Daryljurassic, what was the variety's name? Most corn, especially sweet corn, on the market is hybrid. But by most commonly accepted use of the term there are some kinds which are not hybrid, they are considered to be open pollinated. I grow some myself, and it is not hard to save seed and replant. "Hybrid" normally refers to seed derived from a first generation cross between two INBRED lines. In the case of corn, those lines can be so inbred as to be really kind of sickly, due to inbreeding depression. But when they are then crossed... bang! You get a LOT of vigor and usually higher production. Also, those two lines may be quite different in characteristics such as plant and ear size and even days to maturity. But the first generation cross will be uniform, not a mix, in how the genes are expressed. It is only in the second generation that a lot of variation will show up. If that corn was sweet corn and you don't know the variety, then I'd recommend that you purchase your seed for this year. But if it was, a kind of non sweet, or if it was a named variety which we can look up, and it turns out not to be hybrid, then you might try planting some for a harvest. Regarding seed on the ends of the ears, it is often not as large or well formed as in the middle. I've planted both and done okay. But many friends of mine, who are REALLY into corn, swear by using just the inside kernels. Below is a link to another discussion on corn. It contains some good info on saving seed. Hope this helps. George Tahlequah, OK Here is a link that might be useful: Corn for meal and grits

I was just looking at the corn. A few of the stalks have three or four stalks coming from the bottom, nearly as large as the original stalk. This seems to have just started the last few days. Does this mean it's likely to have multiple ears?the description does say this variety does have two to three ears per stalk, which is part of why I chose it. Mmm, I can taste that roasted street corn, Mexican style already! Well, almost. Only 68 more days, give or take. Good think most of my fal planting doesn't need to go in those spots before then!

Hi wackybell, I see that autumn explosion is a hybrid and earth tone is supposed to be an heirloom, which would mean that it is not a hybrid. Either way, corn varieties which mature at the same time crosses readily as a general rule. You could try a little of the seed and see how it goes but expect that they mixed. Don't bet the farm on an experiment but, then again, isn't "a mess" as you call it, kind of what you expect on an ear of ornamental corn?

Pegsol, The raccoons always try to get my corn about 2 or 3 days before it is ready to pick. And, they don't just bother us home gardeners. A couple or years ago we had a really severe drought--and by the spring of 2006, we were entering our second summer of a long drought. A local farmer planted a huge amount of corn for him, his family and his friends. I don't know how far back his rows went, but they ran about a half-mile along the road. His brother-in-law told me that the raccoons got all but 8 or 10 ears out of that big corn patch. That same year, we trapped and removed 2 or 3 raccoons and they still got all our corn. A friend of a friend of ours who lives significantly closer than us to the Red River had a really severe raccoon problem. He trapped and got rid of (no one would say how, but I don't think he released them elsewhere--I think he shot them) 18 raccoons in 18 nights and they still got all his corn too! One thing that might help is to plant a "border" of winter squash or pumpkins around all 4 sides of the corn patch, and let the pumpkins and squash roam into the corn patch too. The coons don't like the big, coarse leaves and often will leave the corn away. That mostly worked for me last year and I got about 75% of the corn and the raccoons got the rest. (We got so much corn that we still have about a dozen bags of frozen ears in the deep freeze.) The pumpkins don't always work though. An electric fence always works. Some people who grow a relatively small amount of corn wait until the corn has pollinated and has fully formed ears, and then they wrap the ears in strapping tape run lengthwise, but that's too much work for me. I'm glad the greenhouse is OK. If your biggest tomato plant snapped in half, it still may regrow from the roots. And, if you had taken the top, trimmed off the jagged broken piece, and stuck the rest in a glass or jar of water, it would have grown enough roots in 7-10 days and then you could have planted it in the ground or in a container. You also can root a "cutting" in soil, but I like rooting them in water so I can see the roots grow and know when it has "enough" to plant into the ground. Right now, I am rooting a "Brandy Boy" that the wind snapped off last week. It has been in the water a week and has enough roots that I can plant it today. Since 12" of rain fell here on Tuesday and more is expected this weekend, I think this Brandy Boy is going to go into a large container. I have two other Brandy Boy plants in the ground, and two back-up plants on the screened-in back porch, but I didn't want to lose that one--you can never have too many Brandy Boys. As long as the eggplant seedlings didn't snap in half, they'll probably recover. Eggplant is really tough. My eggplants kept producing one droughty summer long after I stopped watering the garden. No rain was falling and they still produced until a frost got them in November. I think I had stopped watering in July and they had virtually no rain for weeks and weeks and weeks. I do have a melon fetish because they are all so good and the flavors are marvelous. Think of heirloom tomatoes and heirloom melons as "fine wines". There are so many "vintages"----why restrict yourself to one or two? Why not have a whole smorgasboard of wonderful varieties? Sometimes I think I am going overboard with the melons, but then I'll have a "Collective Farm Woman" one day and then a different one like "Nutmeg" the next day, and it makes every meal an adventure. I'm excited about your first heirloom garden too and hope that it does well for you. Dawn