My first Indian Corn!

[Carolyn]

I have to brag about my Indian Corn. This was the first year of growing it for me. Last year I planted sweet corn but it's cheap and plentiful around the Midwestern US so I planted Indian corn instead. Every year I end up buying stalks for decorating and this year I decided to grow my own.

Yay for me, I have beautiful Indian Corn!

 

[Pat]

I have not seen Indian corn since I was a little girl in Ohio. Very pretty with all of the different colors.

 

[claudine]

Wow, it's the first time when I see Indian Corn. I had no idea that a plant like this exists. It looks so weird. Is it edible? What does it taste like?

 

[Whitewolf2578]

Yeah, I remember having some as decorations for Halloween. They are beautiful and the Wild Turkeys love them. I am glad you were successful with your corn, I am having hopes that I will do better this year with my corn as last years corn was a horrible experience.

 

[LivingLive]

I would love to try growing some of this corn! Is it difficult to grow and is there any different between it and sweet corn in terms of germination, cross pollination, etc.? I have never seen Indian corn growing before so please excuse my ignorance.

 

[Carolyn]

Indian corn is edible although it isn't tender like sweet corn. It is usually ground and made into tortillas or chips. I'm going to use it for decoration and then plant the seed again next year. Indian corn is as easy to grow as any other corn, at least it was for me. I sowed it using the scatter method rather than planting in rows and I had a 4 by 12 patch. I really had a lot of fun with this. I had the usual problem with blackbirds and such pulling up the tiny seedlings looking for the corn seed at the bottom. They are smart, those birds are! I bought mine in the grocery store and planted the seed off of them. If you want to see some really beautiful images of Indian corn there is a Facebook page named 'Glass Gem Corn'. There are some colors I haven't grown yet but I probably will.

 

[Carolyn]

After reading a little more about this, apparently this makes good popcorn too, I can't wait to try it. Now I have to wait and wait for the ears to dry.

 

[TDolce]

I started my sweet corn late this year, so I am still waiting. I chose a variety call Festivity, which has the Indian corn look of varied colored kernels. I'm looking forward to harvesting and tasting this sweet corn. The ears I keep for seed saving can also be decoration while I wait for the seeds to dry.