I have some white popcorn I want to plant as well as some sh2 sweet corn. Popcorn days to maturity is 110 and the sweet corn is 78. My guy says plant the sweet corn first but then I stumbled upon a University of Minnesota article which says to plant the popcorn first and separate them by a little 3 weeks. To me that is backwards as each would mature at roughly the same time. I’m in zone 6b SE Michigan. Thanks!
Mixed terms will give you this result.
Popcorn is rated in days from planting until harvest of dry seed. Sweet corn is rated in days from planting until harvest at milk stage. If you convert to the same terms, the sweet corn will mature in 120 to 130 days which is a tad longer than the popcorn at 110 days.
So plant the popcorn first and then plant the sweet corn.
But that is not the end of the discussion. Popcorn very commonly has a gene which prevents pollination by most other types of corn whether sweet corn or field corn. If the exclusion gene is present, it is almost impossible to get a popcorn seed pollinated by any other type. What about the other way around? Turns out that popcorn will readily pollinate most other types of corn. What does this do to sh2 sweet corn? Well, it converts it to field corn with no more sweetness than ordinary dent varieties.
8 Likes
I have a question to add into this topic.
I have recently heard conflicting information about cross pollination with different varieties of corn being grown with one another.
I thought that pollination of a crop would not matter for the harvest of that year (for any fruits or vegetables) and only the resulting seed would be affected.
Recently though, I don’t remember where- I have heard more than once that corn pollination of crossing types would affect your current harvest, making the developing corn not what you expect.
I do not believe this to be true but please educate me if this right or not.
You eat the seeds of corn as opposed to the fruit. When it is cross-pollinated, the seed takes the traits of both varieties, which almost always turns the corn into feed/dent corn. Certain corn have inhibitors that stop this, but I don’t think any sweet corns do, which basically means cross-pollination makes sweet corn inedible.
This is (mostly) a corn-specific thing when it comes to home gardening. Fruit bearing plants, cross-pollination doesn’t effect the fruits, only the seeds.
3 Likes
Corn is a special case because we consume the seed. The corn seed is made up of the seed coat (caryopsis) which is maternal tissue and reflects the inheritance of the mother plant. The endosperm is triploid tissue which contains 2 sets of chromosomes from the mother and 1 set from the father (pollen). This tissue reflects both sets of parents! Therefore corn is directly affected by the pollen source which is part and parcel of the kernel. We consume the ovule of an apple which we call a fruit. The ovule is entirely made up of maternal tissue. We don’t normally consume the seed of apples.
6 Likes
Thank you for the responses! I am so surprised I didn’t consider the answer but it is so obvious now!
2 Likes
If your popcorn messes with your sweet corn; make Masa and corn meal. Problem solved!
2 Likes
You need to understand the specific type of corn you are growing. Not all corn is picked at the milky stage. There are different catagories su, sh2, se and sy. Understanding the type of corn you grow tells you when to pick.
Some of these types should not be cross pollinated.