Heirloom Honey & Cream Corn Seed

Heirloom Seeds

• Heirloom plants are valued by growers concerned with food safety and self-sufficiency, as well as those who want better tasting produce, notes "Mother Earth News." Heirloom plants are never genetically modified. Heirloom seeds breed true, that is they produce plants that are identical or nearly identical to the mother plants. Gardeners can save the seed from heirloom plants to sow the next year and expect similar results, whereas those using modern hybrid seeds typically must buy new seeds every year. Some define heirloom varieties as those that have been around more than 50 years; others say 100 years or three generations. Still others set the criteria by year, such as no later than 1951, which is when widespread use of hybrids was introduced. These varying schools of thought agree on one thing -- a plant can't be an heirloom unless it is open-pollinated. The Connecticut Agricultural Experimental Station developed honey and cream corn in 1951; it is open-pollinated, sweet and not genetically modified.

Hybrid Seeds

• Hybrid seeds are the result of the cross pollination of two different varieties of open pollinated plant varieties. The seeds from hybrid plants do not produce plants identical to the mother plants or uniform in appearance to one another. Hybrid seeds must usually be purchased for each new crop to get the desired results. Unlike heirlooms, hybrids are often bred with shipping long distances in mind, and optimal taste and nutrition are sacrificed in favor of durability. Modern hybrid plants in a crop ripen at the same time, which is good for shipping to market, but not so good if you want to enjoy fresh corn through the season, rather than harvesting it all at once.

Normal Sugar Hybrids

• "Honey and Cream" is an old-fashioned normal sugar hybrid (SU) corn, which means it is a standard sweet corn variety. The sugary (SU) gene determines the sweetness and creaminess of the kernels of corn. Sugar hybrids are not as sweet as sugar enhanced (SE) or super sweet (SH2) hybrids. The ears, or cobs, are meaty and best cooked within 30 minutes of picking to prevent the sugar from turning into starch.

Seeds

• Plant "Honey and Cream" corn seeds in late spring and early summer when the soil is warm. Corn pollen is spread by wind, so plant corn in blocks or circles of at least four rows for best pollination. Thoroughly mix 1 pound of a complete, organic fertilizer into each 60 feet of garden row. Sow the seeds 1 to 2 inches deep at the rate of four seeds per 12 inches of row, and space rows two to three feet apart and sow. Corn seeds germinate in 7 to 10 days. After germination, remove the small or weak plants to leave healthy plants 8 to 12 inches apart. The seeds are normally viable for two years.

Problems

• "Honey and Cream" corn is prone to rot in cool or wet soil, and so should be planted in soil that is at least 65 degrees. This will also help prevent attack from seed corn maggots, small legless maggots that attack germinating seed in cool soil. If they are a problem, add predatory nematodes to the soil to help prevent these pests from damaging the seeds.