Sveet Korn

Corn, one might think, would be an excellent crop to save seeds from. Each ear you save, the product of but one seed, spawning hundreds of other plants. Just dry, save, and plant. No fermenting, no refrigeration. Heck, the seeds are huge. Down right ergonomic compared to spec sized chamomile. The only one easier might be beans, but that's another story.

Corn would be a wonderful seed saving opportunity. If it wasn't all hybrid. If you even so much as plant two varieties, corn can go south. Planting saved seeds? Oh you better believe it'll be trouble! Every seed its very own plant, crazy varieties mostly unusable.

Normally I'd just find a good heirloom or open pollinated variety. With corn, however, its a little more complicated. Ignoring that hybrids produce more, they have other traits that keep me hooked.

For one, my family - and I must admit, myself - really enjoy the sugary super sweet hybrids. They're the kind you must isolate to avoid feed corn, even the first year. They're reamed by true corn aficionados for lacking distinct texture or true corn flavor. They're expensive seeds with low germination rates, but I love the sweetness. I'm trying "Maple Sugar" from Burpee's this year. You get the idea. I'm afraid real corn wont be eaten with such gusto and enjoyment, regardless of possible health issues.

With almost all vegetables, "the fresher the better," is the mantra. Picked this morning from the garden... thats how you want it. With heirloom corn it goes beyond a preference. With heirloom corn, its a race. From the moment you pick the ear of corn, its delicate sugars are turning to starches. Two hours they cede, is an acceptable grace period between picking and cooking, but in the same breath they demand 30 minutes or less for their own corn. Hybrids stablize this, giving you days to a week for your corn to stay sweet in its raw state. I dont know that we truely have the forthought to cook our corn as quickly as heirlooms wish, to retain their best flavor.

All this aside... I'm planting three types of corn this year, call me crazy. Sun and Stars, a super sweet from Burpee's, I've heard has excellent flavor as far as sh2 corn goes. Being a slave to some marketing schemes, I'm also trying a pack of Maple Sugar from them as well. I mean... think of grilled buttery maple sugar tasting corn on the cob, all smokey nutty and deep. And after all, you can plant sh2 corn together. I think. I've read it somewhere at least.

And to get into the spirit... I'm planting a third variety. Blue Jade Baby corn, from Seed Savers Exchange, caught my eye last year, with its steely blue ears, but by then it was sold out. This year I ordered early and already have my pack of seeds in my box. I hope to try this variety as a taste test, novelty, and, if it passes, a seed saving heirloom corn of my own. I seem to have the impression that it wont taste as good as some more standard heirlooms, so I may try others in the future, but I'm hopeful.

As for isolating it from my hybrids and my hybrids from it? I'll plant the blue corn 3 weeks or so earlier. Supersweets are notoriously bad at germinating in cool weather, so it will give the ground some time to warm up for them. Likewise, standard corns tend to do better in cool weather. They all have a range simmilar day till maturity. The sh2 types 78 and 80 respectively, and the heirloom a less pradictable 70-80 day range. Planting the blue jade 2-3 weeks earlier should take care of difference, especially if it tassles in the early range. I hope this way I wont have to bag the tassels and hand pollinate the blue corn, but one does what one must. And on the bright side, this town can be hot and dry. Bad news for traveling pollen.

People complain that corn is a space hog, and here I have three types picked out! Just do do my part, I'll be sure to post some creative commons pics of my blue corn on flikr, for anyone else who wants a picture for their blog. >.<