Several years ago a co-worker brought in a huge Rubbermaid tub of Indian corn he had grown on his farm. It was beautiful! As the former florist, I was called upon by the ladies of the office to tie bows and bunches of corn together for beautiful fall decorations. Every lady flipped over the bunches and took one home.
As I perused my seed catalog – my husband says I now have a seed addiction – I came across Indian corn seed. Oh, how fun I thought! I can grow Indian corn and we can use it for decorations for fall plus sell it at market. Oh and look here – we can grow popcorn too! So, of course I ordered it all!
My dear husband, once again, climbed on his tractor and laid off rows next to his sweet corn for his nutty wife to plant her specialty corn crop. We planted our Indian and popcorn and got a wonderful stand. Simply beautiful! Very few skips, tall straight stalks. We couldn’t have asked for better results. And then Troy went to the feed store. Standing around talking to all the other farmers comparing this crop and that. Of course he bragged on how good the corn looked, especially the Indian corn and Strawberry popcorn his wife had wanted to plant. The old timers were quick to inform him he shouldn’t have planted those odd varieties next to his sweet corn. When the corn tasseled, the different varieties would cross pollinate, ruining the sweet corn crop. Troy shared this information as soon as he arrived home and I again cranked up the computer and began my research. Sure enough, my research showed high probability of cross pollination and contamination of the sweet corn. Once again, my sweet husband climbed on his tractor and tilled under all our specialty corn. It hurt my heart to see all those pretty, healthy stalks turned under.
When the sweet corn began to tassel, we replanted the Indian and Strawberry popcorn. It was later, and hotter, and drier. Needless to say, the results this time were not as good as the first round. We had a relatively decent stand, but with skips and breaks. The stalks were weathered and brown on the edges. They tasseled early so the stalks weren’t very tall. Still, they were producing silks and we were excited to pick our first Indian corn. By this time, all the sweet corn was finished producing. We had a good crop of bi-color sweet corn and put several hundred ears up for winter. We had a moderate number of corn worms but they don’t usually harm much. You just cut off that portion off the cob and go on to the next ear. Unfortunately, the few corn worms in the sweet corn became many corn worms in the specialty corn. By the time we harvested the Indian corn several weeks later, most of the ears were destroyed by worms. I have never seen corn worms do so much damage with multiple worms in each ear. Another lesson learned. We managed to salvage a dozen or so ears of Indian corn. Not the prettiest in the world but adequate for my personal use. My husband found two pitiful ears of popcorn. They were only a couple of inches long and had tiny kernels. I’m pretty sure our corn’s not popping……. this year!