i have a question concerning corn.

[urbanfarmboi]

is it okay to mix two varieties of young corn? one being an early season yielder and the other a late.

last growing season we planted rows of corn where our tomatoes are this year, nature finding it's own way i guess had reseeded and new corn sprouted there this year when we started tilling and watering again, this corn being the late varietal.

so my question, i want to move the corn sprouts from my tomatoes for obvious reasons, but i don't want to just have to compost all of the good corn from last year that i expect to produce really well. so can i fill in holes in the early variety patch with the late giving corn and have them pollinate and still give corn when they're suppose to?

:/

 

[Rosalind]

Uh, can you explain a bit more?

You're saying you have volunteers from last year's corn, you have rotated the beds and now the volunteers from last year are coming up in their old bed, correct? The thing is, most corn is a hybrid. If you let those volunteers from last year's corn grow, they won't produce much (if any) ears, no matter how good they were last year. Corn seeds that are saved year-to-year by, say, indigenous Americans, tend to be a real mix of mutts for this reason, not the sort of specific breeds that we currently plant. So that corn from last year, re-planted, isn't going to be true to breed.

Also, corn really does not like being transplanted for any reason. So I think you are probably going to be stuck composting the volunteers, sorry.

 

[ams3651]

i agree corn does not like to be transplanted but my dad has saved corn from one year to plant the next and had no problems, and he plants at least 2 acres of corn. I would try it, you dont have anything to loose but I would separate them. Not knowing what varieties your planting, some need to be isolated.