California Corn Experiment
We’ve been crossing a beautiful ornamental variety of corn with a tasty heirloom variety in an attempt to make corn that looks beautiful in your garden and on your table, but more importantly tastes better than any other corn!
The original cross (F1) was a blend of Golden Bantam (male) and Candy Stripe (Female). The results were amazing with incredible striped leaves and corn.
This above photo is the product of the original cross!
This one sprout from the original cross came out all white! It is one of hundreds of sprouts! We will save its seeds and be able to propagate it further!
This bed of corn is shaped like California! The middle row and outside rows are the first generation of cross (F1). The sandwiched rows will have their tassels removed to ensure only the F1 pollinates them. The tags at the bottom of the photo are possible names for the F1 cross.
The F2 is a cross of the original F1 with its good eating parent Golden Bantam. Evergreen is a great good eating heirloom. Both of these will be the female plants sandwiched between the F1 rows.
This year Golden Bantam will be the female. Last year she was a he and our F1 was a she. Just checking which way works better. The beans are planted as part of the three sisters Native-American tradition. Beans provide nitrogen the corn needs and the corn provides the pole the beans need! KT Blue is our cross of Kentucky with Blue Lake! And Black Eyed Peas are actually beans or a sweet band if you wanna be technical.