  |
|
|
|
There's truly nothing as delicious as your first taste of home-grown corn. This exquisite taste is what persuades home gardeners to plant sweet corn every year, no matter how troublesome or disappointing their corn crop was the year before.
Growing corn is easy. Getting a great crop of corn, a yield of that lip-smacking, sweet-tasting corn that makes you want to invite everyone you know over for a huge corn-fest is hard. You need to be knowledgeable, dedicated, and vigilant to grow corn well. For instance, the first year I grew corn, I planted it in two lovely long rows. As you can guess, that wasn't exactly a stellar crop! Eventually I found out that corn should always be planted in blocks rather than rows, for pollination purposes, and my yield improved dramatically. Pick Your Type Choosing the right corn for your garden and your taste is the first step in producing a crop you'll want to brag about. If you've looked through a vegetable catalog lately, you know that the number of corn hybrids is ever-expanding. But basically, as Ron Wolford and Drusilla Banks (University of Illinois Extension) explain, there are three types of sweet corn, classified according to their genetic background. Normal sugary (abbreviated SU) or standard sweet corn, is the sweet corn home gardeners have been growing for years. It has a "sugary (SU) gene" that makes its kernels sweet and creamy, but unfortunately, the sugars convert to starches after harvest quite quickly. This is the type of corn that you want to put the water on to boil before you go out into the garden to pick it, as it's best picked, husked, and eaten within a very short time. Fortunately, sugary enhancer hybrids have been developed (abbreviated SE), which combine the best qualities of the sweet and supersweet types of corn. They're tender, creamy-textured, and superb for eating. Supersweet hybrids (abbreviated Sh2) contain the shrunken -2 gene and have a higher sugar content than standard SU varieties. Their kernels have a tough-skinned rather than a creamy texture. While not particularly noticeable with fresh corn on the cob, this means that SU or SE types will be better choices for growing if you're planning to freeze or can any of your harvest. If you're growing only a small patch of corn, pick the type you like best and grow only the one type. Corn is a wind-pollinated crop and cross-pollinates amazingly well. It's recommended that you keep each type of corn (normal sweet corn, sugar-enhanced, super-sweet, popping, ornamental, or field corn) well isolated from each other, planting them at least 30.5 m (100 feet) apart. Some sources recommend 350 feet! Cross-pollination will affect the corn's sugar levels, colour, and taste.
The copyright of the article It's Corn Fest Time! in Gardening in B.C. is owned by Susan Ward. Permission to republish It's Corn Fest Time! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
