Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Ripe foxtail millet
CORN, MAIZE
Zea mays
Corn (UK: maize) is far and away the most important crop plant to come from the New World. After
wheat and rice, it is the third-most-cultivated grain worldwide, the largest producers being the USA,
China, Brazil, and Mexico. Corn is also one of the most important crops in the world of plant breeding,
and many genetically modified varieties are now grown in several different countries; all corn varieties
grown industrially, mostly to feed livestock, are hybrids. Worldwide there are at least 3,000 different
varieties of this highly adaptable plant, and innumerable open-pollinated varieties are still being bred
locally to this day.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
• 100 to 150 plants or a field of corn
• paper bags for isolating flowers
• time for hand pollination
• sufficient space
POLLINATION NOTES
Corn is a wind-pollinated outcrosser. All varieties can cross-pollinate one an-
other. Growing a flint corn and a sweet corn for seed in the same year means pollinating by hand or
growing the varieties far enough apart that they cannot cross. Isolate by ¼- mile (400-500 m) when
growing relatively small quantities in a diverse garden landscape. Isolation distances of several miles
are used in professional breeding. Do not forget to consider commercial cornfields, pollen from which
can travel for several miles, when calculating isolation distances in your area. The simplest method
would be to grow only one variety per year of corn for seed in an area at least several miles away from
large cornfields. Harvest ears from the middle of the patch for seed.
Categories of corn varieties
DESCRIPTION
OF KERNELS
TYPE
USE
