Glass Gem Corn doesn't have much genetic variety we've found it grows better if you get seed stock from several sources and mix it up it develops better cobs than when planted from a single source
I purchase some red corn off ebay to grow and many of the cobs turned out completely yellow so not that easy to reuse corn seed because of cross pollination.
Way back when, all the farmers in the county used to send our volume of seed corn in to the county extension where they would mix it all up and then portion it back out to the senders. This made for great genetics and produced very healthy and abundant corn harvests. I understand that producers of trademarked varieties have put a damper on that practice in a lot of places. No reason though why people can't form their own county cooperatives to do the same practice. It's easier if everyone is working to maintain a landrace variety but it's also possible to get in contact with people growing a specific variety like this glass corn to meet up with and do the mix and swap.
I tried doing the Three Sisters planting method last year, and my corn was the only thing that did well. Something jumped the fence in my garden and completely trampled my corn stalks, though! So much time and effort put into planting it, only to have it destroyed! :(
I used gardening for stress relief after work . Now retired for 12 years I garden to stay healthy mentally and physically. Gardening was invented to teach humility .
We've spent about 5000-6000 years changing maize from 2 inch long 1/2 diameter cobs the Incas grew with no real food value to the wonderful 4 inch diameter 15-18 inch long Sugar Sweet (TM) roasting ears we can grow in 80% of the US today. Yes, they are an F3 Hybrid which means you have to buy seed every planting, and the seed is very expensive and it is very harvest critical for the highest sugar content. In places like Tulsa, OK (where I live) you may have a 48 hour harvest window-that can be a back-breaker! I can't put in a garden since my strokes, but I did grow some state-of-the-art hybrids and some heirlooms of corn, squash, tomatoes, irish potatoes, orka and more for variety and cross-pollination. I still have 180 year-old (?) white multiplier green onion plants.
🤓 Actually, corn was domesticated in mesoamerica. Inca's liked corn, but it wasn't their life as they already had potatoes by the time corn was imported. They liked turning it into an alcohol called "chicha"
Sorry about your disappointment with the corn. I`m pleased to see that you are not going to quit on it because you have some beautiful colors. Thank you for your kindness toward your viewers by offering to show us some of your greenhouse starts.
We have had good luck with Bloody Butcher for our dent corn. It is mostly red, but it will throw off some purple/blue kernels and some white ones. We always got nice big ears when we grew it, but it has been about 4 years since we grew any. They flavor was what we liked the most about it. It was a little on the sweet side, but it made some fine cornbread. Now, I think I just talked myself in to growing some next year!
I used to grow Green Oaxaca when I lived down in Texas and really loved it. Great flavor and aroma, and higher in starch than many dent varieties. Just don't expect that your cornmeal is going to be the same green color as it looks on the cob. It's mostly tan with some barely discernible green flecks if you look real close. Malting/sprouting the grains will produce better and more nutritious meal. This variety is prone to lodging if it gets watered too often but it's drought tolerant. If you're going to save your own seed you really need at least 200 productive plants to maintain healthy genetics and you really need more than that so you can avoid saving any from unsatisfactory ears. Not sure how it will grow in your area though. Corn varieties sure can be finicky from region to region, more so than anything else I've grown. Hard to tell how well one will produce until you try it. I'm looking for a variety that will produce large ears of white kernels like the white elote I used to get from Mexican roasted corn vendors. I noticed there's a seed company called South Georgia Seed Co that might carry some varieties you'd be interested in. None that are supposed to be as beautiful as the Glass Jewel, but I think good production is more satisfying than fancy colors that fall short. They have a white variety called Hickory King that has extra large kernels on 8"-9" ears, and another white variety called Trucker's favorite with 8"-10" ears which are supposed to be sweeter than most during the milk stage for fresh eating. Mary's Heirloom Seeds down in TX has those two varieties and a number of others that sound interesting, including Hickory Cane Dent which they say was selected in S. Georgia and stays in the milk stage longer than most. Anyway...hope that gives you some leads.
Travis try selecting the corn you want by size and or color you can also screen out the smaller seeds and plant the larger ones .. It will take two or three generations to get consistent returns for your efforts. You can soak older seeds in a week seaweed solution for a couple hour for a better and more convenient generations. John S.
You pronounced it correctly. I hope someday I can get my hands on some “Danny Corn” from Deep South Homestead. They didn’t have a very good harvest this year (no rain) so I doubt they will be selling any.
I don't plant popcorn anymore. The open pollinated types grew big stalks but only yielded several tiny ears per stalk if widely spaced. The hybrids do better as far as ear and kernel size. Some years they didn't dry down well due to wet weather. Popcorn and flint corn in general don't made as good of cornmeal as southern dent corn. Southern dents can yield huge, heavy ears. They won't pop, however. Their okay parched in a frying pan though. There's nothing like the flavor of cornbread made from heirloom southern dents. I grow Jarvis Golden Prolific, Cocke's Prolific, Southern Beauty, and a multi-cross variety I've been selecting from. It's possible to get 100 bushels an acre from some of those old heirlooms. I grind my own chicken and hog feed with it as well. The heirloom dent corns have a higher protein content than modern hybrid dent corns but the hybrids are more consistent and higher yielding. I'm trying to breed smaller stalks from the heirloom varieties. Back in the day, farmers were also interested in fodder yields. I don't need the fodder, I want grain.
I planted glass gem for the first time this year. Got some dried ears from a plot-neighbor at our community garden last year. Planted a 6x6 plot several weeks after my sweet corn. Temps went to 100 or more really fast here in central Texas. Exceptional drought and high temps did a number on our gardens. Corn suffered no matter how often we watered. Glass gem plants grew about 5 ft tall, were spindly, and only had 1 ear per plant. Ended up with a few 5 - 6 inch cobs of varying colors. Most were about 4 inches long with very poor pollination and narrow cobs. Only planted as a novelty but still was disappointed. Will try again next year, hoping for better luck. Won't use too much garden space on this variety.
I’ve grown the Glass Gem several times, and there are as many sizes as there are colors. My current patch is taller than ever thanks to drip, and I’ll be harvesting it in about a week.
Planted a small 100 plant block of Painted Mountain corn over Memorial Day and it looks like a bust for me also. Underfed and underwatered, no doubt. I'm going to pretend that I was trying to grow ornamental micro-corn cobs for holiday decor.
I tried Painted Hill. Technically it is a multicolored sweet corn. It dries good. I have also been trying Bloody Butcher, and that green variety you mentioned. Unfortunately most of my stalks tasselled at knee high. I did get corn, but more like a bratwurst size. I have accepted that corn growing is more of a "I grew some" experience than putting lots of food on the table. That is unless you have huge areas to grow it. The same goes with trying to grow enough dry beans for a pot of chili.
I tried a small planting of Painted Hill. Most all the varieties used to create it are adapted to western conditions. It was a very poor yielder and a waste of time. Bloody Butcher grows well for me but the stalks are huge. It was bred for fodder production and grain. Most all of the older open pollinated southern dent corns have huge stalks. The heirloom southern dent corns were generally bred to produce one big ear, while the prolific varieties were bred to produce multiple smaller ears. They also bred for fodder production. In my experience Jarvis Golden Prolific and Cocke's Prolific have the least fodder for the amount of grain produced. You can figure on an average of at least a half pound of dry kernels per ear. Many of the bigger ears produce over a pound of dry kernels. Plants need 15-18" in row spacing and about 40" between rows. The plants need to have soil hilled up at the bases when knee high and side dressed with a high nitrogen fertilizer. 100 plants equal at least 50lbs of dried corn.
Man first year I ever grew corn and didn't know anything about it. Grew silver queen then in same spot grew Jimmy red and I know I didn't treat it like I should and it did very well. My glass gem corn is starting to tassle right now at not even 6 ft. And a good bit earlier than my calaner says it should be
God gave us gardening to keep us humble. Neither my squash or okra came up well this year. The heat in July was terrible then the monsoon rains in august pretty much stole my enthusiasm. BUT I am planting a fall garden and my hopes are high.(now we have hurricane season🤪)
Our Glass Gem corn has never thrown large ears, only medium and small. From what I understand, they are supposed to throw a medium size ear, so we aren't too disappointed. It does make great cornmeal. :)
That is my understanding as well. I've grown it for several years, and have been quite happy with how it produces. I just expect it to be fairly small ears so am not disappointed at all. It does make great cornmeal, and the colors are simply gorgeous. I pick mine a lot sooner than Travis did, and I prefer doing it that way. I also allow the kernels to dry on the cob, because that produces the best seed, in my opinion.
Could it been weather related with the corn 🌽. Try a few rows and others next year with some different varieties. A bonus or the chickens, the Weevil affected corn ears. Glad to hear the raised bed garden seems like it will be going ahead 😀j
Indian corn. We call that Indian corn. You can sell the whole cob for flower shops etc to make Thanksgiving florals, or Fall, Autumn or Harvest displays, or Halloween displays using the whole cob of Indian corn. very colorful.
Called Indian corn up north and it always produced med/large ears and was pretty drought resistant. Seemed to like the colder weather than it did the warmer weather. We used it purely for decoration
Look into Ried's Yellow Dent corn, an open pollinated field corn. My testing showed the shock from transplanting cabbage set them back enough the direct seeded cabbage caught up to the transplants pretty quickly and both look the same now. Cucumbers are the same way, direct sow the seeds.
like strawberry right lazydogfarm by the time you grow them and there ready after the harvest you go wow i should of just bought a few quarts of strawberry and saved some money
Where did you get your greenhouse and how big is it? I live in Colquitt county also between Moultrie and Berlin. Love your videos I try to watch all of them. I have learned a lot from you, Thanks
Neat video as always. If you really want to grow "field corn" try a few handfuls from a local farmer and plant it the same time as farmers are planting corn. It will probably be a 115 to125 day corn. If you want to continue to try to grow popcorn you need to find the longest season popcorn you can find. Probably will be a big orange eared variety. Plant it when farmers are planting regular field corn also. When field corn and popcorn is mature the black layer forms where the grain is connected to the cob. Rub that point on the grain with your figure gently if there is a black layer the corn is mature. Generally the later you plant field corn and popcorn the taller they will be. Don't know what to tell you about weevils at that stage.
Thanks! Just spent a month down your way at Ochlockonee Bay, food, fishing and a ton of heat and humidity (actually just as humid with periodic rain when we got home yesterday, did we leave Florida?), with almost daily rain somewhere in the area. Just catching up. Have a couple pitchers of sweet tea on me (or your drink of choice), for those dog days outside.
So I tried some late summer glass gem and only had 4 stalks come up!! I have been reading on it and talking with a buddy of mine that grows Bloody Butcher on his farm and he said when they was growing glass gem they found it had years where it done well and years it was like yours and just pitiful!! He swears that the flint corns do not need as much nitrogen as the sweet corn does and that glass gem done a lot better when they had to buy seed stock to mix with theirs. He says he can’t prove it but it did better, said maybe it was coincidence, weather etc but anytime they planted a single stock it was not as good.
Every good looking gem corn harvest I've seen comes from zones that aren't as hot as the southern zones. After moving to Florida I found out there are plant varieties that just don't like the deep south.
Thing is it's an ancient variety right. So all that poor yield has been improved since and better varieties have come about. Just think how difficult life was when you needed corn to survive and this is the type of yield you could expect. Also interesting there didn't seem to be as much color variety this year, not so much green and blue colors.
It was created in the 1990s. Carl Barnes crossed several heirloom varieties and ended up with a flint corn that had some kernels with glass like qualities. In the 1990s (95?) He gave a handful of these seeds to Greg Schoen. Greg crossed these seeds with an heirloom popcorn a few years later. He gave some of the resulting seed to Belle Starr and Bill McDorman. The problem started when they grew it out and took a picture of it. The picture went viral in 2012 and so many people visited their website trying to buy some seeds that their website crashed. Supply was limited and it was hard to get in the first few years so it has been inbred by people who started with a handful of seed recieved from Belle Starr and Bill McDorman. Most people who got it in the early years of the craze refused to cull or select in any way. The cobs were never huge to begin with but the vigor and health of the variety has really gone downhill. It will require very careful selection to improve it and honestly, aside from it's pretty looking cobs it really is a lackluster variety. It's a mediocre popcorn and a less than mediocre flint corn.
My Glass Gem corn this year looks about the same as yours. The ears are nothing to brag about. I will never raise it again. Two years ago, I raised Bloody Butcher corn and it yielded quite well; the ears were 8-10 inches long and has a nice amount of corn rows on the cob. Stalks averaged 9-10 feet tall and I had no worm damage at all. I will grow it again. I fertilized both years with 13-13-13 and side-dressed with urea. Mid-Missouri Zone 6A
Not sure if anyone said whether or not you said the name right or not but in case they didn't say yes you said it right. At least according to my Archeaology class I took that covered the Oaxacan region among others.
This is my first summer growing the Glass gem corn, only second year growing corn and it surprisingly did well, we only plant a 4' x 4' block behind our garage, got some good length and colors on ours, but if you are wanting big ears of corn, they are not for you, they are a good size for me because mostly want them for decoration, but when we planted, did not use any of the white or yellow kernels of corn only other colors, so we ended up with a lot of pretty colors, some with a lot of pinks, you will still get some white and yellow kernels on the corn but none had a lot of that color, it is fun to mess around with the color and see what you get.
Hey Travis, I ain't never had any luck with glass gem corn. Now this year I was Planting Jimmy Red in one plot and Ohio Blue in another about the time they were 12" tall the damn rabbits came and ate them all in less than three days. I got some fencing to put up before next year. I really want to grind up my own corn meal and grits red and blue. I do have okra growing wild everywhere with tomatoes somehow they are volunteering with each other and the okra are holding the tomatoes up. If you find a good variety I will try it for now I will watch you and wait for the results. Yes, green kernel corn Mexican variety "Oaxacan" That was one I have looked at for after I try the red and the blue varieties. take care bye for now
@@LazyDogFarm not here my last place was terrible with deer I planted tons of pumpkins in the tree line and now they reseed themselves and grow wild so they ate those and left me alone!
Travis just looks like it wasn't the best year for field corn crops, I know the farmer down the road had one of his fields of around 30 acres, the outside rows pretty much had no ears and the rest wasn't much better and all plants were about 5' tall. Usually you cannot tell where the rows are because they're so tall and filled out. Seems like a lot of insect pressure this year especially on corn, sweet potatoes and tomatoes 🤷!! ✌🏻
I've grown Bloody Butcher, Cherokee White Eagle, and Hickory King with great success. I really love the Bloody Butcher flavor. Cherokee White Eagle has a good flavor. I want to try Oaxacan Green, but I've been told that Green & Gold is a good substitute that's easier and cheaper to get seed for.
I’ve never grown really big ears of Glass Gem. I call it a “mutt variety” for obvious reasons. It seems like I always get a mix of sizes as you did. I haven’t grown it in a few years. Old Jimmy Red is such a beautiful, reliable field corn! I ain’t growing ANY of it til I get these dang coons under control! They wiped out 6-40’ rows this year! I didn’t get a single ear and they left me a heck of a mess to clean up! 😂
I had 90% losses in one field of Jarvis Golden Prolific from coons and deer. I trapped and relocated 16 coons. Then the deer showed up and cleaned out the rest. Lots of animals are being pushed into my area from massive subdivision construction going on a few miles away. The woods and fields that surround my property are full of deer and hunting doesn't make a dent on the population. Coons are easy to catch in a Havahart box trap baited with marshmallows. I've never caught a cat or dog in them. The major problem is relocating them at least five miles away.
110F here today and heading to 115F for a couple days over the holiday weekend. Nights only getting down to 75F. Not fun. I picked up a yard of black mulch/compost today for the raised bed. Finally got my rototiller working. Found gas coming out a hole in the carb that should have gas coming out of. Replaced with a $20 new carb and it started on the 1st pull.
You are a young man… create your own. Interplant several colors of high quality dent varieties, and develop lazy dog corn, over the years it will mature into something unique.
That hot dry June might have had something to do with the size I'd stick with a proven reliable variety going forward. I wish I would have paid more attention to the variety we had many years ago that made the best cornmeal I've ever had. I've never had any cornmeal that good since, and that was over 20 years ago. Are you going to plant so everything doesn't come off at once? I'm thinking I'll plant some around the 15th so we can have two or three harvest of cabbage and broccoli.
I grew my blueberries in colored mulch for years, it didn't hurt a thing on earth.. But my blueberries really took off when I switched to pine chip mulch and I mean really really took off.. Once the pine chip had been on them for two or three years the blueberries where just awesome.. Pine mulch has a higher acid content and I think a rotting pine environment is just what the doctor orders for blueberries...
Glass gem corn is a shorter corn variety. The stalks don't get very big around, and the cobs are smaller than regular sweet corn. I planted and grew it last year and had 3 short 25 ft rows and ended up with about a gallon of kernels after it was dry. Color was all over the place, some ears were blue and white, some almost all pink, some almost all purple, some yellow, then some mixed with blue pink yellow white green purple etc.
glass gem. I have grown this many years good and bad years. I also grow other popcorn. glass gem is pretty by far not best popcorn. I have some seed ya want to try. next year for yellow?
It doesn't taste exactly like spinach, but it's pretty dang good. Especially considering that it's going to be a while before it's cool enough for us to have spinach.
Popcorn in general has much smaller ears of corn. Maybe your expectations are too lofty. All for you doing a variety test on corn, those videos are always appreciated.
I had really thought that corn would have produced really well with that tremendously humongous growth but that was rather unimpressive. Now I want to know what popcorn you will grow for production.
Travis...I have just ripped up all of my summer veggies in my garden. Usually I will till up everything, plant a cover crop, etc. However, this season my garden was dominated by grass and weeds. Is it ok to skip the cover crop step and tarp it right away and not remove the tarp until its time to plant my spring garden in May of next year? Didnt know if that would mess up the biology of the soil to tarp it for that long.
Sure. Go ahead and tarp if the weeds are getting the best of you. Just pull back the tarp once a month to lightly cultivate and water. Then put it back on.
Seems true that adding the called nitrogen would give a great green foliage growth and not focus on fruit growth. Maybe great for basil and herbs 🪴 to be cultivated there.
My first time growing corn, couple questions, I planted out some corn and double seeded each hole. Unfortunately only about half of the holes germinated but some that did, both seeds germinated. Is it okay to separate the plants and move them to where nothing germinated? Or will that just kill the plants? In the alternative can I plant another sweet corn variety in the open spots, I guess what I am asking if two sweet corn varieties cross pollinate will it be okay?
We tried to move small seedlings this year with 0% of success. You can plant certian types of sweet corn together. Hoss has a video of Travis and his dad talking about what all can be planted together and what can't be planted together. We just added more seeds out and they caught up pretty fast. Good luck! This is our second year.
Worse sprouting happened to me...i transplanted them when they were about 6 inches tall..took a lot of dirt and made big holes...they all were fine..i did add this stuff basically a fertilizer to them..
My experience is that corn doesn't have great germination rates, even if the package says it does. I will plant 3 kernels in each spot. I move the extra plants to empty spots once the plants are 3 to 4 inches tall. Just make sure to dig a bit deep to get under the roots. I have about a 90% success when relocating corn plants. I have not mixed corn varieties in the same planting time but I know it's suggested that if you do, both should be of the type. ie two Sh2 or two SE ...etc Don't mix Sh2 with an SE or SU variety (or similar combinations)
I'm no corn expert at all. The first thing that came to my mind was maybe you should have only saved seed from the biggest and best ears last year, instead of mixing it up with the runt ears(if that's what you did). Like I said, I'm not a corn guy, I don't know about corn genetics. Science is fairly sure this is how the ancient Americans did it, and eventually produced corn from the teosinte grass thousands of years ago. I can't think of anything else that would cause this as you are a good gardener, unless it's just a crummy variety. gg
I always get small ears with glass gem. A few friends also always get small ears. They have very pretty colors, so at this point, I grow them just for the aesthetic lol.
Solar radiation is higher this year. Earth’s magnetism is weaker, and more radiation (not just heat) is hitting earth. This may have some influence on corn - or it may not ! This is new solar science.
Glass Gem Corn doesn't have much genetic variety we've found it grows better if you get seed stock from several sources and mix it up it develops better cobs than when planted from a single source
I purchase some red corn off ebay to grow and many of the cobs turned out completely yellow so not that easy to reuse corn seed because of cross pollination.
Way back when, all the farmers in the county used to send our volume of seed corn in to the county extension where they would mix it all up and then portion it back out to the senders. This made for great genetics and produced very healthy and abundant corn harvests. I understand that producers of trademarked varieties have put a damper on that practice in a lot of places. No reason though why people can't form their own county cooperatives to do the same practice. It's easier if everyone is working to maintain a landrace variety but it's also possible to get in contact with people growing a specific variety like this glass corn to meet up with and do the mix and swap.
I tried doing the Three Sisters planting method last year, and my corn was the only thing that did well. Something jumped the fence in my garden and completely trampled my corn stalks, though! So much time and effort put into planting it, only to have it destroyed! :(
I used gardening for stress relief after work . Now retired for 12 years I garden to stay healthy mentally and physically. Gardening was invented to teach humility .
It will definitely do that!
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
- Masanobu Fukuoka
We've spent about 5000-6000 years changing maize from 2 inch long 1/2 diameter cobs the Incas grew with no real food value to the wonderful 4 inch diameter 15-18 inch long Sugar Sweet (TM) roasting ears we can grow in 80% of the US today. Yes, they are an F3 Hybrid which means you have to buy seed every planting, and the seed is very expensive and it is very harvest critical for the highest sugar content. In places like Tulsa, OK (where I live) you may have a 48 hour harvest window-that can be a back-breaker! I can't put in a garden since my strokes, but I did grow some state-of-the-art hybrids and some heirlooms of corn, squash, tomatoes, irish potatoes, orka and more for variety and cross-pollination. I still have 180 year-old (?) white multiplier green onion plants.
🤓 Actually, corn was domesticated in mesoamerica. Inca's liked corn, but it wasn't their life as they already had potatoes by the time corn was imported. They liked turning it into an alcohol called "chicha"
I raised a 10×10 plot with enough to continue to plant next year for the novelty. Broke my spirit after high expectations🙃 Such is gardening.
Sorry about your disappointment with the corn. I`m pleased to see that you are not going to quit on it because you have some beautiful colors. Thank you for your kindness toward your viewers by offering to show us some of your greenhouse starts.
We have had good luck with Bloody Butcher for our dent corn. It is mostly red, but it will throw off some purple/blue kernels and some white ones. We always got nice big ears when we grew it, but it has been about 4 years since we grew any. They flavor was what we liked the most about it. It was a little on the sweet side, but it made some fine cornbread. Now, I think I just talked myself in to growing some next year!
Sounds like a plan!
I used to grow Green Oaxaca when I lived down in Texas and really loved it. Great flavor and aroma, and higher in starch than many dent varieties. Just don't expect that your cornmeal is going to be the same green color as it looks on the cob. It's mostly tan with some barely discernible green flecks if you look real close. Malting/sprouting the grains will produce better and more nutritious meal. This variety is prone to lodging if it gets watered too often but it's drought tolerant. If you're going to save your own seed you really need at least 200 productive plants to maintain healthy genetics and you really need more than that so you can avoid saving any from unsatisfactory ears. Not sure how it will grow in your area though. Corn varieties sure can be finicky from region to region, more so than anything else I've grown. Hard to tell how well one will produce until you try it.
I'm looking for a variety that will produce large ears of white kernels like the white elote I used to get from Mexican roasted corn vendors. I noticed there's a seed company called South Georgia Seed Co that might carry some varieties you'd be interested in. None that are supposed to be as beautiful as the Glass Jewel, but I think good production is more satisfying than fancy colors that fall short. They have a white variety called Hickory King that has extra large kernels on 8"-9" ears, and another white variety called Trucker's favorite with 8"-10" ears which are supposed to be sweeter than most during the milk stage for fresh eating. Mary's Heirloom Seeds down in TX has those two varieties and a number of others that sound interesting, including Hickory Cane Dent which they say was selected in S. Georgia and stays in the milk stage longer than most. Anyway...hope that gives you some leads.
I've grown both Hickory King and Trucker's Favorite. Both are great varieties. Hickory King makes really tall plants and massive ears.
@@LazyDogFarm Nice!
Travis try selecting the corn you want by size and or color you can also screen out the smaller seeds and plant the larger ones .. It will take two or three generations to get consistent returns for your efforts.
You can soak older seeds in a week seaweed solution for a couple hour for a better and more convenient generations.
John S.
You pronounced it correctly. I hope someday I can get my hands on some “Danny Corn” from Deep South Homestead. They didn’t have a very good harvest this year (no rain) so I doubt they will be selling any.
Yes, I learned how to select good seed from Justin at Metcalf Mills.
Love his channel.
I don't plant popcorn anymore. The open pollinated types grew big stalks but only yielded several tiny ears per stalk if widely spaced. The hybrids do better as far as ear and kernel size. Some years they didn't dry down well due to wet weather. Popcorn and flint corn in general don't made as good of cornmeal as southern dent corn. Southern dents can yield huge, heavy ears. They won't pop, however. Their okay parched in a frying pan though. There's nothing like the flavor of cornbread made from heirloom southern dents.
I grow Jarvis Golden Prolific, Cocke's Prolific, Southern Beauty, and a multi-cross variety I've been selecting from. It's possible to get 100 bushels an acre from some of those old heirlooms. I grind my own chicken and hog feed with it as well. The heirloom dent corns have a higher protein content than modern hybrid dent corns but the hybrids are more consistent and higher yielding. I'm trying to breed smaller stalks from the heirloom varieties. Back in the day, farmers were also interested in fodder yields. I don't need the fodder, I want grain.
I'd be interested in a trial using organic verses inorganics fertilizers to grow glass gem corn.
I haven't tried growing it with synthetic fertilizers, but I'm not sure that it would do much better.
I planted glass gem for the first time this year. Got some dried ears from a plot-neighbor at our community garden last year. Planted a 6x6 plot several weeks after my sweet corn. Temps went to 100 or more really fast here in central Texas. Exceptional drought and high temps did a number on our gardens. Corn suffered no matter how often we watered. Glass gem plants grew about 5 ft tall, were spindly, and only had 1 ear per plant. Ended up with a few 5 - 6 inch cobs of varying colors. Most were about 4 inches long with very poor pollination and narrow cobs. Only planted as a novelty but still was disappointed. Will try again next year, hoping for better luck. Won't use too much garden space on this variety.
I’ve grown the Glass Gem several times, and there are as many sizes as there are colors. My current patch is taller than ever thanks to drip, and I’ll be harvesting it in about a week.
Good to see your son's they growing up fast like your new added family (ducks) lol thank you for your video's
Planted a small 100 plant block of Painted Mountain corn over Memorial Day and it looks like a bust for me also. Underfed and underwatered, no doubt. I'm going to pretend that I was trying to grow ornamental micro-corn cobs for holiday decor.
Sorry to hear that. Can't win them all.
I tried Painted Hill. Technically it is a multicolored sweet corn. It dries good. I have also been trying Bloody Butcher, and that green variety you mentioned. Unfortunately most of my stalks tasselled at knee high. I did get corn, but more like a bratwurst size. I have accepted that corn growing is more of a "I grew some" experience than putting lots of food on the table. That is unless you have huge areas to grow it. The same goes with trying to grow enough dry beans for a pot of chili.
I tried a small planting of Painted Hill. Most all the varieties used to create it are adapted to western conditions. It was a very poor yielder and a waste of time. Bloody Butcher grows well for me but the stalks are huge. It was bred for fodder production and grain. Most all of the older open pollinated southern dent corns have huge stalks. The heirloom southern dent corns were generally bred to produce one big ear, while the prolific varieties were bred to produce multiple smaller ears. They also bred for fodder production. In my experience Jarvis Golden Prolific and Cocke's Prolific have the least fodder for the amount of grain produced. You can figure on an average of at least a half pound of dry kernels per ear. Many of the bigger ears produce over a pound of dry kernels. Plants need 15-18" in row spacing and about 40" between rows. The plants need to have soil hilled up at the bases when knee high and side dressed with a high nitrogen fertilizer. 100 plants equal at least 50lbs of dried corn.
Try the three sisters method of playing interspersed corn, beans and pumpkin which provide what each other needs. At least you should research it.
Man first year I ever grew corn and didn't know anything about it. Grew silver queen then in same spot grew Jimmy red and I know I didn't treat it like I should and it did very well. My glass gem corn is starting to tassle right now at not even 6 ft. And a good bit earlier than my calaner says it should be
God gave us gardening to keep us humble. Neither my squash or okra came up well this year. The heat in July was terrible then the monsoon rains in august pretty much stole my enthusiasm. BUT I am planting a fall garden and my hopes are high.(now we have hurricane season🤪)
Been an odd hurricane season so far. Hoping we all continue to be spared.
Our Glass Gem corn has never thrown large ears, only medium and small. From what I understand, they are supposed to throw a medium size ear, so we aren't too disappointed. It does make great cornmeal. :)
That is my understanding as well. I've grown it for several years, and have been quite happy with how it produces. I just expect it to be fairly small ears so am not disappointed at all. It does make great cornmeal, and the colors are simply gorgeous. I pick mine a lot sooner than Travis did, and I prefer doing it that way. I also allow the kernels to dry on the cob, because that produces the best seed, in my opinion.
I grew glass gem in the NM high desert. The ears were all petit, but the colors were brighter than yours. The taste though, was outstanding.
Could it been weather related with the corn 🌽.
Try a few rows and others next year with some different varieties.
A bonus or the chickens, the Weevil affected corn ears.
Glad to hear the raised bed garden seems like it will be going ahead 😀j
Travis sorry about your corn crop but thank you for sharing the experience
The Breez
Indian corn. We call that Indian corn. You can sell the whole cob for flower shops etc to make Thanksgiving florals, or Fall, Autumn or Harvest displays, or Halloween displays using the whole cob of Indian corn. very colorful.
My Glass Gem Corn turn out the same way . Thanks for info
It may be that the weather just wasn't right this year for the glass gem corn. It wasn't right for Danny's either.
Called Indian corn up north and it always produced med/large ears and was pretty drought resistant. Seemed to like the colder weather than it did the warmer weather. We used it purely for decoration
Look into Ried's Yellow Dent corn, an open pollinated field corn. My testing showed the shock from transplanting cabbage set them back enough the direct seeded cabbage caught up to the transplants pretty quickly and both look the same now. Cucumbers are the same way, direct sow the seeds.
I've heard of that corn variety, but never tried it. Thanks for the suggestion.
I grew Imperial broccoli this spring. They were up and growing in 2 days and had 100% germination rate. 👍
like strawberry right lazydogfarm by the time you grow them and there ready after the harvest you go wow i should of just bought a few quarts of strawberry and saved some money
I'm still in the high 80's here so I'm waiting to start my cool season seeds
You need to get with Danny at Deep South homestead and get some Danny Corn. Give that a try .
I've grown it the last two years, yeah they're kind of small ears but awesome as popcorn
Where did you get your greenhouse and how big is it? I live in Colquitt county also between Moultrie and Berlin. Love your videos I try to watch all of them. I have learned a lot from you, Thanks
Got it from Atlas Greenhouse over in Alapaha.
Neat video as always. If you really want to grow "field corn" try a few handfuls from a local farmer and plant it the same time as farmers are planting corn. It will probably be a 115 to125 day corn. If you want to continue to try to grow popcorn you need to find the longest season popcorn you can find. Probably will be a big orange eared variety. Plant it when farmers are planting regular field corn also. When field corn and popcorn is mature the black layer forms where the grain is connected to the cob. Rub that point on the grain with your figure gently if there is a black layer the corn is mature. Generally the later you plant field corn and popcorn the taller they will be. Don't know what to tell you about weevils at that stage.
My glass gem didn't do well either. I look forward to seeing what you do for a replacement.
Thanks! Just spent a month down your way at Ochlockonee Bay, food, fishing and a ton of heat and humidity (actually just as humid with periodic rain when we got home yesterday, did we leave Florida?), with almost daily rain somewhere in the area. Just catching up. Have a couple pitchers of sweet tea on me (or your drink of choice), for those dog days outside.
Hope you enjoyed your time there! It's a beautiful place! Thanks!
We grew it this year. It's a heirloom corn. Being closer to original corn it's not gonna grow like hybrid dent corn.
So I tried some late summer glass gem and only had 4 stalks come up!! I have been reading on it and talking with a buddy of mine that grows Bloody Butcher on his farm and he said when they was growing glass gem they found it had years where it done well and years it was like yours and just pitiful!! He swears that the flint corns do not need as much nitrogen as the sweet corn does and that glass gem done a lot better when they had to buy seed stock to mix with theirs. He says he can’t prove it but it did better, said maybe it was coincidence, weather etc but anytime they planted a single stock it was not as good.
Interesting. It did seem like the genetic diversity regressed on it.
@@LazyDogFarm I thought it was odd but I’m no corn farmer so someone could tell me a outright complete lie and I’d never know it!
My ears perk up when Brooklyn is being funny. Send Brooklyn out to talk to that corn next year to see if those ears perk up.
Every good looking gem corn harvest I've seen comes from zones that aren't as hot as the southern zones. After moving to Florida I found out there are plant varieties that just don't like the deep south.
That's definitely true with some varieties.
Thing is it's an ancient variety right. So all that poor yield has been improved since and better varieties have come about.
Just think how difficult life was when you needed corn to survive and this is the type of yield you could expect.
Also interesting there didn't seem to be as much color variety this year, not so much green and blue colors.
It was created in the 1990s. Carl Barnes crossed several heirloom varieties and ended up with a flint corn that had some kernels with glass like qualities. In the 1990s (95?) He gave a handful of these seeds to Greg Schoen. Greg crossed these seeds with an heirloom popcorn a few years later. He gave some of the resulting seed to Belle Starr and Bill McDorman. The problem started when they grew it out and took a picture of it. The picture went viral in 2012 and so many people visited their website trying to buy some seeds that their website crashed. Supply was limited and it was hard to get in the first few years so it has been inbred by people who started with a handful of seed recieved from Belle Starr and Bill McDorman. Most people who got it in the early years of the craze refused to cull or select in any way. The cobs were never huge to begin with but the vigor and health of the variety has really gone downhill. It will require very careful selection to improve it and honestly, aside from it's pretty looking cobs it really is a lackluster variety. It's a mediocre popcorn and a less than mediocre flint corn.
That was very odd to me as well. It's like the vibrant colors regressed.
My Glass Gem corn this year looks about the same as yours. The ears are nothing to brag about. I will never raise it again.
Two years ago, I raised Bloody Butcher corn and it yielded quite well; the ears were 8-10 inches long and has a nice amount of corn rows on the cob. Stalks averaged 9-10 feet tall and I had no worm damage at all. I will grow it again.
I fertilized both years with 13-13-13 and side-dressed with urea. Mid-Missouri Zone 6A
Sounds very similar to my experiences.
Not sure if anyone said whether or not you said the name right or not but in case they didn't say yes you said it right. At least according to my Archeaology class I took that covered the Oaxacan region among others.
This is my first summer growing the Glass gem corn, only second year growing corn and it surprisingly did well, we only plant a 4' x 4' block behind our garage, got some good length and colors on ours, but if you are wanting big ears of corn, they are not for you, they are a good size for me because mostly want them for decoration, but when we planted, did not use any of the white or yellow kernels of corn only other colors, so we ended up with a lot of pretty colors, some with a lot of pinks, you will still get some white and yellow kernels on the corn but none had a lot of that color, it is fun to mess around with the color and see what you get.
Well, Your boy Stetson sure will cheer you up.
Yes he will. The mailman delivers!
Keep your secrets to yourself , there are a lot of ears there 😂🤣😂
Yep. Gotta be careful what you say ...
Tennessee Red Cob has done good for me. Best I have done is a 15x30 and got 50lbs of ground yellow corn.
That's pretty good production!
earth tone corn might be one to try really nice colors and good size ears
I do like the looks of that one!
Hey Travis, I ain't never had any luck with glass gem corn. Now this year I was Planting Jimmy Red in one plot and Ohio Blue in another about the time they were 12" tall the damn rabbits came and ate them all in less than three days. I got some fencing to put up before next year. I really want to grind up my own corn meal and grits red and blue. I do have okra growing wild everywhere with tomatoes somehow they are volunteering with each other and the okra are holding the tomatoes up.
If you find a good variety I will try it for now I will watch you and wait for the results.
Yes, green kernel corn Mexican variety "Oaxacan" That was one I have looked at for after I try the red and the blue varieties. take care bye for now
I'm surprised the deer don't eat the okree.
@@LazyDogFarm not here my last place was terrible with deer I planted tons of pumpkins in the tree line and now they reseed themselves and grow wild so they ate those and left me alone!
Travis just looks like it wasn't the best year for field corn crops, I know the farmer down the road had one of his fields of around 30 acres, the outside rows pretty much had no ears and the rest wasn't much better and all plants were about 5' tall. Usually you cannot tell where the rows are because they're so tall and filled out. Seems like a lot of insect pressure this year especially on corn, sweet potatoes and tomatoes 🤷!! ✌🏻
I can’t wait to start my fall seeds!
I've grown Bloody Butcher, Cherokee White Eagle, and Hickory King with great success. I really love the Bloody Butcher flavor. Cherokee White Eagle has a good flavor. I want to try Oaxacan Green, but I've been told that Green & Gold is a good substitute that's easier and cheaper to get seed for.
It's been a while, but Hickory King is a good one. I think the Oaxacan Green is going to be my choice for next year if I can find the seeds.
Nice video. Eaglegards... For your
Georgia Southern University football enjoyment.
Oaxacan was pronounced correctly. Bonus points.
Thanks!
I’ve never grown really big ears of Glass Gem. I call it a “mutt variety” for obvious reasons. It seems like I always get a mix of sizes as you did. I haven’t grown it in a few years. Old Jimmy Red is such a beautiful, reliable field corn! I ain’t growing ANY of it til I get these dang coons under control! They wiped out 6-40’ rows this year! I didn’t get a single ear and they left me a heck of a mess to clean up! 😂
I had 90% losses in one field of Jarvis Golden Prolific from coons and deer. I trapped and relocated 16 coons. Then the deer showed up and cleaned out the rest. Lots of animals are being pushed into my area from massive subdivision construction going on a few miles away. The woods and fields that surround my property are full of deer and hunting doesn't make a dent on the population.
Coons are easy to catch in a Havahart box trap baited with marshmallows. I've never caught a cat or dog in them. The major problem is relocating them at least five miles away.
If you want a big eared colored corn, wades giant can get 12 in+ cobs
110F here today and heading to 115F for a couple days over the holiday weekend. Nights only getting down to 75F. Not fun. I picked up a yard of black mulch/compost today for the raised bed. Finally got my rototiller working. Found gas coming out a hole in the carb that should have gas coming out of. Replaced with a $20 new carb and it started on the 1st pull.
As good as you are at growing corn and that glass gem not doing so well again I believe I would choose a different variety 👍
The problem with glass gem is that it's a flint corn, flint corn likes cooler weather than dent corn and sweet corn.
Check that your sunflower seed isn't hollow I have grown a giant variety before and almost all seed was hollow.
Just a guess but maybe there was a micro nutrient that had something to do with it?
You are a young man… create your own. Interplant several colors of high quality dent varieties, and develop lazy dog corn, over the years it will mature into something unique.
That hot dry June might have had something to do with the size I'd stick with a proven reliable variety going forward. I wish I would have paid more attention to the variety we had many years ago that made the best cornmeal I've ever had. I've never had any cornmeal that good since, and that was over 20 years ago.
Are you going to plant so everything doesn't come off at once? I'm thinking I'll plant some around the 15th so we can have two or three harvest of cabbage and broccoli.
I might do some succession planting once we get this first round of seedlings going a little better.
I grew my blueberries in colored mulch for years, it didn't hurt a thing on earth.. But my blueberries really took off when I switched to pine chip mulch and I mean really really took off.. Once the pine chip had been on them for two or three years the blueberries where just awesome.. Pine mulch has a higher acid content and I think a rotting pine environment is just what the doctor orders for blueberries...
Makes sense.
Iv been wanting to finish my fall transplants but everyone around me is sold out of starting mix. I guess I'm going to have to order it
That would make sense. The genetic diversity seems to have regressed on our stock.
So sorry your glass gem wasn't a great harvest. The weather this year could have been a major factor, as we had unusually high heat and draught.
Glass gem corn is a shorter corn variety. The stalks don't get very big around, and the cobs are smaller than regular sweet corn. I planted and grew it last year and had 3 short 25 ft rows and ended up with about a gallon of kernels after it was dry. Color was all over the place, some ears were blue and white, some almost all pink, some almost all purple, some yellow, then some mixed with blue pink yellow white green purple etc.
Our color was much better in the first year compared to this year.
Use the biggest ears with the biggest kernels for next years crop.
glass gem. I have grown this many years good and bad years. I also grow other popcorn. glass gem is pretty by far not best popcorn. I have some seed ya want to try. next year for yellow?
We really liked the Robust yellow popcorn we grew last year. It was excellent.
Are the peas running yet
Why don’t u try the “Danny corn” from Deep South Honestead? His corn ears r huge
My glass gem was such a flop, I refuse to waste my time. Silver king and Tennessee red cob does well here in Ohio. Ambrosia was also a flop.
Good Lord Travis, what r u going to do with alllll that basil? I planted 6 plants of “Emerald tower” basil & have, & r still harvesting tons of basil
I just like having it in the garden. We do make a decent bit of pesto.
There are no guarantees in gardening. IMHO
Guaranteed to have failures and successes.
Travis, do I have time to start peppers this year?
Probably not.
Have u tried that Spinach yet? Wondering if it really tastes like spinach? I grew some malabar spinach & I don’t like it as much a reg spinach
It doesn't taste exactly like spinach, but it's pretty dang good. Especially considering that it's going to be a while before it's cool enough for us to have spinach.
Friends of mine swear by their Bloody Butcher corn. I haven't tried it yet but am thinking of maybe this coming year giving it a try.
Bloody Butcher has a cousin called Jimmy Red (Hoss) that I grew out last year with success. A moonshiner's corn but also makes very tasty grits.
Mother Nature can be a little pissy sometimes. You’ll get the corn harvest you want next time!
Soak your sun flower seeds in water for a day or two before you plant them.
I started a bunch of brassicas, however in 3 days time they got all ate up from catipillars, how do u deal with that
If you know you're going to have a worm problem, I'd be sure to have some B.t. or spinosad on hand.
If you think that’s disappointing, come check a harvest of anything in my garden. 😂
I won't grow glass gem corn, it was not a performer. Made me sad.
Quick question, how do y’all keep worms out of the ears???
This stuff right here: amzn.to/3yyoh7F
Have you tried native American flint corn
I have not.
@@LazyDogFarm it grows good here in alabama
Popcorn in general has much smaller ears of corn. Maybe your expectations are too lofty. All for you doing a variety test on corn, those videos are always appreciated.
You're right about popcorn being generally smaller. But I was hopeful after having some larger ears last year.
I had really thought that corn would have produced really well with that tremendously humongous growth but that was rather unimpressive. Now I want to know what popcorn you will grow for production.
We'll probably stick with the R977 variety we grew last year. It did really well.
Travis...I have just ripped up all of my summer veggies in my garden. Usually I will till up everything, plant a cover crop, etc. However, this season my garden was dominated by grass and weeds. Is it ok to skip the cover crop step and tarp it right away and not remove the tarp until its time to plant my spring garden in May of next year? Didnt know if that would mess up the biology of the soil to tarp it for that long.
Sure. Go ahead and tarp if the weeds are getting the best of you. Just pull back the tarp once a month to lightly cultivate and water. Then put it back on.
Chicken feed corn
Seems true that adding the called nitrogen would give a great green foliage growth and not focus on fruit growth. Maybe great for basil and herbs 🪴 to be cultivated there.
Same exact results here. Beautiful big plants…runt-sized, bug-filled, wimpy ears. No more for me. 😑😊
My first time growing corn, couple questions, I planted out some corn and double seeded each hole. Unfortunately only about half of the holes germinated but some that did, both seeds germinated. Is it okay to separate the plants and move them to where nothing germinated? Or will that just kill the plants? In the alternative can I plant another sweet corn variety in the open spots, I guess what I am asking if two sweet corn varieties cross pollinate will it be okay?
We tried to move small seedlings this year with 0% of success. You can plant certian types of sweet corn together. Hoss has a video of Travis and his dad talking about what all can be planted together and what can't be planted together. We just added more seeds out and they caught up pretty fast. Good luck! This is our second year.
Worse sprouting happened to me...i transplanted them when they were about 6 inches tall..took a lot of dirt and made big holes...they all were fine..i did add this stuff basically a fertilizer to them..
Cross pollination will not matter unless you keep the seeds to sow next year.
My experience is that corn doesn't have great germination rates, even if the package says it does. I will plant 3 kernels in each spot. I move the extra plants to empty spots once the plants are 3 to 4 inches tall. Just make sure to dig a bit deep to get under the roots. I have about a 90% success when relocating corn plants. I have not mixed corn varieties in the same planting time but I know it's suggested that if you do, both should be of the type. ie two Sh2 or two SE ...etc Don't mix Sh2 with an SE or SU variety (or similar combinations)
Thanks
I'm no corn expert at all. The first thing that came to my mind was maybe you should have only saved seed from the biggest and best ears last year, instead of mixing it up with the runt ears(if that's what you did). Like I said, I'm not a corn guy, I don't know about corn genetics. Science is fairly sure this is how the ancient Americans did it, and eventually produced corn from the teosinte grass thousands of years ago. I can't think of anything else that would cause this as you are a good gardener, unless it's just a crummy variety. gg
That's a plausible explanation. I didn't select for the larger ears from last year's harvest.
Danny Corn from Deep South Homestead.
Earth tones dent corn should do much better for you…dent corn has had a lot more breeding done to it to improve the performance
I do like the looks of that one.
I always get small ears with glass gem. A few friends also always get small ears. They have very pretty colors, so at this point, I grow them just for the aesthetic lol.
The seed catalogs say 3-8” ears.
@@janking2762 they always seem to be about 4 inches, never more than that. I haven't seen anyone grow any that was more 4 inches.
Solar radiation is higher this year. Earth’s magnetism is weaker, and more radiation (not just heat) is hitting earth. This may have some influence on corn - or it may not ! This is new solar science.
what ur calling new seed is the same age as last years seed all seed is planted the year before
💪🏽