sjohnson9206
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Sweet Corn Planting Plan - Pollination Question

We're planning on putting in a rather large section for sweet corn. The area is 150' E-W and 75' N-S. In my plans, I figure I can fit in 6 plantings of 4 150' rows. So my thoughts are to plant like this (6/1 was an arbitrary start date), I've also included the projected harvest dates.

6/1 - Northern Xtra Sweet (SH2) - 67 days - 8/7
6/1 - Honey Select (SY) - 79 days - 8/19
6/5 - Illini Xtra Sweet (SH2) - 85 days - 8/29
6/15 - Northern Xtra Sweet (SH2) - 67 days - 8/21
6/15 - Silver Queen (SU) - 88 days - 9/11
6/22 - Trinity (SE) - 70 days - 8/31

I also have some Ruby Queen (SE 75 days) that I'll probably put in at the same time as the Illini Xtra Sweet. I don't have many of these seeds so it'll be a relatively small block.

My question is will I be OK with pollination dates? For the SH2 you're supposed to separate pollination dates by at least 10 days.. I'm concerned as they don't publish pollination dates that I'll overlap here.

I'd really appreciate some advice.

Edited to remove How Sweet It Is as I cannot get that until 2011.

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Gary350
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They will all cross pollinate each other if they are planted too close together.

One year I planted white Silver Queen corn at one end of the garden and a yellow corn at the opposite end of the garden about 30 ft away. Both corns came out speckled with both white and yellow Kernels on each cob.

The white corn was about 80% white and 20% yellow.
The yellow corn was about 80% yellow and 20% white.
If they had been planted side by side they would have probably been close to 50/50 white and yellow.

I am not familiar with the corn you are planting. If several yellows cross pollinate you won't be able to see it. The different flavors will probably all blend together.
Last edited by Gary350 on Tue May 18, 2010 7:54 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Alan in Vermont
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Location: Northwest Vermont, Champlain Valley

If it was me I'd plant the other way, 8 rows across instead of four the long way. The outside rows are the most likely to have unfilled ears from spotty pollination. Chances are good you will get some funky cross pollination which may well reduce the quality of your crop. I don't remember just what needs to be isolated off the top of my head, I always have to look it up before I start planting.

I'm only putting in three varieties this year, Early Sunglow, Seneca Arrowhead and Ambrosia. I want the ES for freezing and the others for market. I'm seeing a lot of customers who insist that bi-color is sweeter so I'm focusing on that for the market. Personally, I think there is so little difference between the yellow and bi-colors that I don't much care what I eat, as long as there is a lot of it. :)

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jal_ut
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If your soil is warm, I would plant both the SH2 varieties right now and wait 2 weeks before planting the others.

The SE varieties are OK, you don't need to worry about them crossing.

I think your present plan will put the SE varieties dropping pollen the same time as the SH2 corn. Ten days different on maturation is probably only 4-5 days diff in the pollen drop. They drop pollen for several days. Looks risky to me.

I avoid the problem by sticking to all SE varieties. They are sweet enough for me.

TZ -OH6
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I think that you will probably have some overlap when trying to separation by planting date, but I think that you would have better luck planting in square blocks rather than rows/strips. It will be easier for the plants to self saturate with their own pollen that way. You could also take advantage of prevailing winds by placing the later varieties upwind so that their pollen will be blowing onto plants that are already pollinated.

sjohnson9206
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Well, looking at the weather forecast and then the rental schedule for the 3-pt tiller, I think we'll only be planting short season varieties this year. The plan has been adjusted to 1 planting of the Trinity and then 2 weeks later a planting of the Nothern Xtra Sweet... may split the Northern into 2 plantings as well, but unfortunately that's what we'll have to stick with. That should space out the pollination enough and I'll have both the SE and SH2.

As soon as my main garden dries out a bit, I have some Ruby Queen that I'll plant in there.

garden5
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Wow, I never knew that cross-pollination will affect the first-year fruits with corn. I only know that it can cause hybridization when you try to carry over seed from the cross-pollinated fruit.

Just goes to show what you learn when you pull you nose out of the tomato patch :lol:.

sjohnson9206
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Location: Scipio, IN

garden5 wrote:Wow, I never knew that cross-pollination will affect the first-year fruits with corn. I only know that it can cause hybridization when you try to carry over seed from the cross-pollinated fruit.

Just goes to show what you learn when you pull you nose out of the tomato patch :lol:.
Just on the Super Sweet Hybrids. Most of the other varieties don't have a cross pollination issue for first-year fruit.

When the super sweet is pollinated by other varieties it looses the bulk of it's sweetness and becomes a "regular" variety (but can still be good sugar enhanced sweet corn)

DoubleDogFarm
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G5,

You are kidding,right. :idea: Corn is the seed, grain. :)

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jal_ut
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For most garden crops the pollen doesn't affect the fruit this year, but you will notice some hybridization next year. On corn however, since we eat the seed, the pollen can change the sweetness of the corn this year. You want to avoid getting SE or standard pollen on the SH2 (super sweet) varieties.



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