Sweet Corn is About to Come in

A short while back I explained how some recent rain and winds had knocked down some sweet corn.  That's not a good thing when the corn is about to tassel.  If the pollen doesn't fall on the silk, you'll have "blank heads."  I made a redneck sweet corn propper-upper with t-posts and baling twine and the effort was met with success.  The corn is standing tall once again in our two-row corn plot.

Let's look at a couple of zoomed in photos of the sweet corn tassel.  Although you'd never know it, the tassel is the male reproductive organ.  It produces pollen.

If I had zoomed in on the following two photos, you'd be able to see the yellow pollen.

As the wind blows, the pollen drifts in the air, falling (hopefully) on the silk sticking out of the ears.  Each one of those silk threads shown below, goes into the corn cob and where it's attached to the cob, a kernel of corn will come to be.  Pollination done by the wind uses gravity too, and that's why it was critical that I stood the corn upright before corn tasseled.  If you ever shucked an ear of corn and the ear had a bunch of gaps in it, you didn't get good pollination.  It's another reason it is a good idea to plant your corn in blocks and planted close together.  We're not going to count our chickens before they hatch, but it looks pretty good so far.

A pretty redhead

I will be watching the silk.  Once it turns brown, the sweet corn is ready to harvest.  In a few days we'll be able to see if the sweet corn is healthy.  Fresh sweet corn lives up to its name.  So sweet.  So delicious!

About Time for Corn!

I have a row of corn that's planted densely.  I planted them twice as close as recommended.  The reason I did that was an experiment of sorts.  In some past years, when I would harvest the corn, there would be "blanks" in the kernels.  The somewhat empty heads were caused by poor pollination.  To try to mitigate that, I planted them very close, hoping that with more pollen in a smaller area, there would be a better likelihood of fertilization.  We'll see.  

There are two varieties of sweet corn planted on the 15 foot row.  One is Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn and the other, I think (I neglected to write it down), was Country Gentleman Corn.  As you can see, the corn is tasseling.

The corn tassel is the male reproductive organ of the corn.  You might remember this lesson from the movie, "Grease."  The pollen dangles from the tassel and the pollen falls down onto the silk of the ear.

Here is the silk.  When the pollen falls on the silk, the ear is fertilized.  Each strand of silk will produce a kernel of corn, if fertilized.  What you have to worry about is sometimes the corn will tassel before the silk is present.  Sometimes wind or weather affects pollination.  Some people, in order to ensure pollination, will cut the tassel off with scissors and will manually pollinate the ear, by rubbing the two together.   My garden is small enough to do that, but I figure the corn can do that on its own without me intervening.

Here are the tassels of another variety:

The silk on this variety is RED!

I wanted to show you something a little strange I saw in the corn patch.  Can you see the kernels of corn growing on the tassel itself?:

The phenomenon where the tassel and ear is on the same structure is called "tassel ear corn".  There are several reasons this happens: it can happen on the suckers when the growing point is damaged, or where there is low plant density (we know it's not this), or where the soil is compacted or too wet.

We will be watching for the tassels to turn brown.  At that point we will harvest and do our normal celebratory tradition of shucking and eating the first corn raw, standing in the corn row.

From Red Corn Silk to Cold Raw Milk

Just the other day the sweet corn in our corn patch had beautiful candy apple red silk billowing out of the ears.  It made for a stark contrast against the green stalks and leaves.  The red of the silk let me know that they aren't quite ready yet.

Female (ear shoot)

The tassel at the top of the corn stalk is the male structure, while the ear is the female structure.  The tassel will shed pollen.  Conditions have to be just right for this to take place - it can't be too wet or too dry and it generally occurs in the morning hours.  The anthers on the tassel open and drops pollen and the silk catches it with sticky hairs on the silk.  Pollen is very light and can travel up to 50 feet, pollinating other cornstalks as it drifts by.  When each strand of silk is pollinated, it will form a kernel of corn within the ear.

Male (tassel)

You know that the sweet corn is ready for picking when the silk has turned a dark brown color.  It sort of dries up and the beautiful red color fades into a dull dark brown shade.  

Ready to pick.  Go grab a bucket

You could start picking them all at this point or you could check one just to be sure. I have a little tradition that I started doing a couple of years ago that I really enjoy. Standing out in the corn patch, I pick the first ear of the season, pull the husk back to shuck the corn, and then I pull all the silk out of the way.  Then, while I'm standing there, I'll devour the sweet corn raw, fresh as you can get. It is sweet and delicious and I think about how quickly time passes since we planted it.  In early April THIS was how it looked, and now...

A bucket full of ears of sweet corn

Sweet corn doesn't have the adjective 'sweet' attached to it for no reason.  I've found that ants are attracted to it and not only do they bite you while you are picking the corn, but they cause damage to the ears, eating the kernels and leaving a sticky brownish substance behind.  In researching this, there seems to be disagreement regarding whether or not ants will eat corn.  Some say that the ants are "farming" aphids and that aphids are the real problem, but I don't have aphids.  I do, however, have fire ants and those boogers like sweet corn almost as much as I do.

Children of the Corn

So we picked a few ears, brought them inside and shucked them, feeding the stalks to the cows who devoured them in short order.  We cut off pieces of the corn that had damage from insects.  Believe it or not there was not a single worm on the corn. We had a couple dozen ears done in no time flat. This particular heirloom variety is called Golden Bantaam Sweet Corn.

Prepping the corn

And now it is time to eat.  There's nothing like eating local - especially when local is right outside the back door.  Our meal consisted of a Louisiana staple - Rice and Gravy.  My wife always teases me about how we highlight the rice & gravy, leaving the meat out of the description.  In this case the meat was from shoulder steak from our grass-fed steer.  Moving counterclockwise up the plate from the rice & gravy, we have a fresh picked picked ear of sweet corn, fermented ginger carrots, new potatoes and green beans, and a big, thick slice of Heirloom Black Krim tomato.  I don't want to leave out the glass of Daisy's milk at the 11 o'clock position in the photo below.  It is almost as sweet as the corn. 

A satisfying home-cooked meal

I've said it a hundred times.  It is a great feeling to consume good food that you produce right there on your land - Makes me and my taste buds very happy.  Once we thank God for providing our food for us, the feast commences.  And soon... 

Scraping the Plate

There's nothing left.  It's all gone.  From the seed to the silk to the raw cow's milk, country living is the good life!

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.