Sweet Corn

[Guest guest]

Just to scare ya all for the weekend and up coming holiday!

GMO sweet corn is no different in appearance than any other sweet corn out

there.

It will not be labeled, at least at this time.

It is sold locally as seed here in Minnesota.

It has been pushed and planted in the south, should be ready now.

The stores--unless labeled organic--have virtually no real way of making sure it

is or is not a GMO.

Corn grown in MN is not quite ready yet.

Dow and Monsanto both have sweet corn varieties out there.

The one sold in Minnesota is called Attribute, sold by Jordan Seeds in Woodbury

which is where MANY of the local farmer market vendors do get the seeds for the

veggies they sell.

It is sold in 25# bags and a waiver has to be signed for it (Attribute). That

will plant about 1 acre of corn. It can easily divided up between a few farmers

if needed. I have bought heirloom in bulk and shared--ya don't need to sign a

waiver to do that!

An acre is 43,560 square feet.

Most of the sweet corn sold is a hybrid, not bad. Should not be confused with

heirloom or GMO tho.

Monsantos GMO sweet corn is Attribute, Dows is Enlist. There are others out

there including Monsantos variety sold in France. I don't have the names of all

of them. Syngenta generally markets Monsantos veggies.

Your farmer should know the name of the variety. If not that week, the next one

for sure. They should be able to tell you where they bought their seed.

I usually plant over 100 different varieties of tomato plants and could always

look up on the garden map what was what. And usually at markets they were

labeled as to variety even if they were all red or all orange, etc. This is not

a difficult thing.

Attribute is resistant to the European Corn Borer and the Corn Earworm.

Early sweet corn varieties can be ready in as little as 63 days (non GMO). That

is from the germinating date. Some varieties take 80 or even 100 days.

So, if you are actually looking for local sweet corn, think about when we could

plant it here in MN (zone 4). That is usually considered at minimum of 50

degrees soil temp, some varieties need to be planted at warmer soil temps. Most

varieties will germinate better at 60 or above--again soil temp. I put mine in

around the middle of May. Other people had planted earlier. I have 3 different

varieties, Luther Hill (65-78 days), Golden Bantam (70-85 days), and Golden

Bantam Improved (75-82 days). All heirlooms of course. Those days are from

when the seed germinated, meaning came up from the soil.

Basically, if the corn was planted on May 15th and took 7 days to germinate that

puts us at May 22nd. Now figure out how many days until the crop is hopefully

ready for harvest. Mine will basically be August up to freezing with successive

plantings.

So, lets say the corn you are finding at the " local " farmer markets was ready to

be picked on June 15th. If it was a 63 day variety it would have had to been up

and growing in the first part of April.

This is not impossible to do, for me since I am planting in zone 3 and northern

zone 4, I wait rather than replant seed that rotted in the ground or got hit by

frost. That is my choice but we never had corn growing up until fall because my

parents refused to buy it. We grew it. No need to buy something we grow.

Terrible childhood! :-) Sweet corn to me and my family was always a fall

veggie, end of summer, and school starting once again.

Corn could be started in pots or such and started indoors or in a green house.

It could be grown in a hoop house or high tunnel.

You need to ask your farmer.

Or buy Alvins Snow Pac. That is organic, not sure if they have cob corn tho.