I know I literally just said "This is my last gardening post of 2025", but this is more of a gardening adjacent post ... a follow up if you will. CALING ALL CORN FANS! No not the nu metal band featuring front man Jonathan Davis ... The yellow stuff that old people and Mexicans grow in their side yard in the nearby town. I never thought I would enjoy growing corn. I knew that I had to grow something special ... I usually look for special heirlooms etc. that aren't too expensive. I also knew I wanted to grow "ornamental corn". What older people call "Indian corn" has extremely colorful, but much harder kernals and is perfect for making popcorn or flour. I grew several strains this year and even though I made some major mistakes, I am extremely happy with the results.
If I could grow one color of corn, it would either be the hot pink Or the yellow/brown colored kernels from the ear of corn I nicknamed bees wax because of the obvious color resemblance. Of course, phenotyping is more complicated than just isolating one ear of corn, but it's not as complex as you would think. And it does involve tossing specimen you dislike and saving quality ones. But here's the [butter] rub, I didn't grow a lot of corn and so we will be re-planting every single kernel.
Let's continue the newly formed tradition of naming every ear of corn and go through the lot. The next ear of corn [reminder these aren't strain names just random pheno names I am giving each ear of corn: It's a good look into the world of breeding. There are 3 different strains here: Rainbow, glass and a special blue corn.] I am going to name this one [above] the "old lady kitchen."
It reminds me of an old white lady in the Midwest with pastel home decorations and needlepoints.
I actually gasped out oud when I saw this ear of corn. I found the phenotype that Europeans took from the natives and made modern corn! Actually I think Central and Southern Americans like Aztecs made yellow corn, but I'm not brushed up on my popcorn history and going from memory.
I think I'm going to do an experiment and plant each ear of corn by themselves. See of saving each pheno will actually have an effect or if I need a bigger sample. This could let me do selective breeding too. Now that I think about it, these corn might have cross pollinated a bit already.
DOUBLE RAINBOW CORN WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!
I wanted to share a really cool mutation, although it's probably from lack of food, not enough water, harvesting after the frost etc. I'm not holding my breath that it's an actual genetic mutation that will express itself again next year with proper growing techniques. But, it's still really cool. I couldn't find any information anywhere on the internet about corn with multiple layers of kernels. But, every farmer knows stress can cause weird mutations. It's only valuable if it's an actual trait.
