Harvster said:
I want to plant corn for the first time this year and would like some advice. We are looking for a bi color sweet corn and there are dozens of varieties. Any personal recommendations or general things to look for in terms of insect or disease resistance? This would be for southeastern PA.
The variety of corn that does well for you will depend upon your soil. Another factor is the type of corn that you like to eat. Do you want it to taste like corn, or do you want it ooze sugar when you eat it.
The link that czechsonofagun has provided for peaches and cream corn is the first time that I have seen peaches and cream listed as a SE corn. Most places, it is a HSE or a sugar content of 20-30 per cent rather than the 30-35 per cent of the SE. But then we have a vendor in our market that calls his corn peaches and cream, no matter what variety of bi colored corn that he is selling.
Corn will range from SU (8-18 per cent sugar content) to Sh2 SL (40-45 per cent sugar content). My personal preference is for the SE corn which tastes like corn and not overly sweet like some of the super sweet varieties.
We have had many people come back and ask for our corn by name as they really liked the combination of corn flavor and mild sweetness. It is called Ambrosia. It is a SE corn.
As far as the insects go, each year is different with the amount of wildlife that will show up in the corn in a given year, unless you want to spray and not have an organic product. Even if you do not spray you will not have a true organic product unless you start out with seed from a certified organic producer.
In each of the last three years, we have planted five to eight acres of sweet corn and have used a few different varieties each year to come up with the one that people came back and asked for. We will be sticking with Ambrosia as we have had good results with it.