looking for an open pollinated corn

Charlie M · Nov 2, 2011

Looking for some advice on an open pollinated corn to grow. I grew Reids yellow dent this year. The stuff is 10 - 12 ft tall, suffered from a lot of wind damage and is being a huge pain to pick. I pick with the old pickers just picking the ear. I've got lots of nice ears but I think I need to try something else next time. I'm looking for a good open pollinated corn as I only need a bag or 2 each year and for the small amount it would be a lot simpler and cheaper to just keep my own seed instead of bothering the guys.

paul · Nov 3, 2011

Albert Lea Seed House sells a few types - as well as hybred seed - and will UPS, so no bother to them to send out a bag if you want hybreds. Their corn is likely suited for southern Minnesota growing season....

--->Paul

farmer steve · Nov 3, 2011

Up here in North Dakota I found a shorter 5 foot varity. Victory Seeds have a good selection but it's smaller quanity orders. Sunshine sweet corn is what I grew. Did ok but you did see some fungus problems with our last two wet years. Openpollinated.com has good varities and ships in a 10 pound box with free shipping. I grew my sunshine sweet corn in my garden plot for the last two years, saved the seed and now I have enough to plant a border along my field. american organic.com also has a good selection of organic corn but I'm not sure if it's OP. Johnny's seeds also has a good selection but the prices are high if you want large amounts.

Chester5731 · Nov 3, 2011

I grew Wapsie Valley from openpollinated.com this year. It did very well out yeilding hybrids that I have planted in the past. A few stalks went down but we had some very high winds. I will be planting it again without hesitation.

RGMartin · Nov 3, 2011

I planted an acre or so of Bloody butcher that I saved from my own last year. It is going to make my best yields this year. also going to make the combine work the hardest pulling 12+' stalks through the head. I'm not sure the combine will run slow enough.

I planted some blue from a member here, the jury is still out on it. Critters were hard on it, and it wasn't on the best ground. Big problem with it is that it cross-pollinated with some yellow field corn I had 1/4 mile away, so I have yellow corn with stray blue kernels. I hope someone will buy it...

Anonymous-0 · Nov 5, 2011

could someone please explain why anyone would plant op corn when they could plant a hybrid and get twice the corn off the same amount of land

JMS/.MN · Nov 5, 2011

Doug- I can"t explain it. I have a distant organic neighbor, good friend, wonderful person, in the next township, owns multiple parcels, and I don"t need to check the platbook to tell which 40s, 80s, are his - I just look for the weedy fields. He plants and sells OP corn, organic beans/hay- makes a living at it, along with his "side enterprises". But certainly not my choice. I remember too many years when I couldn"t cultivate because of excess rain, etc. Recent years, just farming part-time, harvest is so much better, and yields too, without the weed battle.

wilder11354 · Nov 5, 2011

anyone ever hear of a sweet corn called Luther Hill?

Anonymous-0 · Nov 5, 2011

I have heard the stories about 10' tall op corn and the ears flat on the ground. I had some indian corn I planted in the corn field one year, ran it through the combine, what a mess, the stalks all broke off and ppiled up on the head. As for the orgasmic/organic farming or what ever they call it, I won't argue that chemicals are good for us or the land but I can raise 80 bu more corn per acre for $10 worth of spray so it becomes an economic no-brainer. We have a guy that nec=ver did spray so organic gives him an excuse, he gets excellent yields of foxtail, sunflowers, mustard and thistles!

JMS/.MN · Nov 6, 2011

Your post is so comical! Yeah, 10-12 foot tall corn, for what? grain yield is higher?, or just more CHO infested stalk to chop into the silo....but you trumped everything with the comment about orgasmic farming!! Never thought about it that way before, but I understand that some guys do get off over their style of farming. Me? I"ll settle for "conventional", farming and otherwise. Thanks for the humor!

sixtyninegmc · Nov 6, 2011

(quoted from post at 00:32:42 11/06/11) Your post is so comical! Yeah, 10-12 foot tall corn, for what? grain yield is higher?, or just more CHO infested stalk to chop into the silo....but you trumped everything with the comment about orgasmic farming!! Never thought about it that way before, but I understand that some guys do get off over their style of farming. Me? I"ll settle for "conventional", farming and otherwise. Thanks for the humor!

80 years ago organic WAS conventional. I can not understand why some people are so opposed to a few of us "kooks" doing it the old fashioned way? I have no problem with folks who farm conventionally, why do most of them seem to have a problem with folks who do it different? Foolish farm management resulted in the widespread failures associated with the dust bowl (over-tillage, depleting the soil), and now it seems foolish farm management on "agri-business" farms chasing the almighty buck in many cases is swinging many folks opinions back the other way. Maybe we could meet in the middle? Nah, too reasonable.

If farming was about the profit to me, I would have been an idiot to start.

Anonymous-0 · Nov 6, 2011

If you can plant seed that raises twice the yield on the same amount of land why wouldn't you? That would be the most foolish farm management mistake of them all. I have bills to pay like rent,fuel, seed, cost of living ect. my goal is to generate the income to pay these bills, we all produce =with the intent of making something, you can plant a hybrid and grow it like the old days with cultivation and no spray if you like, the benefit is much improved yield, standability, ear retention, disease/insect resistance ect. There is no place for op corn except in a living history farm. I have no time for the large acre land hogs either but before you lump me into this category you might want to stop by and visit my farm first.

sixtyninegmc · Nov 6, 2011

I have a hard time considering a farm sustainable if you are not able to plant if the seed company does not come through. Maybe that comes from living where we have a few less options and a lot less support, but to me the option of taking your own seed if all else fails is very attractive. Corn is only a hypothetical discussion for me, it doesn`t work out up here, but I prefer working with plants that still function the way they were designed, and I truly believe that hybrids and sprays are more detrimental to the ground in the long run. So long as I can make a living without hybrids, I will.

shawnspeed3 · Nov 6, 2011

I personnaly don't care to sign my rights a way to a company to buy "their"seed....even if it yields double, the grain quality will not be the same as the OP ...there is a limit to what a acre of land will give up to a crop in a cycle ...80bu. or 160bu. the nutrients will be similar...which means you need twice tha grain for the same nutritional value....What a bargan eh???Oh you ever notice how the deer/turkeys, will eat up the OP stuff before the RR veriaties????They know someting we dont??? Just ask your cows/pigs what they want ...I fed a batch of feeder pigs my OP corn until it ran out , and bought some conventional to finish them out....everything else in the ration stayed the same...they just about quit eating...there weight gain slowed and it took 2 weeks longer to get them to weight....just my 2 C...Shawn

looking for an open pollinated corn

Charlie M

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paul

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farmer steve

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Chester5731

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RGMartin

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Anonymous-0

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JMS/.MN

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wilder11354

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Anonymous-0

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JMS/.MN

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sixtyninegmc

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Anonymous-0

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sixtyninegmc

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shawnspeed3

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