has anyone grown flint corn? i want to for the purpose of being able to ground my own flour. if you have what types have you grown and where have you bought it at.
We’ve got a number of corn posts on the forum, including @Greenstorm’s Northernizing Every Flint Corn, specifically about flints, that contains at least one seed source link. If you haven’t combed the forum already for corn you might see what you can find.
Now I’ll leave space for the experienced corn breeders
Hi Sandra. If it’s flour you’re after then flour, rather than flint corns might be better suited. Flints have lots of quite hard starch and are better suited to things like polenta rather than flour. Having said that, flints might be easier in areas with wet summers as many say that flour corns have a tendency to go mouldy if they are having to dry down in rainy weather.
I’m after a good polenta corn so flints are the ticket for my needs. It also suits my climate better as we tend to have wet summers. Initially though I’ll be mixing both flour and flint, and even some sweet corns to create a diverse mix from which to select what I want.
Flour corn might also be better suited to your zone 3, Wyoming climate. A fellow named Dave Christensen developed a variety call Painted Mountain. Several people have followed up with his work and selected various varieties from it. Carol Deppe selected her Magic Manna family of corns from Painted Mountain. There are also a lot of western adapted heirloom flour corns.
I’m in the Midwest with longer, more humid growing season and flour corn does not do well here so I do grow flint corn. I don’t know if flint corn grows well in the west or not, but Carol Deppe in Oregon, also developed some flints called Cascade Cream Cap and Cascade Ruby Gold.
I’m sure Dave’s Painted Mountain is easily found by searching, not sure if Carol’s are still easily available or not. An outfit called Sandhill Preservation Center in Iowa has a lot of different kinds of corn, it is a good place to get seed.