hey as the fall decorating season begins, How about about some pictures of the ornamental "Indian" corns for the plant files. Not many corn pictures this year of any kind.
Ornamental corn
I planted some of that this year and didn't get one single ear of corn. :(
Gwendalou
Too bad some of it is useful as well as pretty.
How is it useful, besides for decorations?
The pictured one is a popcorn. The flints make delicious corn meal. The blue dents like Hopi Blue, make great blue corn flour. For blue tortilla chips and the like. Bloody Butcher is used mostly for decoration today but was once a standard field corn, corn meal as well as stock feed. And of course the infamous grits.
So, they are all edible in one form or another?
I have a small bit someone gave me a month ago. Maybe I shallsave it and plant it next year. looks like your popcorn photo.
Speaking of which, does anyone know what commercial producers are now putting on their ornamental corn as a preservative?
I used to love putting my autumn corn decorations out in the yard for the birds/wildlife, but the last few years the ears hang there completely untouched. I'm assuming there must now be something sprayed on them, since they used to be demolished by BlueJays & squirrels, etc., within a couple of days.
Whatever it is, it isn't readily apparent, like shellac or anything, but there obviously must be something on there now.
I'm not sure that all producers would be using the same thing. Myself, I sprayed like polyurathane semi-gloss on them.