With the increase in prices on corn these days. It's no longer for sale onthe side of the road. And not easy to come by any longer. so I thought i'd grow my own, but haven't a clue as to what kind to buy.
someone told me that sweet g 90 is a good kind.
Any other ideas? and where would I get the corn you say is good to grow.
I'd kind of like to have a yellow and a bicolor variety.
I have plenty of room to plant it.
Also, What do you use to get rid of the earwigs that invade the corn cob.
your favorite corn
The local feed and seeds usually have bulk seed of the more dependable cultivars for the local area. You also have to decide whether you want a Sh2 (supersweet) as these must be isolated (either space or time) from other types. You may want to look through corn and read the grower comments in Plantfiles. I personnaly like Se types , Kandy Korn ( yellow) and Peaches and Cream ( bicolor have performed well for me) I grow mostly whites as they are the most popular in this area. Silver Princess, Silver King, Silver Queen.
I think you probably mean corn earworms. They can be controlled with mineral oil, light horticulural oil or insecticides like pyrethrin/rotenone, Ortho Bug B Gone or Sevin.
Thanks, I'll check with our local seed supplier then, their seed is old alot and doesn't germinate as good as it should, I swore I'd not buy seed from them again but their the onlysource as far as I know for large selections of vegetable seed.
Farmerdill, are any of those varieties early types? There is absolutely no use in my trying to get a little corn crop unless it produces in short order. The heat will just wilt it. Last year I tried some transplants from a local nursery. I hope to discourage anyone from ever doing that. It was a total bust. What do you think is the minimum number of plants I'd need to sow to get good pollination and a decent number of ears?
The short season corn is not as good eating as the later types and the ears and plants are smaller. Silver princess is a 75 day corn. In the 65 day class I have had decent yields and fairly good corn from Silver Knight (White) , Quickie (bi-color) and Sunglo (Yellow). Seneca Horizon (Yellow) gets good press but I hvae not tried it. Have tried the Polar series but did not like it at all. Precocious(yellow) and Spring Treat ( yellow) also has good press. Fleet ( bi-color) like wise.
Depends on your concept of a decent number of ears. Count on one ear per plant, anything else is a bonus. The typical packet will likely provide all you want to eat fresh. Plant it in blocks like 4 plants each way or 16 plants. You can probably get away with 4 plants if shake pollen from the tassels onto the developing silks, but that is too few to count on nature. Corn usually has about 80 -90 % germination, but still plant twice as much as you need and thin out the excess when it is a couple of inches high.
Silver Knight
Now that looks like a delicious ear of corn! Thanks for the advice; now I'll try to find some of those seeds.
For this area Siver Queen and Silver King are the favorites.
I grow Legend Hybrid corn that does very good for me. I had tried others but this was by far the best yet. I got the seed from Park Seed Co. Ordered them online. I planted a plot about 12 feet x 12 feet. I used crushed brown leaves for compost after the plants got to be about 6 to 8 inches high. I am from AR also, Mena, so you will have to keep it watered by sprinkler about every day. I tried soaker hose but not as good as sprinkler. Don't sprinkle too hard so as not to get the ears of corn soaked. I got enough corn for 2 people and enough to freeze from one packet of seed. Last year it rained so much here that I didn't get to plant any corn. I still have the seed so am going to try to see if they will be any good this year.
This message was edited Mar 1, 2008 10:09 AM
I had 8 plantings of sweet corn last year. Still there are hundreds of varieties I have not tried and likely won't and likely would not be missing much when one has tried quite a few and is very pleased with .some.
Corn is so subjective to taste. For example I tried the above Legend from Park's and found it so crunchy that we didn't eat it even though others love it and it produced beautiful large ears.
I like Ambrosia bi-color and Incredible yellow very well. Yes, there are a lot of tasty varieties. I tried Lucious once and we hated the funny taste even though it is praised in some catalogs...so there you go!!