 |
| Chest high on the 4th of July |
We
previously wrote about Mandan Bride flour corn and how much we love it. We planted some this year and it has blown the other corn varieties away in terms of germination rate, growth, and early maturity. That said, it will never have the sweetness of sweet corn, so it isn't an apples to apples comparison, but as a crop it is evidently suited to growth on the northern plains. It germinates in cooler soils than other corn, grows rapidly during the short wet season, and matures just before it gets too hot and dry for corn to do anything except wither and die. We've all heard the saying "knee high by the 4th of July", but this corn was chest high on the 4th of July.
 |
| Mandan Bride ears in early July |
It should be cautioned that there is no guarantee our potential crop will become a real crop. Last year our Mandan Bride suffered significantly from both disease and insects. Drought may have amplified the damage due to the plants being stressed, so hopefully we will see better luck this year. We still managed to produce a decent pile of corn last year, but it wasn't what we had hoped. This year's crop is already far ahead of last year's, so we've got that going for us. We don't spray our corn with anything, so it is a bit of a gamble. If we do spray it with anything for whatever reason, we will certainly tell you about it.
 |
| Mandan Bride has multicolored pollen. The color of the pollen affects the color of the kernel that it pollinates. |
No comments:
Post a Comment