Zea Mays

Zea Mays is the scientific name for corn.  It is also known as maize, a grain crop from a plant that was domesticated by people in the Americas and it was spread to Europe by explorers.  Corn is the most widely grown crop in America with 40% being used for ethanol.  85% of all corn grown in America is from genetically modified seed.  Sweet corn is grown for human consumption, while 'field corn' is grown for livestock feed.  (Source: Wikipedia)

We try to stay away from GMO foods, so we're growing an heirloom variety that we really like - Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn.  It is one of the oldest varieties of sweet corn still in production.  It produces well and we normally eat a bunch fresh and then blanch and freeze the whole corn on the cob.  We find that in making soups or chowders, cooking the whole cob adds wonderful flavor to the dish.  We have cut some corn off the cob and canned fresh cut corn as well.

Below you can see that we have the ground worked up into rows and I've opened the seed package and have the seed corn soaking in order to swell the seeds to speed germination.


Soaking seed corn prior to planting

I worked up several rows, 6 to be exact, to plant our 2013 corn crop.  I have another heirloom corn variety I'd like to plant as well, if space allows.  The name of the other variety is Country Gentleman.  It is an odd type in that the corn kernels aren't in symmetrical rows like other corn, but is 'scattered' in no particular order or pattern on the cob.  It is also a white corn.  Hopefully once I transplant all the tomatoes, I'll have room for a couple of rows of this corn variety. 

Rows prepared and ready for planting

In planting corn I always dig a small hole and plant it 1 1/2 inches deep and 8 - 10 inches apart.  Then cover it up and depending on the weather, you'll see corn sprouting in 4 -10 days.


Dropping seed corn in the hole

One thing I've learned about the heirloom varieties is that they grow taller than some of the corn you see.  Stowell's Evergreen and Country Gentleman Sweet Corn have cornstalks that reach 8 feet tall.  This is not a problem until you have a thunderstorm roll through with high winds and heavy rain.  You'll walk out and your entire crop will be lying flat on the ground.  I've tried, without much success, to pick the corn up.  You usually suffer substantial crop loss.  So, this year, once my corn gets pretty tall, I'm going to experiment by putting a fence up encircling the corn to attempt to hold it up.  We'll see how that works.


The sower went out to sow

I checked the other day and observed an event like Tim McGraw sings about:

"I'm gonna live where the green grass grows,
Watch my corn pop up in rows..."


Corn popping up in rows

Planting corn or any other crop is fun.  It is for me a gratifying thing to work hard preparing the land, planning the crop, and then actually planting the crop and watching the seed turn into a plant that will eventually yield a nice harvest.  The best part is actually eating it!  There's just nothing like eating an ear of hot, buttered corn on the cob.


Corn sprouting

This is an exercise in patience, though.  This variety matures in about 100 days - too bad we've run out of sweet corn in the freezer!  I'll just have to wait.