experiment with plating several sweet corn varieties at the same under the same growing conditionss

Watch Reply
More
Mark unread Print Skip to new
asaf Oct 16, 2017


I've had a great corn year starting with golden bantam followed by a nice batch of xtra-tender 2771(sh) ending with plenty of silver queen. I've decided to not plant sh corn next year because I want a continuous supply of more than one variety and don't want to bother with the isolation requirements.

To see how they perform in my soil and climate, I want to plant a small amount of all the varieties at the same time, in the same set of rows sharing a common drip irrigation line. There will be a small difference in light availability across the rows as the corn grows tall, but other than that, I want all the parameters to be the same.

The varieties I plan on are silver queen, ambrosia (se bicolor), incredible (yellow se) and honey select (yellow synergistic)

My main interest it to compare flavor, texture, days to maturity, and holding ability on and off the stalk.

From what I understand, there are no isolation requirements here, because only pure sh corn needs isolation from other sweet corns.

Assuming silver queen won't flower much later than the yellows, It seems that I may get yellow kernels on it from cross pollination.

My plan is to plant 4 30 ft rows, spaced 3 feet apart. divide the 30 feet into 5 6ft segments, one for each variety, ending up with four 6ft rows per variety.

So far I have been spacing corn generously at 1ft in the row.
I will therefore have 24 (6 *4 ) plants of each variety.
That seems like a small amount for optimal pollination, but since there will overlap between them, I should get good tip fill from cross pollination between the varieties.

I would appreciate any advice on changes that can be made to the plan for a more successful crop. Specifically, I am concerned about any cross pollination effects that I may be unaware of, giving the unique nature of corn in this regard.




Post #10328929
Quote

Post a Reply to this Thread

Please or sign up to post.
Back to Forum Homepage

More Beginner Gardening Threads

Go to all Beginner Gardening threads
BACK TO TOP