This is my second year growing this landrace from the Native Seed Search. I finished harvesting most of the ears today. There are still a few in the field from a slightly later planting. This landrace has a long blooming period and I hand pollinated quite a bit because it does not flower and tassel all at the same time. I planted the beginning of June which was moderately dry and the summer weeds were just beginning to grow. We got a lot of rain this year from late June-August and many of the plants produced multiple layers of aerial roots. Some only produced a single set. This is something I want to promote more in the future.
As you can see most of the plants hold their ears very high on the plant. The tallest plants are about 12 feet. I interplanted with peppers, moschata squash, cowpeas, and velvet beans. Unfortunately, the deer have broadened their palette and ate all of these plants to extinction. They even ate the corn leaves when they were tender but stopped when the plants were a few feet tall.
I let the weeds grow up because many of these are produce an abundance of flowers in autumn for insects, they enrich the soil, and some are host plants for sulfur butterfly larvae. As long as I plant the corn when the weeds are first beginning to grow, and do some light weeding for the first month, the corn grow just fine and the weeds grow up around them later in summer.
This is the best landrace for me here. I even planted these outside the electric area and the animals did not bother the ears. The plants even show some resistance to leaf rust which overcomes most other corn types I plant in summer. Most plants are strong in the thunderstorm winds as well. We had a hurricane recently and most of the plants in this area stayed tall. I think the tall weeds help buffer the plants against strong winds. In a more open area they were all pushed over.
One thing that is very noticeable with this corn is some plants smell so sweet when they’re young and still growing. More so than any other corn I’ve grown. The plants smell like the sweetest corny smell that is almost like jasmine in the evenings or morning when it is damp out. Some plants seem to smell more than others. It’s better than growing scented flowers.
The keepers of this years harvest. There were quite a few rejects and this represents about 2/3rds of the harvest.
Some variations in size, color, and kernel types.
The weeds are about 7 feet tall here.
The ears are high on the stalks.
Lots of aerial roots. Some are very thick, as thick as my thumb with the gel. Others are very thin.
These were some of the most dense aerial roots.
A very big, beautiful, and highly toxic grasshopper. I can’t remember what they’re called but we have a few each year. Their colors indicate toxicity to predators which is why they can grow big and hangout in broad daylight to show their colors. They don’t eat the corn leaves. Frogs and lizards were all in the corn plants during the height of summer but have since disappeared as fall approaches and the rains have lessened.
The corn from afar as it was in the middle of flowering.
A few plants produced massive smut ears. I did eat this one but I’m not a fan enough of the taste to want this much in the future.
The harvest from last year.