What seed are you buying?

What different types have you tried?

Do you have more than enough seed that you'd be willing to swap some of yours for mine?

I'm really looking for a super "duper" sweet corn.  Only having a garden for the past few years, I've tried a few and haven't been impressed.  I just placed an order for a 1/4 lb. of another type of seed, but I'd like to try another variety later on in the year.  Give me some options!

Tech forum. Not appropriate.

~Kitties

edited: I agree with that expression
~Kitties

Silver queen or similar. Our hardware store sells by the pound and I usually ask what’s the biggest seller or what varieties and go from there.
Attached File

Search up the corn sweetness scale.....there are several designations on sugar and starch content.

Last year we planted silver king and serendipity.

I'm far from an afficianado, but Silver Queen is pretty popular in my area.  One of the HF&G Sig dudes raises a metric f ton of corn every year, he oughta be along shortly with some good recomendations.

Obsession 2

For many years we grew Silver Queen. Tried several of the bi-color sweets and supersweets with mixed results. Now we grow Primus - supersweet stuff (sh2 I think). The germination rate on the supersweets is considerably less than others but if you wait until your soil gets good and warm it bumps up the rate. The Primus seed packet says the soil needs to be at least 62 degrees for the best rate. This is absolutely the sweetest corn we've ever grown in our 40 years of growing corn and supposedly will keep it's quality for days/week. We always have and always will process our corn immediately after picking anyway - it will be in the boiling water within 2 hrs of picking at our house !!

Last years corn was a sh2 and I didn't think it was that great.  It lived through a mild hail storm and I was thankful for that.

I found a Triple Sweet corn that I ordered to try this year and I don't see a rating listed.

Honey Select. I used to plant Illini Extra Sweet but it has been hard to find recently. I changed to Honey Select 4 years ago and it is great.

I'll give the Primus a try.

Honey Select Tripple Sweet is what I ordered yesterday.  I'll try it and the Primus this year.

My family has been raising and selling sweet corn at our roadside stand ever since I was about 6 or 7 years old. Now that I'm on my own and hours from home I'm doing it with my kids as well.

In regards to your desire to have "super duper sweet" I would like understand that desire a bit more. Have you ever had fresh picked corn? If not, I suspect you don't actually "need" super duper sweet. Fresh picked corn is much sweeter than store bought. As soon as the corn is picked enzymes convert the sugars to starches, this begins immediately. Even corn from many roadside stands is days old before it sells. Days old, unrefrigerated will lead to a terrible product. Pick and eat immediately and your corn should taste plenty sweet without being from a "super sweet" variety. If you can't eat immediately get it chilled (fridge) asap to slow the enzymes down.

I know the sweeter the better sounds appealing, it does to a lot of people. But we've tried the newer super sweet varieties. I have not found a single one that didn't leave a weird taste in my mouth after eating. I can't explain it, but there's a weird aftertaste and a very obvious lack of corn flavor. IMHO, you may as well soak canned corn in Karo syrup...that's just my opinion. A very significant portion of my repeat customers, really the core customer base that keeps me going every year, is all people that buy my corn because they can't stand the taste of the super sweet corn varieties. I've had several discerning customers that stop and ask what variety it is and when I tell them they are so relieved because they want corn that tastes like corn.

I plant Ambrosia. My dad has been planting ambrosia for probably close to 20 years and that's all I plant. I've tried a few "new" varieties and i just go back to Ambrosia. It's a sweet, bicolor corn that has tender kernels and holds its sweetness well in the fridge. The only downside is if you like to cut it off the cob using any of the automated methods seen on social media the ambrosia doesn't work well because it has a tapered cob. It will leave a lot of corn at 1 end and dig into the cob on the other. But I store about 100 quart bags every year (we blanch, cut, and freeze whatever doesn't sell at the roadside stand) and I just cut it off by hand.

If you have any other questions I'm happy to help.

Well...I wouldn't say that...but it's a lot for someone that puts love and passion into it. If I were to go bigger I would have to convert to conventional/commercial farming practices or hire help.

Just for perspective, I grow about 1/2 acre at a population of about 28,000/acre, so about 14,000 plants. In my teens growing on the family farm we dabbled in wholesaling sweet corn and we planted 5 acres at our max, so about 140,000 plants. If you figure only 60% of that is saleable product, and only 60% of that actually sells without spoiling that gives about 4200 dozen ears...

The corn we have planted has gone directly from plant, cooked and to my stomach within an hour.  Heck, I've even eaten it without cooking.  It hasn't mattered what sweetness rating it has had, I have liked them all.  I keeping hearing about the sweetness being so good from this brand compared to the other and I haven't been able to taste it...yet.  That is why I'm looking for something that will live up to the hype.

I've bought from a few road side stands and I will say that they have had some good tasting corn.  Maybe even better than what I have grown.  I have never asked what seed brand it is though, but it still hasn't been as good as I had hoped.  Maybe I'm just expecting more than what can be had.

Some of the best sweet corn I've had is Olathe from Colorado, have you looked into this variety?

I'll stand by my metric f ton appraisal!

Buying?  Your corn seed dealer doesn't give you it for free?  I haven't grown any in years due to the fucking raccoons.

No, I hadn't heard of it before.



I'm just growing some in my backyard.  Never looked to see if any seed dealers were in the area.



Only thing we have to worry about is the birds (pigeons mostly) getting to the plants before they are tall enough.  We have been putting wire mesh around them and will remove after they are over a foot tall.

American Dream or Candence XR. Candence XR is supposed to be an improvement over American Dream.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/corn/sweet-corn/cadence-xr-treated-f1-corn-seed-4458T.html

If you can find it give G90 a try.  One of the best tasting sweet corns I’ve ever had.  Grandfather grew it forever and one of my local farmers grows and sells it at his stand.  There is one that several of my farmers plant with there grain corn that’s round up resistant I can find out the name if you’re interested in the roundup ready type.

Good online source for sweet corn varieties  Harris Sweet Corn , signup for newsletter and you'll usually get a % off or free-ship code pretty quickly.  If you scroll down near the bottom of the page it will have several links to helpful info i.e. characteristics of the varieties, isolation needs,  growing hints etc.  Some of those prices for the newest corn varieties are

sh2 varieties I've had success with include American Dream, Glacial & Moonshine.  Silver Queen is not a sh2 but a strong producing & good tasting old school hybrid, if you pick it on time, then get it processed quickly it's really good but it converts to starch quickly if you drag your feet.  

All of it needs copious amounts of nitrogen to produce well.

Kinda long, but I had trouble with the link, sorry.  


From Albert Lea Seeds:




SWEET CORN COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE
Isolation:
Thanks to the presence of the sugary gene (referred to as ‘Su’), sweet corn is a sweeter, more palatable relative of field corn. Sweet corn is categorized a few different ways based off certain sweetness genetic traits. There are sweet corn varieties that have the ‘Su’ (sugary) genetic traits, varieties that have the ‘Se’ (sugary enhanced) genetic traits and those that have ‘sh2’ (Supersweet—this gene causes the kernels to look shrunken). ‘shA’ (Augmented Supersweet) have traits of the Sh2 varieties as well as the Se gene. There are some varieties of sweet corn that may carry genes from Su, Se and sh2—these are called Synergistic varieties.
When planning on growing more than one variety of sweet corn at a time, be aware of how the different sugary traits interact with each other. When corn plants get pollinated, the kind of plant that the pollen came from can impact how the kernels grow. Sometimes it can change its sugar content, making your corn less tasty. To get quality sweet corn you must strategize your planting. Isolate all Su, Se and Synergistic varieties from the sh2 and shA varieties. Similarly, you must isolate all your sweet corn from popcorn, ornamental corn, and field corn. See Figure 1 below for a helpful guide. If maintaining the color is important to you—be aware that pollen from yellow or bicolor sweet corn can turn white corn yellow. If this is a concern you may want to practice isolation by color too.

Se
We can isolate by distance or by time. If you’re growing sweet corn isolate by 250 feet. Easier yet is to isolate by time. This means that you are spacing out your planting times by 14 days to help ensure that the different corn plants are hitting maturity at different times. This dramatically reduces the chances of pollen from the wrong parent being present in the environment.


Su

Synergistic


Fig. 1. Arrows connect each variety type that can be planted together with no need for isolation


sh2

shA

What’s the difference between Su, Se, Syn, sh2 and shA?
Su corn tends to be older varieties. They can have great quality, but their quality can dwindle in storage after harvest. Best in home gardens when they can be eaten shortly after harvest.
Se varieties are a step up in sweetness from Su corn and have a longer shelf life before the sugars turn to starches. Considered the highest eating quality.
Syn or Synergistic varieties are very sweet, creamy and have a very long shelf life. 75% of the ear has Se kernels and 25% are Sh2 kernels.
sh2 varieties have a very high sugar content and a longer shelf life. They have thicker seed coats, so they have a firmer and crunchier texture.
shA are an improvement from sh2 varieties. Sweet, tender and have a long shelf life.

Seeding:
When seeding sweet corn early in the spring it is important to be aware of the soil temperature. When planting untreated sweet corn, minimum soil temperature should be around 65-70°F at 2 inches deep. Treated sweet corn can be planted earlier when the soil temperature is around 55-60°F. Be aware that sH2 & sHA varieties, on average, will need to be planted at least 1 week later than others as this trait is sensitive to cool temperatures. Ideally 65°F at a minimum. If you plant your sweet corn when the soil is too cool, it will struggle to develop and could be overtaken by fungal pathogens.
When you’re planting, you want the seed to be 1-1 ½” deep and spaced 8-12” apart in a row. When planning your garden keep in mind that you want a minimum of 4 rows of sweet corn hitting maturity around the same time for proper pollination. For optimal pollination, plant in blocky sections in squares rather than rectangles. Each row should be spaced 30-36” apart.
You need about 2-4 oz. of seed (~155 seeds) per 100 linear feet of row. On a larger scale, about 1 lb of seed per 1000 linear foot row is needed, or 10-15 lbs per acre planted (15,000-24,000 seeds per acre). On non-irrigated land a maximum plant population would be seeded around 22,000 seeds per acre. Irrigated land can handle a more dense population.
Seeds are either sold by weight or by seed count. The roman numeral ‘M’ represents a value in the thousands. For example, ‘1M’ represents 1000 seeds, ‘2.5M’ is 2,500 seeds and so on. The size, shape and weight of a seed can vary from year to year. One pound of seed one year may have a higher or lower seed count the next year. ‘SPP’ represents however many seeds are present per pound. So, if the seed one year is a little larger, you may need more weight if you need a certain number of seeds. Other codes you may see associated with sweet corn are the seed size and shape. These are MF (medium flat), MR (medium round), LF (large flat) and LR (large round). These are important when using equipment that fit a certain seed size or shape to sow the seeds.
Culture:
Sweet corn can be a heavy feeder. It is best to fertilize based off soil test recommendations. Feeding too much or too little can hamper growth and too much fertilizer can run off and negatively impact waterways. However, as a general recommendation, feeding about 2-3 lbs of 10-10-10 or similarly balanced fertilizer per 100-foot row is a good start. This is something that ideally should be incorporated into the top few inches of soil before you plant your seed. As your sweet corn develops, it will usually need a bit of a boost. Once your plants are around 1-2 ft tall, you can apply another 1-2 lbs of the same 10-10-10 or balanced feed. This is to be laid in a band along each row. Alternatively, if you have fertile soil, a nitrogen-rich application of urea could be applied instead at a rate of ¼ lb per 100 ft row. If you have super sandy soils, a third application may be needed when the plant stops growing and starts to spread pollen.
As with most gardening, it’s best to mulch the soil surface to help preserve moisture. You can do this with organic materials like compost, grass clippings or landscape fabrics. It’s critical that corn has enough moisture when the silks on the developing ears are growing and being pollinated. Sweet corn needs about an inch of water a week and when it gets very dry, giving your plants a weekly watering of around 6 inches is ideal.
Harvest:
Typically, ears are ready for harvest about 15-24 days after silks emerge. The kernels should be juicy, and the juice should be almost milky in appearance. Heat accelerates development, so monitor closely in hot weather. Similarly, cool weather will slow them down. The ready-to-harvest ears are good for a day or two, but can begin to lose their sweetness and tender texture thereafter. Once harvested, the ears will start to lose their sugar content (fastest with Su corn, which can lose half its sugar content within half a day). The newer sweet corn types will lose their sugar content at a slower rate. In ideal situations and with optimum care, you can plan on around 11-13 ears per 10 foot of row.