2016 Corn Thread

[ninnymary]

Why not try out a little patch of corn and see how it does? We grow corn here.
Ever since we got hoop houses, I've grown it in there, more because that is where I had some space (as opposed to it needing extra heat). So far, the raccoons have been afraid to go into the hoop houses, which is another benefit!

I will have to do that next year. I've already planted my 3 beds. The only thing I have left is a large container that I supposed I could use that?

Mary

 

[digitS']

You would have to hand pollinate it, Mary.

That's if I understand right. I really have unlimited space to grow corn but it does feel like a field crop to me. I could have included PolarVee, EarliVee and Sugar Snow here but it would have been appropriate to mention them in the "head slapper" thread as varieties I once grew but that have now vanished!

Quicky did okay for me ... I really want to push the limits and have a nice, long sweet corn season. I'm self-indulgent that way ...

Steve

 

[buckabucka]

i'll be doing the Glass Gem again & deciding if i want to hold off growing one of my sweet corns to do the other this year. then for next year grow the other so i don't have cross pollination issues. i got Luther Hill OP Sweet and i have an experimental one called Zola's Rose Ultrasweet. Zola's is a red corn that i've never seen before so i thought it would be interesting to try it.

I really wanted to try Glass gem this year, but opted for a red flint corn instead, and then they sold out. It is probably just as well. Not only is the season long, but when I tried it before (outside the hoop house, so it wouldn't cross pollinate with our sweet corn), a raccoon came and took every ear!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

I really wanted to try Glass gem this year, but opted for a red flint corn instead, and then they sold out. It is probably just as well. Not only is the season long, but when I tried it before (outside the hoop house, so it wouldn't cross pollinate with our sweet corn), a raccoon came and took every ear!

if you'd like some of the Glass Gem i can send you some to try. i've save up a lot of seed & my dh was selling it on ebay last year for me. we didn't try selling any this year so i still have a lot left since i didn't take the kernels off the cobs. they're just too pretty to remove.

 

[buckabucka]

Well that is a very kind offer @Chickie'sMomaInNH . Is glass gem mostly used for decorative purposes, or can you grind it up somehow and eat it? I'm definitely intrigued by the beautiful colors...

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

it is a flint corn so good for grinding for flour. i tried popping it but it is hit or miss for that-kernels were really small so not much pop. if you time the picking right you can eat it fresh but i haven't figured out exactly when i need to pull them for that. if you choose to eat them fresh they need to be picked/shucked/& boiled quickly. if you pick them & let them sit too long the colors will start to develop due to the sugars breaking down quickly.

i've used some of the smaller tiller ears as feed/treats for my chickens.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

For food purposes just bear in mind that Glass gem is VERY flinty so 1. it can be a little harder on grinding equipment than, say a dent. and 2. It's meal is best used for those things for which a flinty meal is good, like polenta.

Incidentally. based on some ornamental corn (or in this case corn ornaments, as the ears are stuck on dowels for use in dried autumn flower arrangements) there appears to be some strain of corn available to the crafters of Canada that is basically a popcorn analog to Glass Gem. That is a popcorn posessing Glass Gem's wide and bright color palette. I'm a little low on it now, but assuming that more shows up come fall, I can probably share some seed around (Bear in mind that currently a bit of a big "if", the Grocery chain that I got it from closed and whether or not the supply stays depends on whether the one that took over their stores keeps the same suppliers for their fall decoration supplies. They had some on hand last year after the changeover, but that was probably leftover stock from the previos stores, and not definitive as proof of continuing supply. )

 

[baymule]

I have a Family Grain Mill and it says not to grind flint corn as it would damage the grinding burrs.

 

[897tgigvib]

Corn is a satisfying thing to grow, but you know how I am...

I'd love to grow a bunch of very different kinds of corns together and let them get all crossed up for a few years, and then begin resegregating them...

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a super early, short stalked, true dent corn, that was as colorful and beautiful as glass gem?

Or, how about a supersweet, true, all purpose corn, the beginning of an entire new class?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a super early, short stalked, true dent corn, that was as colorful and beautiful as glass gem?

Well, in terms of color, we sort of do, it's called Earth Tones. One really CAN'T get a dent to have the exact same colors as Glass Gem. The simple fact that dents are dents means that the tips, which are the part one would see on an intact ear, are ipso-facto going to be soft starch, and opaque. That's going to change the colors by defintion. You can get all the gem colors of glass gem in a dent but the won't be glassy. Same thing for a glass gem palette flour corn. or a "cap" or "shell" flint (my personal term for flints that have soft starch tips with a hard starch cover (basically dentless dents) or a whole soft starch interior with a hard starch cover (so a flour without the flour fragility drawbacks)

Or, how about a supersweet, true, all purpose corn, the beginning of an entire new class?

So, and improvement on the old roasting ear concept

You can throw in my idea to the mix, a sweet corn having the extra anthocyanin trait of a maiz morado, genes for early color expression, and the gene for purple endosperm (possibly upped a few times for super expression) for a purple to black all the way though super antioxidant corn on the cob (basically to corn what the Turkish Black salgam is to carrots.)

Update
Photo of some of that Glass Gem-Like popcorn I mentioned