open-pollinated sweet corn(what is the best)?

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Is there a good tasting open-pollinated sweet corn anyone could recommend from first hand experience.I would like to plant some next year & save the seed from year to year. thank you Brian B.

-- Brian Baumgardner (thebirdman67@hotmail.com), August 28, 2000

Answers

I love "Country Gentleman", a white shoepeg variety.

-- Connie (Connie@lunehaven.com), August 29, 2000.

Double stardard and bi-licious are both tasty. Does anyone else find that op varieties are harder to grow than hybrids? My op is always stunty looking, but my silver queen was perfect.

-- glynnis in KY (gabbycab@msn.com), August 29, 2000.

I really like one called "Golden Midget". Really high quality and sweet. Sweet with real taste not just sweet pulp like some of super sweets. Very short stalks.

The old traditional "Golden Bantam" is easier to find and pretty good also. Depends on particular strain of it. Dont know for sure but Bantam is probably an ancestor of Midget.

-- Hermit John (ozarkhermit@pleasedontspamme.com), August 29, 2000.


My Grandads favorite strain was "distilled". Matter of fact they even named one after him, though he hated the "old" in front of his name. Seriously, golden midget did real good for us this year. I'm even gambling a small stand on a late frost.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 29, 2000.

I can't answer your question, but keep in mind 'best' in one part of the country might not grow at all in another.

If you plan on saving seeds from one year's harvest to plant the next years crop--and that's the only valid reason to require OP--get your initial seed from a couple different vendors. Some OP varieties have been selected to do well on one particular farmer's fields and lack and genetic variability to adapt to different soils. Even if the name is the same, the strains may have drifted apart over the years.

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), August 29, 2000.



Double standard in Ky. Very good and grew well. Can't grow other sweet corn, popcorn or field corn with it though, bc wind pollinated. Or you can isolate by time, at least three weeks. I tried two weeks, and was cutting tassles from before & after corn to keep it from polluting my OP. The Seed Exchange is a forum for exchanging op seeds on the net as well as asking questions.If interested let me know & I can post the address. I'm still learning new computer and how to do what I need to do on it.

-- sharon WT (wildflower@ekyol.com), August 30, 2000.

I planted an OP type this year that I had never tried before, and was pleased with the results. It was called "Aztec". I usually plant both OP and super sweets, and have used "Early Sunglow" as the Op for years with good results. I'd recommend either. We're in Maine, and both are well within our average 110 day growing season. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 31, 2000.

My two favorites open pollinated varieties are "Howling Mob",available from Shumway,and"Pickaninny"which you would have to get from a seed saver as the catalog companies have dropped it due to the unfortunate name. One other good one that is sometimes available from local farm stores is "Truckers Favorite".

-- JT Sessions (gone2seed@email.com), September 01, 2000.

Thanks for the different varieties that have been recommended.It's great to have you folks out their to asks questions. Thanks Countrysiders Brian

-- Brian (thebirdman67@hotmail.com), September 02, 2000.

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