more corn questions

[applestar]

@Taiji -- FYI

Subject: Why isn't my corn sweet

Yeah, I gotta say our sweet corn is wonderful. We grow silver queen and it got 12'tall last year. We're still eating it out of the freezer. Only thing better is our fresh fried okra.

[joed2323]

That is actually a really good question.

Normally the lower ears, let' say you do have 3 ears, the bottom one never amounts to much, it would then send the rest of the energy into the 1-2 main ears.

I should have thought of that sooner. I'm going to definitely pull the lower ones on my corn plants.

[Taiji]

No, I haven't hand pollinated anything ever. I've always had great success with corn just in a 6x8 area, 24 plants. 2 ears per plant always filled out to the end. That was with Bodacious and Ambrosia. This Silver Queen planting is very similar. I guess I'll just see what happens. Thanks for the link. Looks like my 9 foot Silver Queen are shorties compared to the 12 footers! I must be doing something wrong!

I might do an experiment and break off the lower of the 3 ears then on some plants and see if it makes a difference. I think maybe I'll carefully cut them tho and try not to just wrench them off!

Is Silver Queen an older su variety?

[imafan26]

The white corn is usually sweeter than the yellow. Silver Queen was one of the first white corn developed and remains the standard from which all other white corn is measured. It is a SU type. Silver King is supposed to be bigger and some say a little bit sweeter since it is an SE type. Most people still ask for Silver Queen but apparently very little Silver Queen is grown commercially anymore. They are growing the newer white corn, but often calling it Silver Queen at the market because that is the name that people associate with white corn. I still plant Silver Queen and I like it better than most yellow corn. One of these days I might actually try Silver King or How Sweet It Is. The white corn does grow tall about 7-8 ft tall. Silver Queen can have long ears up to 10 inches long but most are around 8.5 inches and around 60 rows. White corn does take a little longer to mature than other varieties, but it is not a problem for me since I have a long growing season. I cannot grow temperate varieties as well since most are not resistant to maize mosaic virus and tropical corn can be grown even when with our short days in the winter months.

In fact the corn seed companies here grow their seed corn in winter here.

[Taiji]

I'm bringing back this thread as an update on how my Silver Queen did. I'm very happy with it. Most plants gave 2 ears per stalk. All were filled out to the end. A few plants have given only one ear, but I would say more gave 2 than one. A couple of stalks have 3 ears. I'm waiting to pick the 3rd one to see if it has any kernels! I didn't do any hand pollinating. I think since it's an SU variety, I found that it doesn't have that melt in your mouth texture of the Ambrosia or Bodacious which I have grown previously. I think maybe adding a couple of minutes of cooking time might help. Still, excellent.

Kinda hard to see, but 2 ears per stalk.

[jal_ut]

Nice looking corn.

[Taiji]

Thx! At first I thought I might not do Silver Queen again, but the reviews from people I've given ears to were really favorable, so I probably will. The seeds are readily available at the big box stores and cheap.

[applestar]

Yeah looks great!

I was wondering if humidity might influence how well corn is pollinated. I've been told tomatoes and peppers have pollination problems in humid weather due to clumping. Jal_ut and Taiji in Utah and Arizona have low humidity, right?

[Taiji]

That's generally true for Arizona. We do have our monsoon season which traditionally lasts from around July 4th to first or second week in September. (when I was a kid here, they just called it the summer rains) It is more humid then and the tasseling/pollination of the corn occurs right in the middle of that time. ( I think Gary explained our monsoon season very well once )

But, I think on our worst humid day, it doesn't approximate that drippy, steamy, mildewy humidity of the east. (sorry, don't mean to offend!) I'm originally from West Virginia, and whenever I go back to visit, that's the first thing I notice.