How is Corn Formed?

Fresh sweet corn is a treat indeed.  I am not kidding when I say you can peel back the husk, remove the silk (and any worms) and eat the sweet corn raw - right off the cob - in the garden and throw the cob in the compost pile when you're done.  I've done it and it is delicious! 

We grow a couple different varieties of heirloom sweet corn - Stowell's Evergreen and Country Gentleman.  So, how is corn formed?  Well, corn is a very interesting plant.  It is the only grain crop to have separate male and female flowering mechanisms.  Mechanism is probably a poor choice of word, but I think you know what I mean. 

The tassel, shown below, is the male part of the corn plant. 


The male part of the corn flower, the tassel, with pollen hanging off of it

The female part of the corn plant is the ear shoot.  You can see it below:

The female part of the corn flower - the ear shoot.

Here's how it happens.  The flowering stage of corn is when the tassels shed pollen and the ear shoots show silk.  The tassel will begin to shed pollen after the dew dries off, which is between 9 and 11 in the morning, during a process that lasts about a week. 

The grains of pollen are housed in antlers.  You can see them in my first picture above.  Each antler has numerous pollen grains.  The antlers open and the pollen grains will drift out and be carried by the wind for a distance of up to 50 feet.

The silks of the ear shoot (the female part) have a sticky substance on them that catch pollen released by the male tassel.  The pollen will then go down the pollen tube and come into contact with the ovule.  Do you remember this now from high school biology or the song "Reproduction" in the movie Grease 2?

Since the tassel is on the top of the corn plant and the ear shoot/silks are beneath it, fertilization takes place easily.  The neat thing to think about as you look at the silks in the photo below, is that each silk strand is connected to a kernel of corn on the cob!  Wow!



Future corn on the cob

When the silk begins to turn brown, it is harvest time.  We're all looking forward to that!


Country Gentleman corn

We've already discussed some problems that can occur growing corn and I've shown you the damage caused by Nellie, our Nubian Dairy Goat.  Tomorrow I'll show you another problem that you can experience when growing corn.