Gaspe flint corn

[thistlebloom]

I've never grown flint corn before, but I was intrigued by the description of Gaspe flint when I was seed shopping.
Well the interval between reading the description, ordering, waiting to plant, then waiting some more while it grows was long enough that I didn't remember the details of it's growth habit.

So today while I was weeding around it I noticed it's starting to tassle! " Big deal"you may be thinking, but what made me stop and ponder was the fact that this corn is only about 15" tall.
I figured something wasn't right, since it's still so little, so I was going to come on the forum and ask you guys for your expert advice. Meanwhile I got on the site I ordered it from and read it's history.
It was grown by the Micmacs, native to the Canadian maritimes and upper New England. It's a very old heirloom, ripening early which makes it suitable for us with short seasons,
Aaaannnd.... guess what? It only gets about 2 feet tall!
How cute is that!

Anyway, now that I know it's normal, I'm very excited about it! I'll let you all know how it turns out and post some pics.

 

[Collector]

are you going to make cornmeal out of it, or use it for feed?
2' tall wonder how many ears it will produce.

 

[thistlebloom]

I'm planning on using it this winter in soups and chowders....kind of a learn as I go thing.
I don't know how many ears each stalk produces, but the ears are only 4" long.

 

[digitS']

I hope you have fun! I'm not sure about this Painted Mountain flour corn I'm growing either, Thistle'.

There is a picture around here somewhere of it the 1st time I grew it. I swear, some of the plants were 10' tall!

I ordered the seed this year, maybe from Fedco - quite a few companies carry it. But, here is what Fedco says, "Short efficient 5' plants, long thin 67" cobs."
What!? Much taller with longer ears is how I remember it! It hasn't been more than 5 years ago!

Well, anyway, there are tassels starting on that corn! The tallest plants are only about 30". I hope that it makes it to 60"! Dang, what are the pole beans going to climb on!

What might have happened is that the breeder of this "gene pool" variety has released a shorter version lately. That's about the only way I can figure it! Otherwise, it is that I really hit it hard with side-dressed nitrogen fertilizer . . . something, I bet I completely miss this year since fertilizing corn already tasseling doesn't make much sense.



Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I planted Painted Mt. too Steve, I think mine is a tad behind yours, not tasseling yet, but close to the same height.
I also put in Orchard Baby, a small early sweet corn.
It's up by the house in my new potato bed. This was my year for corn experimentation .

 

[digitS']

You will have a miniature vegetable garden, Thistle'! The info on Orchard Baby is that it's only 3' tall!

When I was out there "off the Bunco," I grew Polar Vee corn. The Alaskan master gardeners still recommend it but I don't see the seed available any longer. They say it is a 6' variety but Polar Vee didn't grow that tall for me. Fleet was in my garden recently for a number of years. It is only about 5' tall.

Here is that picture of Painted Mountain in my garden about 4 or 5 years ago. Honestly, the bush beans are of a fairly normal height and that's a 4" sprinkler pipe:

If Painted Mountain is only gonna grow to 5' this year, Imma gonna have to put some poles in for the climbing beans to grow up on :/. They will just be in a row not a teepee. I hope the wind won't blow them down and that the vines don't smoother the corn. Darn, I thought I had this 3 Sisters thing figgered out this time .

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Beautiful corn Steve! Such a nice deep green...

We had a friend who liked to fish, and I saw him one day in his pickup and he mentioned he was taking a bag of fish innards to the dump. Naturally I told him I'd take that bag off his hands. He looked doubtful, "you sure you want it?" oh yeah, just the thing for my garden
I replied. You'd think it was a bag of gold the way I rushed home with it and prepared to till it in to my next corn patch.
I dumped out the bag and found it contained catfish heads and backs (and stuff ). Well, I distribute them around the bed and fire up my tiller.... I had no prior experience with catfish, but I quickly discovered that their heads are tougher than most other things I can think of, and certainly tougher than my poor tiller had ever encountered.
I ran those suckers over and over and over, and they kept churning out the back of my tiller in the same condition that they had come out of the bag and nearly beating me and my tiller to death in the process. Got the sledge hammer and attempted to pulverize them that way, but it just bounced off.
Thoroughly dismayed I went back to churning and hoped I got enough of them busted up and incorporated into the soil that it wouldn't offend our good neighbors. I had visions of packs of dogs and cats and wild carnivorous animals descending on my garden and wondered what kind of dumb stunt I had done this time.

In the end nobody was offended, no ravaging animals showed up , and my corn was the deepest green you have ever seen.
Happy ending.

Your corn picture brought that memory back....

 

[hoodat]

Strange the dilemmas you run into in this gardening game isn't it?

 

[lesa]

Oh thistle, that is too funny! I am very intrigued by this "miniature" corn- looking forward to hearing your harvest result...

 

[seedcorn]

I have to ask, why flint corn? If growing popcorn, only choice is flint. For ground corn meal or feed, dent types are a much better choice as you will get more digestable nutrients. Flint corn is pretty much indigestable.