favorite corn varieties of 2010?

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

So... what were the varieties that were your favourites this year? Any that did badly?

I like Joseph's Land-race idea.

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My breeding patch had mixed results. On one half i planted a bunch of seed i saved from last season. I didn't think there would be any inbred depression or bad genetic traits, but most i had to throw away actually. I really only got three full sized cobbs that i was happy with, and a few other short fat ones (7?) that i was also content with. Hopefully next season i will have eliminated those bad traits. I will be adding a lot of white kernels of various varieties to add to the gene pool.

The other half consisted of new seed types. These included "old gold", Japonica Striped, "Chica Peru" (black corn seeds), hopi blue, mojave white, and one called N102A.

The earliest producer was the Mojave White. I planted this one as an after thought, and it only reached knee high. But, it produced early, and moderate cobbs considering they seemed to lack water or nutrients.

The most ornamental was the Old Gold. It was really neat to look at.

N102A had large yellow kernels with pink/purple sides. These plants had the darkest purple leaves of even my strain. Slow. Very late producer. Tasselled long after every other variety had dying tops. Cobbs were one of the last to be harvested.

Hopi blue didn't seem to produce, but that i think was because i didn't plant enough seeds. There were two that had a strange wrinkling in the leaves, and one i de-tasslled because i did not like that trait. I think these may have been hopi blue. Not sure. In the row i assumed was hopi blue, but turned out not to be.... produced one hopi-pink/blue cobb. And one unknown dark colored with red-stripes underneath. This row grew HUGE!! 12ft corn. Lots of roots above ground.

Japonica Striped grew well, but not as ornamental as i had hoped. Old Gold was much more fun to look at.

Chica Peru. Only one that had hard black seeds. I actually gave up on this one. I thought none had germinated. However, near the end i harvested a few incomplete cobbs, and sure enough they were the black chica peru. Very late producer, but very nice looking seeds

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Oh, i did find out which variety was one of the original parents from my "variety". Flor del Rio is one of the original parent lines. Not sure what the others were.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Astronomy Domini is the only corn that produced a really good market-harvest for me.

Astronomy Domine


All my early se+ corn failed to germinate for the first planting.

Precocious se+ sweet corn produced very tiny ears and the main crop got frosted so never really matured.

Later planted Bodacious se+ sweet corn got frosted (all 1500 row feet).

Incredible se+ sweet corn was as distasteful to me this year as last.

I got some nice Bodacious ears that I plucked out of the corn breeding patch, but only a few dozen at a time. That wasn't enough for me.

My daddy a couple blocks away grew Ambrosia. It was a very nice corn for him. It was the best corn at our farmer's market and is the most popular at my local seed store.

From my corn breeding project I was very pleased with: Spero's Sparkler. I also grew 51A and Red & Gold from Spero. They grew and produced nice, but didn't capture my attention like Sparkler to which I awarded the best taste award.

Spero's Red and Gold


Spero's 51A


I really enjoyed Painted Mountain because it came up early, produced pretty cobs, and dried down quickly... The other Indian corns I planted are still thinking about maybe starting to dry down. I intend to stop growing my other decorative corns, and grow Painted Mountain from now on.

Painted Mountain X se+


Land-race of flint and flour corns.


I just harvested Painted Hills X se+ seed today. There was one stalk that produced something like 6 ears. I was very impressed with that. One cob from that stalk got saved for planting in it's own special row for next year.

Long Island Seed Project's Fiesta was pleasant and produced a nice early multi-colored crop.

I was displeased with Rainbow Inca which claimed to be a sweet corn, but there wasn't nothing sweet about it. I even wonder if I was sold the wrong seed. What I planted looked more like a dent than a sweet corn.

Pink Hopi, Blue Hopi, Anasazi, and Taos Blue were all long season corns that barely had time to mature for me. The Hopi corns were the most productive in my garden on a pound of seed per square foot basis, and very productive bio-mass makers.

Two strains of Black Aztec didn't grow very well and are late maturing, but I'll get a few se+ F1 seeds from them.

Black Aztec Sweet Corn


Hooker's Triple Play made a nice early crop.

Hooker's Triple Play


LISP's Ashworth was very early, but I planted it too close to a tree so it didn't have a fair chance to show what it can do.

I grew some nice deep purple corns for my breeding project. They are a bit long season for my liking, but they were crossed with 65, 75, and 85 day sugary enhanced corn so perhaps some of the offspring will fit into my growing season.

I grew a Black very soft flour corn from Oaxacan. I guess it had day-length problems. About 1/3 of the plants produced cobs in my garden that matured due to being in a frost protected micro-environment.

Earthtones dent looks good in the package photo, but the se+ F1 cross I made was quite boring. Earthtones gray would have been a better name.

Ruby Queen was a nice corn that produced early and well. The coloring wasn't consistent from cob to cob.

White Midget from Canada Mike produced some seeds in the dry corner where I planted it, but I don't know if I'd want to plant it again other than as part of a breeding project. It was very tiny....

I grew a sweet corn and an Indian corn that I got from a farmer in Missouri. They are both too long season for my liking, though they will produce some seed for the breeding project.

My land-race popcorn is really too long season for my garden, but I keep growing it.

Joseph's Land-race Popcorn


Two varieties of waxy corn did not tassel for me before frost.

I'll be glad when I get all my breeding stock picked and dried down. I sure could use the space in my garage, and it would be nice to have the use of the baskets again.


Regards,
Joseph

[atash]

Thanks for the long list of notes, Joseph. I'm still waiting for late-planted corns but they're doing OK so far.

Ruby Queen was our earliest--might have been planted a little ahead of Painted Mountain though. I'll try Painted Mountain as flour corn and see if it's any good to eat. My idea is to separate the kernels enough so as not to get muddy-colored corn-meal.

I've grown Hooker's Sweet before; not sure if it is distinct or the same thing as Hookers triple play. It was bred nearby and is fairly dependable. A bit starchy like old-fashioned corn but not necessarily a bad thing as I have gotten tired of watery sweet corn anymore. Like the other one it turns dark blue when fully ripe. Small plants and small ears. I'll grow it again next year.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

My Painted Mountain seed looks radically different than the seed that I received... I planted mostly bright colored kernels with some token dull kernels. The dulls mostly didn't germinate or didn't get pollinated, so I ended up with bright oranges, reds, yellows, and one purple.

Regards,
Joseph

[blackthumbmary]

My favorites:

Ames 1850 'Aunt Mary's Sweet' - courtesy of Grunt. Every single seed germinated..only lost two plants: one to frost (hit a few weeks after germination), one to hungry deer before the fence was completed. The night after I transplanted this corn (which had been started indoors for a few weeks), a frost hit and I only lost one plant. The same frost killed off some young Triple Play corn which were only a few weeks older...so I think this is fairly cold hardy. Mature plants were tall (8 - 10 ft plus) and sturdy - survived high winds which blew down plants from other varieties being grown. Almost all plants produced two giant ears - the smaller ear of each plant still being huge and filled out. Wonderful sweet taste that reminded me of Hooker's Sweet corn at the early white stage or a slightly less sweet version of Silver Queen. Ears seemed to stay in 'sweet' stage for a long time. Many dried kernels still had some sweetness. Best of all: the husks are dense, multi layered, and tight so there was no insect damage to the ears. Literally not one ear lost had any damage despite some attempts. No problems with Stuart's Wilt or other diseases. Seemed to be a relatively light feeder in terms of nutrition. I did not have to add too much manure to the Ames plot in comparison to the Hooker's and Buhl plots. Excellent variety for my area...Grunt was right when he said he thought it would do well in my area (southern Indiana). Thank you Grunt !!!!!

Hookers Sweet Corn - Seeds of Change. My second favorite-especially in terms of taste! At white stage and mixed-white/purple stage, taste is wonderful and sweet.
In terms of growing-this was far less consistent than the Ames. Some plants grew 5ft, others only 3ft....the latter were in an area with poor soil though. Stalks were relatively thin and therefore prone to some wind damage - although only high wind. Most plants produced two ears-although in most cases the second ear was very small-still edible but barely snack size. First ear on each plant, were small to medium-largish size...really varied by plant. About 5-8 plants, out of 150, developed Stuart's Wilt-affected plants were small and had ears that did not really fill out. Husks were tight and fairly resistant to insect damage. This variety seemed to be a heavy nitrogen feeder compared to some of the other varieties grown....hard to tell though since part of the field had poor soil which I had to amend with lots of horse manure. I will have to grow it in another field this summer and see.... A good variety for my area....but does need some tending in terms of nutrition and diseas.

Did Well But Not My Taste

Triple Play - Seeds of Change. This was nice at the white stage - sweet - but the minute any colored kernals started showing up, it seemed to move to a semi sweet sort of bland taste. It was not starchy per se...but not really corn flavored either. Maybe just my palate though so don't be put off since this variety did really well otherwise. Seems to have a very short sweet period although packaging says that it stays sweet in the beginning of the multicolored stage - so again, probably just not my taste Plants were 5 - 7 ft tall with huge ears-as big as the Ames. Like the Ames, both ears are big. Husks are thick and tight and resisted insect damage well. Lost a few young plants to frost (at 2 leaf stage) but overall seems rather cold hardy. No Stuart's Wilt. About 6-8 plants developed 'corn smut' -although I suspect that was due to timing since affected ears were maturing late July when insect activity seemed to double...plus Buhl's corn were also affected by smut around the same time. Corn stalks medium thickness and sturdy...only lost one to two plants to wind damage. Seemed to be a medium to light eater in terms of nitrogen...I did not have to add as much manure to this plot as other varieties. Overall, a great plant for my area...just not quite my taste

Loved The Taste But Did Poorly

Buhls - Southern Seed Exposure. I wanted this to do well so badly because I had heard how good it was. The biggest problem was the husks: the ears literally outgrew the husks once the kernels started filling out. The tips literally busted out of the husks in over half my plants, therefore allowing insects to get in and spoil many of the kernels. I tried picking the ears early...but it seemed that the minute the ear started filling out, the tip would outgrow the husk and the insects would get in. I don't mind some creepy crawlies but they would nosh on the kernels and spoil them (kernels turned brownish and tasted rotten). It seemed as if I was only able to harvest half (or even less) of what was planted due to insect damage. Another problem is that the husks were thin...so insects could easily bore through them.
Many plants only produced one ear-which were medium-largish. Those that produced two ears had only one decent sized one...the second one being dwarf sized and often not completely filled out.
Plants were anywhere from 3 - 7 ft...most being about 5-6 ft. Stalks were relatively thin-similar width to Hookers-and therefore somewhat susceptible to wind damage. No Stuart's Wilts. About 5 plants affected with Corn Smut-but again probably due to maturation timing-which was late July, early August when insect level was high and a few Triple Play ears had been effected a few weeks before in July.
This seemed to be a heavy feeder....needed almost as much manure as Hookers. I grew some of this in the same field as the Ames (staggered planting dates) and I had to amend the Buhl 3'x more with manure than the Ames.
The taste was wonderful...which made this so heartbreaking. A really nice taste - sweet but yellow corn flavor. All the more heartbreaking not to be able to get better growing results.
I would love to hear from any one who has grown Buhl's to see if my issues are common..or perhapes somewhat unique to me Grunt...how did yours turn out (if you already posted somewhere on this forum about the Buhl's-just point me to that section).

------------On A Side Note--------------------
Atash - I think that Hooker's is a separate variety from Triple Play as Seeds of Change sells them both as seperate varieties...but perhapes Triple Play has Hooker's in its lineage?
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Thanks for sharing your reviews everybody....they are a great resource for future growing considerations

Mary

[massachusettsgrower]

The Aunt Mary's kernels are described as shrunken. Is there much heft left to the kernels? Shrinking in some sweet corn varieties leads to seeds that are very small. Would this variety be any use to grind for cornmeal?

[reed]

I got Aunt Mary's from a preservation grower in Ohio. It is, in my opinion the finest sweet corn there is. The kernels are large and barely shrunken at all, just a little wrinkled on the outside. It grows very well here in Indiana. I can't really comment on it's use for meal.