Thread: Growing corn
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Old 06-01-2006, 05:01 PM posted to rec.gardens
Thornhill
 
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Default Growing corn

I have a few questions about growing corn. Any help would be much
appreciated.

As I understand it, there are different hybrid types of corn, such as:
Sugar Enhancer (SE), Normal Sugary (SU), and Supersweet (Sh2). You can
grow SE's and SU's together, but Sh2 most be isolated from all other
hybrids to prevent cross-pollination, right? Here are my questions:

Let's say I only grow one type of a hybrid but different varieties of
it, like two different kinds of SE's; will there be cross-pollination
issues? And what about for Sh2 where there are isolation issues?
Ultimately, am I better off just growing a single kind of corn instead
of multiple varieties (but same hyrbid type) at once?

Next, you're supposed to plant a lot of corn at once in blocks (as
opposed to rows) to promote pollination. Since I have limited space and
only will be growing enough for three people, I plan on doing limited
rows, staggered by a week or two. Can I just pollinate by hand like is
done with vanilla? Or do I have to let nature to do this.

Finally, what exactly are the differences between SE, SU and Sh2,
besides how long they will remain fresh in the refrigerator (which
isn't an issue for me since since I would eat the corn less than 3
hours after it was picked). Is the difference in sugar content actually
enough that I would notice it in a blind taste test? And what are the
reasons for selecting a particular hybrid?

Any URL or book suggestions on corn would be much appreciated.

Anyone have any experience with Burpee's "Indian Summer" four color
corn? When my gardening friends and I have dinner together, we try to
impress each other with such 'exotic' varieties. It looks interesting,
but how does it taste?