I planted Celestial this year and lost nearly half of it to smut. I plant really densely and usually water a lot. This was a "perfect storm" of conditions for smut, as it prefers white corn, moist conditions and low air circulation. I'll fix that next year. On the upside, smut soup isn't bad and I read that you can make a really good taco with it. As for ears on corn, in my limited (three years) experience growing corn, I only get one ear per stalk and have 20% of my stalks not produce ears (though they do produce pollen and I haven't had any pollination problems). I had figured that if I lose 20% of the stalks but have better pollination on the rest, then that was fine. Next year I'll space them out more and try hand-pollinating to see if that increases yield, or only increases work.

OK Gandle, I am sure you are up to composing an ode to sweet corn. I'll think on it as well, as I am singing sweet songs to my crop this year. My first and main crop was butter 'n cream. My second crop is .......blush.....forget the name but it's an old fashioned open pollinated yellow. It has a super fast maturity date and that's a plus when one is trying to squeeze in one last planting. Agree with you, not as sweet, but tastes like we remember real corn tasting. I planted it because some garden space opened up and one can NEVER grow too much corn. I started picking my corn way on the early side and my dh is revolting, telling me to wait until the ears are nice and plump. Well, excuse me, they were delicious and not at all wasteful as so much shall come on so closely that better to eat on the small tender size than waste it. He's not the one who'll have to get it canned or frozen. I got really lucky with the rains this year for such a dry summer. They came at pollination and are coming as the kernels fill. The ears are very well filled out, not missing many kernels at all. The coons haven't found it yet. Did I say the coons haven't found it yet? The deer have, but after munching the top out of one plant and leaving their signature hoof print left it alone, preferring the soy bean fields behind and down the road toward town. rofl. Even now that the locally grown is in season, the prices at market are holding from 35 to 55 cents an ear. My corn is throwing out consistantly two ears per stalk. Whoopee! This years I promised myself we'd have so much of it, we'd founder on it.

Wesserma, One point I would like to bring up about the USDA. When you fill out your form to obtain the seed, I recommend you list an Organization. If you put 'Wesserma Seeds' (or something like that) you won't ever get hassled. You also need to fill out the the section for intended use. Just say something using the words 'breeding' or 'research' and you are golden. Otherwise they will send you a one time only order. You'll get a letter saying it's a one time offer to gardeners. If you do it like I said, then you can get as many orders as you want. Of course, you only order one accession once, and not many times. You need to save the seed from the accessions you obtain. You can make multiple orders to get different accessions. In my expert opinion, some of the tropical corn varieties are hard to save seed unless you jump through hoops. What I recommend you do; so you are not dependent on tropical corn pimps hustling their proprietary tallest corn, is to find your self some very large temperate varieties and cross it with your tropicals. Once you can get consistent ears on your plants, then you can do selecting for taller ones. R.H Shumway has one called Goliath Silage. The current Iowa State Fair champ used Goliath to get a 18'4" plant. https://www.rhshumway.com/shumsite/shumsiteviewproduct.aspx?ProductID=16954 USDA also has some nice sized temperate corn http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1026853 Local name: White Dent. Native white dent with over 30 years of culture on the Sallee and Singer farm. GROWTH PLTHEIGHT 530 MORPHOLOGY EARHEIGHT 115 TAXONOMIC PRIMRACE corn belt dent http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/search.pl?accid=Ames+22133 Ames 22133 Unverified name: Imperial White. Narrative Grain: Medium size grain, white dent. Medium hard texture. Plants: Tall (about 15-17 feet) with high ears (some 8 to 9 feet). White open-pollinate maize variety called "Imperial White" Grown By Tom Lemoine near New Rhodes, Louisiana for over 50 years. The original seed was passed on to him from his father. Medium size grain, white dent. Tom Lemoine uses some ears for fresh roasting a "good eating corn". Collected late June 1994. There are many intersting tropicals on USDA besides Jala ----------------------------------------------------- http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1333879 Local name: Olotillo blanco. Value: TALL-PLANT-EXTREME_YES Qualifier: INSTANCE_001. - First miscellaneous observation made under this environment. Comment: J. Hanneman, Michigan, APR 1999. 6.94 meters (22.8 ft.). http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1374062 Other or unclassified name: Trinidad 12. Value: TALL-PLANT-EXTREME_YES Qualifier: INSTANCE_001. - First miscellaneous observation made under this environment. Comment: J. Hanneman, Michigan, APR 1999. 5.76 meters (18.9 ft.). http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1373836 PI 478900 mays one of tallest accessions in cimmyt database on singer Other or unclassified name: San Luis Potosi 107. Collected in: Mexico besides corn, you can get some other large plants from the USDA ----------------------------------------------------- Teosinte http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1087292 Zea nicaraguensis Dense 1 ha stand, 3-5 meters tall, once ubiquitous, now very rare in region http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1336870 Zea mays subsp. huehuetenangensis *my notes* grows 5 meters in native environment. Someone in SE USA grew one to 18 ft. ----------------------------------------------------- Sunflowers http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1327441 Collected in: Arizona, United States Sand dune dooryard garden. Plants to 5m tall, some multi-headed. Achenes striped. Introduced cultivar. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1080519 Collected in: Nebraska, United States Seed collected from 28 plants. Population scattered along disturbed area of the roadside ditch, in channel. Plants extremely tall, some 4 to 5 m, branching equally up and down the stem, looking uniformly spaced. Heads as large as we have seen, but definately are still wild. Seed set good, some insect damage to head (Suleima) no apparent rust. ----------------------------------------------------- Pearl Millet http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1456591 Plants flower 64 to 68 days after planting. Plants average 4.4 and 3.2 feet tall, planted June 13 and July 18, respectively. Seeds brownish-gray in color. ttp://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1484057 Strongly photoperiod sensitive, takes about 90 d to flower and 130 d to maturity for mid-June planting. Plant height about 3.3m, ear head length 31 to 37cm, candle shaped, globular light gray grain (9-11 g 1000 seed-1) with a vitreous endosperm. ----------------------------------------------------- Amaranth http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1448048 Amaranthus australis Local name: Giant Amaranth. Collected in: Florida, United States Large plants, up to 485 cm tall. Basal circumference 24 to 56 cm. The stems are hollow, with stem walls 1.5 cm thick, purple-red or green. If water level is high, roots grow out of the stem. Plants dioecious, still in flower at collection time. Low water level during germination is said to favor establishment. Frosts in October are said to kill the plants yearly. GROWTH PLNTHEIGHT 330.00 Value: Tall growing Sample size: 26. Comment: row 128 An individual plant grew to 453 cm (15 ft 1 inch) measured and was accepted as the Guinness World's Record Tallest Amaranth. This accession grows unusually tall, but other A. australis and A. cannabinus accessions are similar.. *IMAGE* http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/images/nc7/accvoucher/Amaranthus/PI_500000-PI_599999/PI_553076/i/PI_553076_89ncao51_SD_PL_FL_2005-08-15_01.jpg ----------------------------------------------------- Sorghum http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1245110 Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench POACEAE Institute identifier: IS 11331. Collected in: Ethiopia (Comment: Collected Sept.-Nov., 1967) Plant 3.0 m high. Head open, lax, rachis retracted, crookneck; glumes two-thirds of seed, light tan, awned; seed small, white. GROWTH PLANTHGT 730.0 (*my note* ?? typo? ) http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/search.pl?accid=329722 Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench POACEAE Institute identifier: IS 11458. Collected in: Ethiopia (Comment: Collected Sept.-Nov., 1967) Plants 18 m tall. Heads open, lax, 230 cm long. Glumes nearly cover seed, awned. Seed brown light brown. This collection represents the variation in the field. PHENOLOGY FLOWERING photoperiod sensitive GROWTH PLANTHGT 450.0 my image (all tall plants left of me - not in bloom) http://www.gardenpics.com/photos/data/500/sorghum14ft_10_13_06.JPG http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/search.pl?accid=482936 Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench POACEAE Donor identifier: TGR 2015. Collected in: Zimbabwe (Comment: Received through IBPGR) Race Kafir/Guinea. Plants very tall. PHENOLOGY FLOWERING photoperiod sensitive PHENOLOGY PHOTOPER sensitive, few heads, no seed production my image (one plant on right - in bloom) http://www.gardenpics.com/photos/data/500/sorghum14ft_10_13_06.JPG http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1210101 Unverified name: Galang Oualema. Collected in: Chad Plants grow to 5 meters high, mature in 5.5 months; panicles very long; glumes open; seeds crosswise, white, flat, without brown hulls, hard. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1210102 Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench POACEAE Unverified name: Mir N'da'. Collected in: Chad Plants grow to 5 meters high, mature in 5.5 months; panicles very long; glumes fully open; seeds crosswise, white, flat, without brown hulls, hard. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1210121 Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench POACEAE Unverified name: Mir. Collected in: Chad Plants grow to 5 meters high, mature in 5 months; stalks slender; panicles long, lax; seeds transverse, red, starchy, with brown hulls. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1244782 Sorghum arundinaceum (Desv.) Stapf POACEAE Institute identifier: IS 11010. Collected in: Ethiopia (Comment: Seed collected Sept. - Nov., 1967) Plants 9 m high. PHENOLOGY PHOTOPER very insensitive, headed out, seed produced ----------------------------------------------------- There are many more than just this, but it should give you a good start.

My ancestors, Catherine and David Eddleman, arrived in KY in 1778 and two years later Indians under English officers out of Detroit killed most of them. (see URL below) We came to Indiana in Jan 1811, but in the 1940s we still grew The Sisters in our cornfield. We mixed the pumpkin seeds with the fertilzer in the corn planter. We planted the pole beans a few weeks later beside the cornstalks. We also grew pole beans on sweet corn in the garden, but sweet corn is weaker and shorter and therefore tends to fall down after the ears are harvested as corn-on-cob. I have been a corn geneticist for 57 years. During 2003 I had good luck growing a derivative of Bloody Butcher field corn in double rows (row spacing 6 inches; plant spacing within rows was 12-inch, staggered). My goal was to shade tomatotes from sunburn and grow dry corn for whole grain cornmeal (it tastes better than germless commercial cornmeal. The corn was 10 feet tall but failed to shade the tomatoes enough. Therefore, in 2004, I plan to grow an heirloom KY Cornfield Bean on the Bloody Butcher Corn. Since I leave the ears on the Bloody Butcher corn until after killed by frost and dried by the winds and sun of Indian Summer, the vining beans will have good support and if I miss any, this cultivar makes good dry beans. The bean was brought by a KY mountain family to Indiana in 1940s and they still grow it 500 feet from my garden. Squash Vine Borer killed all 100 of the pumpkin plants I grew a few years ago. I suspect one reason we had no problems with vine borer in our pumpkins of 1940s was that the corn plants some how hid the pumpkins from the moth. During 2004, I plan a 30 x 30 'Bloody Butcher' patch with my pumpkins and squashes hidden inside. Perhaps the cornfield beans will also help protect the pumpkins from the moth. Here is a link that might be useful: Genealogy of Harold Lee Eddleman