Redbug said:
A few questions about seed corn...(since I am like JDeerKid, and don't know much about growing it)...
I have read that most of the newer strains of seed corn are sterile...that is you just can't harvest and save some, then plant it next year, right? Where/how is the seed grown for the farmers to plant? That is, how do they make the seed viable if the parents make sterile offspring? If you wanted to grow corn that is not sterile, what varieties are good, (and good to eat)? I know that you have to be careful with cross pollanization between varieties. How far away do they have to be safe from cross pollanization, (so you could get a good sampling of seed for the next season)...
Generally, all corn today grown commercially, is hybrid corn. That would include sweet corn and field corn. As an aside, about 90 percent of the sweet corn seed grown in the USA, is grown within a 40 mile radius of my home.
Hybrids do not, generally reproduce. Mules, do not reproduce mules...horses and donkeys produce mules. Hybrid corn will not make the same corn from one year to the next. That seed is grown each and every year for production the next year. For example, a sweet corn I love is Golden Jubilee. However if you plant your crop the next year you will NOT get Golden jubilee. You will get all types of corn, white kernel and yellow kernel. Some will be sweet some will be NOT sweet.
If you are planting for production, you had better pay attention to what you put in the ground. Your production, with all other things being equal, will be determined on the quality of your seed. If you are planting for a green manure crop, then use anything you can get your hands on. Then plow it down before it begins to produce ears...or let it grow to the amount your equipment can handle the plow down and or mulching.
I would suggest that you pay attention to information many have given. Two things will be the major factor in whether you make money or not. TIMELINESS, and MARKET. If you are timely in every thing you do, your production will be good. If you have secured your MARKET before you plant, you can then come fairly close determining if you will make a "profit."
Remember a crop doesn't like waiting another day, when you are not so tired, to be irrigated. A crop doesn't like, when you are not so tired, to have the weed control taken care of. One major point many overlook is "from the beginning." If you don't pay attention to soil preparation, then your planting will not be good. If your planting is not good, then your weed control, if not using herbicides will be difficult....etc., etc..
