Larry,

Are you looking for a regular old sweet corn like we ate in the 1960s, 70s and 80s that has old-fashioned corn flavor? Or, do you prefer the new extra-sweet and super-sweet types that became popular from the mid 1990s through now?

I'm asking so I can recommend the right types.

As for Tender Treat, there's two with that name, although I don't know if the old one from the 1970s is available.

The old "Tender Treat" (su) from the 1970s is a regular corn with old-fashioned taste and if you've ever grown Jubilee, it is similar to it. It has tall and narrow kernels that stay really tender a long time, and it is very heat and drought resistant. This corn was considered a good processor type and produced heavy yields. Of the corns you've listed that you've grown, it would be similar to Merit.

The new "Tender Treat" is a synergystic hybrid, which means it is a cross combining the se2 sugary enhanced gene and the sh2 shrunken gene. Another name for the synergystic hybrids is "triplesweet". It produces ears that are about 9" long and matures in the mid-80s to low 90s. Of the corn varieties you've grown, it would be similar to Peaches and Cream in terms of flavor and tenderness.

Dawn

Dawn,

Thanks so much, your better than having a talking encyclopedia. The Tender Treat I bought before must have been the old kind. The Fort Smith Coop. does not carry it, I would buy it in a little feed and seed store in Mena, Ar.(I go through there to visit family in south Arkansaa). The store is out of business now and I really miss them.

I tried some of the new extra sweet corn a few years ago. I think it was called "Extra Sweet Early Northern". It was good corn, nice big ears, great flavor, but the kernels were shorter than I prefer.

I like the sound of "Jubilee". I would like it even better
if you would tell me that it is "Coon Resistant".

As far as taste, I have never tasted a bad corn.

Larry

Larry,

If they ever come up with a coon-resistant corn, the person who has a patent on it will make a million dollars.

I am about to decide the only way I am going to be able to raise a corn crop that the raccoons can't get is to put an electric fence around it.

Some years the raccoons win and some years I win. This year they have won by destroying most of the corn before it can finish pollinating and long before it is ripe. Usually, we have smarter raccoons who wait for it to be "almost ripe" and then beat us to it by about 3 days. Last year I beat them to about 75% of it.

So far this year, the raccoons have rampaged through the Country Gentleman shoepeg corn, but haven't touched the Texas Honey June. I don't know if they haven't found the Texas Honey June, or if they won't venture into it because of the pumpkins and squash that surround it. Either way, maybe we'll at least get to harvest Texas Honey June in the next few days.

Dawn

Dawn,

I am sorry to hear about the coons getting into the corn.

Yesterday I told my wife that we were about 3 days away from harvesting some corn, so that ment the coons would get it tonight. She ask if I had a radio to put in the garden, and I told her, no, but I would drive my pickup next to the corn. I did, and turned the radio on a religious station, turned it up loud and left the windows down. I told my wife that I doubt if it will work, but maybe they would feel guilty while they were steeling the corn.

It sound like we were having a "Brush Arbor Meeting" all night.

My wife came in this morning and handed me my keys and said, " it worked, no coons". Now, I doubt the radio had anything to do with keeping the coons away, but I may try it again tonight.

Larry

Larry,

One of my gardening friends up the road from us keeps a radio going 24/7 in his apple trees so the deer will leave his apple trees alone. The apple trees are in an open area beside his fenced-in garden. However, the deer jump the 4' fence, get into the garden and eat everything in it. They always eat the okra first, and then everything else.

I think it is interesting that a radio in one tree will keep the deer out of/away from all three apple trees, but the deer still will jump the fence into the garden right beside the tree.

The deer, by the way, had never eaten his okra before.....until we put up our taller fence last year which deprived them of our okra.

I've heard the radio doesn't necessarily work all the time....but it worked for you last night, and you only need for it to work a few more nights.

Even since the cougar sighting by the garden gate, I keep a radio with me in the garden, and I turn it up loud. If that thing comes back, I want him/her to think that I am not alone!

Dawn