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Now for something completely different....

Here's something you don't see very often, let alone on CP forums: I grow a lot of novelty veggies in my garden, and this year something rather new for me, glass gem corn.

Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
This one so far is my favorite
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
This one is my second
Glass gem corn by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
Every ear is different, and from this year's crop I've seen just about every color and shade of the rainbow. There's still a couple more to be harvested before tonight's hard freeze, and a sneak peek of one of them showed a multitude of sky blue kernels. Can't wait to see what comes of these seeds in next year's crop.
 
Haha thats cool man. Some of the more colorful ones look like jelly beans
 
interesting...
may be a dumb question but what do you do with them? eat them? dry them out for crafts?
 
They are typically used for ornamental purposes or crafts, but can be eaten as popcorn.
 
That was my question, did you cook and eat any of them! I grew a a few odd balls this year and taste tested each of them, I'll only be growing one of them again :)
 
Some of them look rather replusive. LOL That one you posted as your favorite, though, is really, really cool! Easily the most attractive of the bunch with your second favorite a close runner up.

Be very interested to hear how the flavor turns out.

Plant-wise, were the corn stalks as tall as normal corn stalks?
 
Beautiful! I've looked into those before, are they easy to grow?
 
Not what I expected when opening the thread...... Lol... looks good my dad grew a bunch of different types when I was a kid.... Fun stuff.....
 
RSS-No, haven't; tried popping any of them yet, I'm waiting for all the ears to dry fully and then I'll pick my least favorite one to sacrifice.
DragonsEye, I would bet under completely appropriate conditions they'd probably reach normal height, though mine only hit about 4 feet max, maybe 5. More water and a longer growing period and those "ugly" ears would have probably filled out and colored up better.
Acro: plenty easy to grow, easy as any other corn. This is an Indian Corn variety, line-bred, so it has a natural resistance to pests and is relatively drought tolerant. It's just more colorful than most is all :)
 
  • #10
That's really cool. Hadn't seen that one before. Check out the varieties Bloody Butcher, Oaxacan Green Dent, and Blue Jade.

Lack of adequate pollination will also cause corn ears not to fill out. Do you see where the seeds failed to develop on the tips of some of those ears? That's generally the sign of underpollination, but as you mentioned corn is also heavily affected by environmental conditions.

Usually if you are growing <10 plants, they will have trouble with this. You can develop a workaround by crossing them by hand. Corn pollen releases in the morning as soon as the dew dries and the sun hits, so you'll want to grab it then. Otherwise, it scatters to the wind. Hope you have some fun with this next year.
 
  • #11
Haha thats cool man. Some of the more colorful ones look like jelly beans

Yeah, It absolutely looks like Jelly Belly brand corn. That's really cool Hcarlton, thanks for sharing.
 
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