I went out to the corn patch today to see what recovered from the wind storm yesterday. I found this (picture below) where a corn cob, without any husk, is literally growing on the corn tassel.
I don't grow commercially, but I been growing corn these last few years and in my youth. This is the first time I've seen this.
I don't use pesticides nor fertilizers. The variety grown is some sort of bantum sweet corn I first purchased 2.5 years ago (yes the 50 cent packs at wallyworld), and I saved the seeds during that harvest. I chose that variety because of the varieties at wallyworld, it had the shortest time to harvest which is ideal for our limited growing season.
Apparently this mutation is called "tassel ear", and you can read more about it here:
https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/TasselEars.html
How many seeds did you plant before seeing this mutation?
Actually now that you remind me. I also planted some other variety of packaged sweet corn I was given, and some packaged ornamental popcorn (I don't think any grew). So every few weeks where it didn't grow I put in more [Bantum] seeds-especially in the middle rows where that one was.
I probably have 9 rows of corn [that did something], probably 13-16 stalks per row. Then a great big catnip plant in the center-it was just a tiny little thing until this year.
I think the weeds won this last month.
I was just curious if how many seeds were planted before you saw a mutation. Im assuming thousands but you got other variables in play now😋
Nice title lol. I tried growing sweet corn a few years back. I didn't know what I was doing so I planted about 20 seeds in one long row. Most of them germinated, things were looking pretty good. Bit later in the season, the cobs start developing but the kernels were really sparse. Turns out you have to 'block plant' corn in fairly dense patches to get enough pollination for the cobs to fill out completely
Guess that's why farmers grow it in huge fields 😄
Live and learn
Is there anything you can do for your plants or is it a lost cause, try again next year kind of thing?
Some plants can be transplanted, but not all can. I doubt very much that [tall] corn can be readily transplanted due to the roots. Seedlings can be transplanted; I used the plastic bag/wet paper towel trick this year to get them started. if you try the paper towel method, make sure it is single ply, or separate any double ply paper towels.
Corn can be tempermental. My neighbor did fine last year [absent pests] growing a row of [mixed] corn all crowded together that shot up to 14ft tall all fertilized with chicken poo, but probably the wind was favorable to her. She got her corn in before the late frost last year and it survived both the frost and a drought-she waters her garden. Mine wouldn't even sprout last year due to the drought.
2 years ago my corn was maybe 6-7 feet tall, much of it didn't produce anything. This year much of my [Bantum] corn is between 7-10 ft tall in the same location. I weeded [garden hoe scraping the surface, but not too close to the plants] the garden better this year (Really, I did), but I think the main difference is we had a lot of rain this summer.
A block of corn doesn't have to take up a lot of space, especially with just 20 stalks. instead of say a 20 foot row, you could have say 4 rows (3 feet between each row) of 5 corn (1 foot apart)...anywhere from 36-90 sq feet depending on the garden exterior. if you have something that grows fast (raddishes) you probably can put them between the corn rows to save space.