This year I am going to try Quickie, an early bi-color. "Do you yearn for the seasons first taste of corn from your garden? This corn will surely help you get a jump start on the season. One of the earlies bicolors, the 7-1/2 inch ears are filled with a delectable collection of kernels that will make your mouth water at the first sight of their ripened ears. Grows on shorter 4-5 foot stalks." I am thinking I might be able to have some corn for the 4th of July, yeah right.

The other one is Country Gentleman. " HEIRLOOM 1890 According to James Vicks 1936 catalog: " Of all the white varieties this is surely the sweetest and most delicious corn to eat and it remains in an edible condition longer than any other variety after picking, retaining its sweet flavor for a long time. Plants are 6-7 feet tall often bearing 3 ears to a stalk. The cob is unusually small, and is covered with long, slender, shoe-peg like grains irregularly set." " Pinetree catalog. I really look forward to trying this one. I hope it is as good as it sounds.

I think I will probably stick to the two varieties this year. If one of them does not work out, I am eyeing Kandy Korn and Golden Midget as possiblities for 2010!! Is that planning too far ahead?

Billie

Even with a lot of room in the garden, sweet corn takes a "chunk."

Fleet has given me corn in July, Billie . . . not the 4th. Last year & for the 1st out of the 3 years I've grown it, Fleet ripened in August. The people that hybidize Bodacious/Ambrosia also developed Fleet.

Days Mat. 69 (Heat Units, 1173) "Fleet is a homozygous SE version of Quickie, with outstanding early vigor. FleetÂs exceptional quality is hard to beat in its maturity and class."

I had never had ripe corn from the garden in July but there are some compromises. Especially that 1st year, the plants and ears were tiny!

You'd think that I'd know a little about Country Gentleman but all I remember is that my mom used to talk about it as something from her childhood.

Kandy Korn didn't have time to mature in my garden.

digitSÂ

Well, I have 40 acres, I hope I can find a corner to stick it in somewhere, maybe.

This year I grew Commander from really old seed, and had a pretty fair harvest considering that I did not get it into the ground until mid June, the freeloading finches helped themselves to some of the seed and the neighbor's goats helped thenselves to what they could reach through the fence. I figure if we managed to get something after all that, I should be able to grow something from fresh seeds, I'd hope. My first harvest was the beginning of September.

I've never heard of Fleet until you mentioned it, but as you pointed out, corn takes a lot of room and I really did not want to deal with it until recently. I would plant a block in the garden and what ever I got was fine by me, but now...

Billie

This year, I grew white Mirai from Park Seed. It was good! I'm not really a corn lover, but my wife is. Park's called it "ultra supersweet" and says people in Japan drive 100 miles to find this stuff at roadside stands. I can vouch that it is tender and sweet.

Here's a photo of my first harvest of it this year. This was in late August, I think. I planted a little late this year -- not until June. It's supposed to ripen in 71 days. Not all the cobs looked this good -- I planted two batches, and I didn't fertilize enough on the later one. I think some earwigs and grasshoppers damaged the silks on some of the others, too. But we did like it a lot and plan to grow some more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mirai at Park Seed

That is some pretty white corn. We only eat corn on the cob in the summer, when we bar-b-que. The rest of the year we eat canned and creamed corn. It's a little extra work to remove, but it is a lot neater in the dining room. So how many different corns do you plant, or do you usually have several planting of one variety?

I am even tossing the idea if some popcorn. I know it needs to be planted well away from other corns to prevent cross polination, but has anyone ever grown any? We love popcorn in the winter as a movie snack on those cold winter nights. I just think it would be more fun to grow our own. Plus it would be a cool gift.

Billie

Wow, they look wonderful, Steve!

Park must have learned that text online doesn't need to be as brief as in a paper catalog - interesting information. The, "be sure to wait until the soil has thoroughly warmed in spring before sowing seed" worries me quite a bit. This requirement for warm soil is what I don't like about supersweets - I just don't have it during Springtime . . . warm soil, that is.

Pop corn, Billie? I've only grown the strawberry pop corn and for its ornamental value. . . . easy peasy!

I have also grown ornamental corn. Some like to call it Indian corn but isn't ALL corn, Indian corn? I'm fairly sure it was the "Painted Mountain" variety. It was very productive and grew HUGE - making me wonder why my sweet corn choices need to be such small plants . . .

Keeping these things separate by 50 or 100 feet is one of the problems with trying many varieties during a growing season. And yes, there were just a few colored kernels amongst the sweet corn even tho' they were separated and maturing at different times.

dÂSÂ

I only grow one now and it is "Gotta Have It". The best I've grown. There are many good ones out there but this one everyone here likes so all I grow now.

Anyone in the deep South or Coastal Alabama where I live have experience with the Mirai Hybrid sweet corn varieties To share? I am considering them for my home garden this spring.

Two of my friends who grow large gardens and take a lot of ribbons at the fair have recommended Northern Xtra Sweet for several years. So we tried it last year and didn't get in it until June as I was gone but because of a late fall we got a lot of corn in September.

Joe, I would say that the RMG's are about as far from coastal Alabama as you could get in the lower 48. I enjoyed visiting Mobile, tho'. That Gulf is sure wonderful.

Margaret, I grew Northern Xtra Sweet 5 or 6 years ago and thought it was just fine. DW didn't appreciate it. Sometimes I don't understand that woman . . . and I think I may be stuck with Fleet because of her from here on out!!

S'