Multi-coloured Corn Variety ID?

[Kelly]

A friend of mine saw this corn, and really wants to know the variety. Quite frankly, I'd love to know the variety too, it's absolutely stunning. The one in the foreground of the picture with the multi-coloured kernels.

Look familiar to anybody here?

www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2009/10/11/iridescent-corn/

[PatrickW]

You aren't clear in your post if it's sweet corn, but I assume that's what you're talking about here.

There are a few different kinds of multi-colored sweet corn. I grew one this year that I found a little disappointing taste-wise:

www.patnsteph.net/weblog/2009/08/painted-hills-sweet-corn/

Alan pointed out I had almost certainly eaten it too late, as it loses it's good sweet corn qualities by the time it turns colors.

There's another variety called Inca Rainbow I think, and probably others.

Alan is working on his own multi-colored sweet corn here, and a number of people on this forum are participaing in the breeding of this. Maybe one of them can report on how it came out this year. I've heard good things, but I don't think it's really ready for general use yet.

[Kelly]

Hey Patrick

Thanks so much!

I just spoke with my friend, she verified that this was NOT a sweet corn.

Thanks for the possible names, that's a huge help!

[PatrickW]

Hi Kelly,

Again, I can't know for sure which variety this one is, but a popular OP starch (non-sweet) corn is Painted Mountain. It's a mix of a number of different varieties.

Sand Hill Preservation Center ( www.sandhillpreservation.com/ ) sells a lot of old corn varieties, including some multi-colored ones.

[bunkie]

hey kelly and patrick, we have grown Rainbow Inca, which can be eaten as sweet or left to dry and make flour, but there have never been ears that were all red/burgundy like in your pics kelly.

we grew Painted Mountain this year for the first time and it also can be used as sweet corn early, or let go for flour and such. there were several ears that looked exactly like the top two ears in your pics, all burgundy with a white kernal here and there, and then a mix of the darker red with them. i remember ooing and ahhing over them because i had never seen such a contrast or anything like it, even in our Red Miracle F2s. there were several ears that looked very much like the last ear in your pics. they are drying now, so maybe i can take a pics later for you....in time...having lots of computer problems at the moment...

and patrick, i totally agree about the eating it as or just before it turns color!

[flowerpower]

The red one reminds me of Bloody Butcher. If the corn came from a farm, they may not know the variety. For ornamentals, some growers just buy mixed packs of seed.

[Penny]

I grew bloody butcher, and it does look like that.
Very pretty.

[spero]

There are a lot of multi colored corns out there. Most native corn was multi colored. In sweet corn, I offer Anasazi sweet, a corn that is said to be from seeds found in ancient Anasazi ruins, and Festivity, which is from a cross between Painted Hills (which is Painted Mountain crossed with Luther Hill by Al Kapuler) with How-Sweet-It-Is, an sh. It is more sweet than Painted Hills, due to the presence of shrunken kernels, but is not uniform as to the degree of added sweetness. I also have an f1 I call Sparkler, which is a cross between the Anasazi and a sugary enhanced variety. It is highly productive, and a little sweeter, but still more su than se. I am working on sugary enhanced multi colored varieties for the future. For samples, send $5 to cover postage and handling. Jonathan Spero P.O. Box 16 Williams OR 97544

[silverseeds]

oh wow spero, I will have to take you up on the anasazi corn..... I live in the area they used to live.

[blueadzuki]

I've actually seen this corn, or at least a corn that looks just like it fairly often at the farmers markets up here in NY. I agree the color miz is spectacular. as for its orgins I'm not sure but based on its color palette I've somtimes speculated that it might be the result of a cross between the Dent "Earth Tones" (which has a similar color pallette, with orange,turqoise and green added) and some flint, to yield a hypermulticolored flint, flints after all, being what most of the general buying pubic are used to in "indian corn" some of the kernels on the cob look very lightly dented or at least to have that "white cap" effect you sometimes see when a flint and a dent cross, which seems to bolster my assumption.

Similary the red one is the right color for Bloody butcher, at least Northern Bloody butcher but appears to be a flint not a dent; the kernel tops seem smooth. Maybe a cross?

[flowerpower]

What part of NY? I'm near Howe Caverns.

[blueadzuki]

Lower Hudson Valley, Westchester. I've seen corn like this at pretty much all of the FM's Ive been to recently at one time or another at Union Suare in NYC, in Hartsdale, in South Salem etc.

[blueadzuki]

Little update
while browsing around follwing another threa I found a pictre of the ornamental corn "Wilda's pride" it seem to match this corn in pallete rather closely