one gets the equivalent of the bi-color Golden Queen. I frequently create my bicolors that way rather than hunt down seed for the bicolor. The problem really ratchets up with SH2 (supersweets) which become almost inedible if not isolated from other type corn. Of course if you grow popcorn and it crosses with other type corn, it won't pop. Those are the most extreme. The first year, the plant is not affected, only the kernels(seeds). If you plant those seeds, then the plants will show the cross present in those seeds.

I read that you cut the corn flower above the ear or corn that pollinated.
http://www.organicdownunder.com/growing_sweet_corn.htm
chck out the link at the bottom of the page, the one that shows photos

Thanks Farmerdill, I wasn't disagreeing with you, I'm sure you've grown far more corn than I have. I see what you mean that it has already crossed by the time you eat the seed. I was thinking more from a seed saving point of view. I'm rather haphazard with my gardening time anyway, and wouldn't be organized enough to plant at so precise timings.

I have got round the problem of cross pollination by only growing one variety each year, so unless a near neighbour grows another variety I don't have to worry.

My favourite is Lark which is an extra tender sweet variety, not very tall and quick maturing. Your point that the flavour of supersweet varieties is spoilt by crossing with other types is useful to know.

I haven't grown corn in a long while, but I found that planting in blocks, even for a few ears, gave better polination (and therefore the ears fill out better). For example, if I were going to plant 12 corn plants, I'd plant 3 rows of 4 plants instead of 12 plants in 1 row.

If you want to do successive plantings, what's the minimum number you should do per planting to ensure a decent pollination?

I know I have done a 4x4 block of 16 before. I know there are ways to hand polinate to help insure kernel filling, but I am not that advanced and am not familiar with them.

There are usually two or three prime pollinating days for corn when the pollen dust is really flying loose with just a shake of the top part of the stalk. You can manuever [lean] the shaking to cover all the silks.

This message was edited Apr 15, 2007 9:36 PM

Any comments on GothicGarden's question about dabbing oil on the silks to prevent insect infestation? I think that question got lost in the cross pollination discussion.

Re. Gothic's earlier question -- I seem to recall reading something in Organic Gardening magazine years ago about using mineral oil on corn silk when they first emerge from the ear to prevent corn ear worms from doing their damage. Perhaps olive oil will do the same. Maybe any kind of oil other than motor oil :-)

Corn oil and soybean oil are usually recommended for organic growers, and both of those are included in the NOS guidelines. I tried mineral oil years ago, using a long-nose oil can and it seemed to help but without a "control" group I couldn't really say as each year is different regarding CEW.

As for when to apply, best to wait till around day 5 after the silks emerge, any earlier that that will affect pollination and you'll have poor kernel development. Hopefully all your ears will produce silks at the same time and you won't have to go back through and try to figure out which ears got oiled previously.

Shoe

OMG - Oiling my ears??? Who knew?

I have only grown corn once and that was 25 years ago. I started it inside, and then planted it out in hills of 4 each. We had fresh corn on July 4th, in Maryland... unheard of then.

I may try some corn in my new garden here.

It has been my experience that early and mid season planted corn is not much affected by corn earworms. Late plantings for me are the affected ones....your experience could be different.

Ever since I was little, we would go out with an eye dropper and mineral oil to saturate the corn silk. Usually this was done a couple of times as the ears matured. Once in a while, a borer would get through but most ears were unaffected. Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the good advice to my corn/oil question...I'll be giving it a try this year.