We, like industrial America, value corn highly. The difference is that we are not going to make high-fructose syrup, ethanol, or plastic out of it. We are going to eat it! And, of course, feed the stalks to our compost.We grow three categories of corn here, for three different purposes: flour corn, sweet corn, and popcorn.
The flour corn doubles as a high-calorie multi-purpose food and high-biomass compost crop. According to How to Grow More Vegetables an intermediate yield for flour corn is 17 lb/100 sq ft for seed and 50 lb/100 sq ft for air-dry biomass. Which is a whole lot of seed and stalk. Last year we came close to the intermediate seed yield and exceeded the biomass yield in two beds.
And different varieties will perform at different levels.
But high yield isn't everything - we aim for aesthetics, too. The photo above shows, in order, Bloody Butcher, Hickory King, Seneca Red Stalker, and Hopi Blue. Talk about fun colors of cornbread! On the right is some Oaxaca Green from the Ecology Action site.
At the Golden Rule Garden, since we are producing food for a community (as well as learning, teaching, and researching) sweet corn also plays an important role. Who doesn't like sweet corn? This year we are growing two open-pollinated varieties! Those of you familiar with sweet corn or seed catalogs know the prevalence of hybridized sweet corn varieties, so I might as well take a moment to talk about them.
Many plants (corn, for instance) spread and accept pollen freely. This is a wonderful way for them to find new genes and increase their diversity, because the pollen doesn't always land on the same variety from which it originated. If this foreign variety accepts the pollen, then it is cross-pollinated. The seed resulting from this cross-pollination, a hybrid, will grow a very nice plant, mixing characteristics of the two parents. And, most often, this new hybrid plant will produce either sterile seed or seed that grows into plants with unpredictable characteristics. Not so helpful if you want to save seed from year to year.
Seed companies began selling hybrid corn in the first half of the 20th century, and it has sold well to this day for two reasons: first, because of a condition called "hybrid vigor" that predictably occurs when two inbred varieties cross. The first generation of this hybridization is taller, bigger, and higher-yielding than either of the parents. Following generations of this hybrid plant will be much smaller and, as mentioned above, have unpredictable characteristics. The second reason it sells well is that it is almost the only thing sold. Go ahead and search your seed catalogs for non-hybrid sweet corn. Burpee's website offers 34 varieties, 2 of them open-pollinated, the rest hybrid. Because corn crosses so easily, there are few farmers or gardeners who go to the trouble to save their own seed. So if they are going to buy seed anyway, why not buy seed for vigorous, high-yielding plants? An added bonus for seed companies is that the details of what varieties they are crossing are proprietary information, so even if you wanted to go to the trouble to hybridize plants you would have to do your own years of research.
Ok, so that's the deal on hybrids. Look forward in the next month to a post about hand-pollination of corn, which is the best way for a small garden in the midst of corn country to save their own pure seed.
Finally, we are growing one variety of popcorn: Vermont Red Kernel. Margo and I are regular popcorn eaters, so we want to invest in that knowledge now. The downside of both popcorn and sweet corn, in Grow Biointensive terms, is that they create much less biomass. Flour corn might produce 48 pounds of air-dry stalks per 100 sq. ft. for compost material, while a good sturdy sweet corn may only yield 24. Probably less. And popcorn will probably be less yet. I'll let you know when we get the yields this year.
On the right is Jerry, a past intern, with his [open-pollinated] flour corn, 14 feet tall.
Many plants (corn, for instance) spread and accept pollen freely. This is a wonderful way for them to find new genes and increase their diversity, because the pollen doesn't always land on the same variety from which it originated. If this foreign variety accepts the pollen, then it is cross-pollinated. The seed resulting from this cross-pollination, a hybrid, will grow a very nice plant, mixing characteristics of the two parents. And, most often, this new hybrid plant will produce either sterile seed or seed that grows into plants with unpredictable characteristics. Not so helpful if you want to save seed from year to year.
Seed companies began selling hybrid corn in the first half of the 20th century, and it has sold well to this day for two reasons: first, because of a condition called "hybrid vigor" that predictably occurs when two inbred varieties cross. The first generation of this hybridization is taller, bigger, and higher-yielding than either of the parents. Following generations of this hybrid plant will be much smaller and, as mentioned above, have unpredictable characteristics. The second reason it sells well is that it is almost the only thing sold. Go ahead and search your seed catalogs for non-hybrid sweet corn. Burpee's website offers 34 varieties, 2 of them open-pollinated, the rest hybrid. Because corn crosses so easily, there are few farmers or gardeners who go to the trouble to save their own seed. So if they are going to buy seed anyway, why not buy seed for vigorous, high-yielding plants? An added bonus for seed companies is that the details of what varieties they are crossing are proprietary information, so even if you wanted to go to the trouble to hybridize plants you would have to do your own years of research.
Ok, so that's the deal on hybrids. Look forward in the next month to a post about hand-pollination of corn, which is the best way for a small garden in the midst of corn country to save their own pure seed.
Finally, we are growing one variety of popcorn: Vermont Red Kernel. Margo and I are regular popcorn eaters, so we want to invest in that knowledge now. The downside of both popcorn and sweet corn, in Grow Biointensive terms, is that they create much less biomass. Flour corn might produce 48 pounds of air-dry stalks per 100 sq. ft. for compost material, while a good sturdy sweet corn may only yield 24. Probably less. And popcorn will probably be less yet. I'll let you know when we get the yields this year.
On the right is Jerry, a past intern, with his [open-pollinated] flour corn, 14 feet tall.
14 feet, would that be as high as an elephant's eye?
ReplyDeleteGreat post, but a little corny.
Got any ideas as to what one can do with Okra without making it slimy?
are there any complete diet gardens ?
ReplyDeleteHey Anonymous! The forty beds we are growing right now are based on Margo's complete diet design, and are growing all the calories the two of us would need for a year, with the exceptions of two perennials: Filbert trees (for nuts) and grapes (for raisins). So yes, there are.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, though, we are not eating just what we get out of the garden. We are in transition between eating what we grew up eating and eating what can actually be sustainably grown in one area.
Margo has a great post planned on that subject, so I will [try to] hold off commenting further til she does.