Corn

Corn seed is a must to plant in gardens with the space to accommodate it. Plant your corn seeds in blocks to ensure good pollination and ear set. Since pollen travels in the wind, planting corn seeds close together and in blocks allows the pollen to move easily from the tassels to the silk for sufficient pollination. Corn seed can be categorized as sweet corn, ornamental or dent corn, and flour corn. Sweet corn seed is planted to produce ears of corn that are sweet, tender, and best for eating. Popcorn seed is grown to produce corn that is popped and eaten. Dent and ornamental corn are grown for their beauty or used as milling corn for making corn food products like cornflour. When choosing to plant corn seed, it is best to grow one variety at a time to prevent cross-pollination. In Zones 9 and 10, you can grow multiple rounds of corn during our very long warm season. On our farm, we can produce several rounds of corn each summer! We recommend focusing on what you will eat or use the most of as a beginner gardener choosing varieties of corn seed to plant. After a season of growing corn with success, you will likely want to try all the types available! We select our corn varieties from small breeders for their flavor, yield, productivity, and disease resistance. Many of our corn varieties are shorter compact plants more suitable for growing in small gardens and urban farms. Succession plants corn often for an extended harvest period. 