By Pat Hitchcock
Last summer the Napa County Master Gardeners field-testing group agreed to try growing corn. I think I must have missed the meeting when this was decided as I have avoided growing corn for many years.
In my view, corn takes too much space for a small garden. Because it is wind pollinated, it needs to be planted in blocks rather than in a single row or two. The stalks grow relatively tall and can shade nearby plants. They like more than the average amount of nitrogen-rich fertilizer, and they need plenty of water.
If you want to grow more than one variety, you need to make sure they don’t cross pollinate by staggering the planting dates so that their flowering periods don’t overlap. Add to this the fact that a block ripens pretty much all at once, resulting in too much corn ready to eat at the same time. To me, corn seemed like too much trouble.
Mindful of the growing and space requirements, our group decided that each tester should grow one variety rather all of us growing all three of the varieties we were comparing. The choices were Blue Jade Dwarf, an heirloom and open-pollinated type; Vision, a hybrid corn with supersweet (sh2) genes; and Temptress, a synergistic hybrid with genetics from sugar-enhanced and supersweet varieties.
Heirloom varieties taste best when cooked immediately after picking, as the sugars in the kernels convert rapidly to starch. The sugar-enhanced and supersweet varieties convert their sugar much more slowly. Most of the corn available in grocery stores today is some version of these modern hybrids.
I received seeds for Temptress and planted them last July, when I had space available in the garden. My vegetable beds are only three feet wide, so I planted three rows of seven seeds each. Only six of the seeds sprouted, possibly due to my not watering the seedbed enough. The plants were strong and healthy, so I decided to persist. In the empty, shaded spots where the seeds didn’t sprout, I tucked in some lettuce seedlings, figuring in midsummer at least the lettuce would grow.
Source : ucanr.edu