Sweet corn. Ready to harvest the first ear soon, I think.
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The wind blew down the sweet corn. Most of it has been harvested already and is currently drying. No sign of animals getting to it, but I expecy they’ll find it pretty soon. The section that is left was a yellow sweet planted by a friend last year. She got involved with life, so it grew without fertilizer, water or mulch. It has big ears, and multiple ears per stalk. I’m hoping the corn matures, but it’s slower than the rest.
I’m in the process of selecting the seed for GTS. I’ve sorted out the smallest seeds, but not sure what other criteria to use.
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A few photos of our flour corn plot, planted June 15 in Idaho. Now with a buckwheat crop underneath.
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First cobs to dry down. Getting similar colors from last year and with some fun new stuff. It was a particularly dry spring and early summer for here, but these short plants managed to produce half decent ears without any fertilizer and only minimal watering before tasseling.
This one has a few kernels that are speckled and chinmarked (starbursts). I had both features last year, but not in the same kernel.
Edited to add:
A few more small ears today. These came from spots where I failed to cull and left two plants in each hole so they crowded each other.
More interesting chinmark genetics, this time split with solid color in the same kernels.
And some speckling and interesting peachy streaking.
This one suffered from low pollination. However: tie dye corn!
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Very nice! Love it when shucking corn is like opening presents or packs of baseball cards.
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2025 grain corn harvest. I had some real surprises this year! I added a few new varieties to the mix. Central Kentucky, USA.
This is year 4 of “the experiment”. 
I’m selecting for great tasting corn, strong stalks, early production (short season) and wind resistance.
So far, this has been a fantastic experience. It is challenging to explain it to the “conventional” gardeners who see what I’m doing. But I enjoy it and just eat fantastic grits, cornbread, hoecakes, and tortillas all year long.
I plant on sending about a gallon of seed in to Going To Seed this year. Like I did last year.
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I’m assuming these are not sweet corn? I removed all I could find from the seeds destined for GTS. All have a slight dent on the top but are not wrinkled.
(No, they were not planted near any other corn).
My two best ears of the year. Really the only two that reached full size and had full pollination. I had a lot of stunted plants with half filled ears this year, but it was relatively dry in the early season and I did not fertilize them at all this year.
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@anna @julia.dakin Has GTS considered working with Walter Goldstein / Mandaamin Institute’s flour corn varieties? They seem especially well suited to contribute both genetics and endophytic partners to the kind of landrace populations we’re trying to grow.
I wonder if they might be willing to contribute a batch of seed either to the GTS seed share mix or a small farm trial/seed increase grantee?
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I’m not familiar with this institute but looks interesting. It’s a bit late for this year - we do have some budget left for seed purchase but I don’t have any spare time! If you’d like to reach out to them and inquire about a purchase, that’s great. Otherwise I’ll look into it in the new year.
I learned about them through their connection with Dr. White and his endophyte research and some YouTube lectures posted in other threads here. It’s a much more structured approach to breeding than what we’re doing here, but definitely seems values-aligned and working towards similar goals.
I can try calling them to ask about purchasing options. What’s the latest date seed could get to you for inclusion in this year’s packets?
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I’d need seeds by December 12 to include in this year.
Thanks, @anna. I spoke with their admin staff on the phone and sent you a DM/Chat with follow up details about this.
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I made an order toward the end of last season and there wasn’t enough time to sow before frost came. I’m looking to plant now and found that the descriptions for last years seeds aren’t available on the website anymore that I can find. Does anyone still have the descriptions?
Here you go: Corn – Going to Seed