Tough Corn

This year’s corn crop was late in ripening and tougher than usual. A cool wet summer, change of seed source and/or seed type may have been the reasons. In the previous two years we purchased our corn seed from Johnnies. An extra sweet variety which did well each year producing an average of two to three ears per stalk. The corn was both tender and sweet each of those two years. This season we decided upon a Northern extra sweet and purchased from a local vendor. It appeared to be the same variety which Johnnies offers at a similar price.

After speaking with other locals that grew corn this year we discovered the same thing was happening to their corn crop. One source even plowed their crop under and several others complained of tough corn.

My wife’s sage advice is to stick with what works, which is precisely what I will be doing next season. However, questions still linger in my mind: Is there a possible difference in corn seed even though the nomenclature/genera/species is the same, and does climate factor into the toughness of corn???

Previously I asked the question about the method of removing corn suckers and Farmerdill’s sage advice was, it was not necessary. I did remove some of the suckers from several rows as a test prior to asking the question and the results was astonishing. The corn stalks with suckers not only produced more ears (avg. 2 t0 3/stalk), the ears actually ripened sooner and were fuller than the single ears on the majority of stalks with the suckers removed.

We have vowed to take our gardening questions back to DG and not listen to the stories about what Grandmother or Grandfather use to do. Lesson learned!

Nothern Xtra Sweet is an SH2 type and will be tough if cross pollinated with any other type of corn. It requires isolation as do all SH2 types.

What is SH2. Had to ask.

Sweet corn is catgorized as Su ( normal corn), Se ( Sugar enhanced), SH2 ( extra sweet) and synergistic. OP's like Golden Bantam, Stowell's Evergreen, Country Gentleman and older hybrids like Iochief , Golden Queen are Su. Se's include Ambrosia, Kandy Korn, Augusta, Sugar Buns .... SH2's include How Sweet it is. Xtra-Tender series, Mirai series, Northern Xtra- Sweet .... Synergistic include the Triple Sweet series, Celestial, Dasher, etc. Only the SH2's require isolation.

Thanks, just wondering.

Thanks Farmerdill. I sharred seed with my clossest neighbor to prevent cross pollizination, however there were other smaller plots of varioius varieties of corn within half a mile which is the recommended separation distance as I understand it. Several of these plots as mentioned were not very productive this year and the neighbor who plowed his under was only four lots away. I found one other neighbor only two lots away who had a failed crop as well. A number of these are very small plots which I was not even aware of. I guess my garden (5,000 sq ft) has spurred a number of the families in the neighborhood to put in smaller gardens of their own. Problem now seems to be what is the best means of isolating my crop from thiers and the only answer I can come up with is seed selection.