Best Sweet Corn Varieties

8 years ago

I am in zone 5b and am having trouble choosing what type of sweet corn to plant this year. I was a bit overwhelmed by the different su, se, sh2, augmented, and synergistic varieties.

The corn will be grown in my back yard so harvesting, isolation, and packing issues won't matter. I have been looking at Mirai, Sun and Stars, 277A, and a few others. The marketing for each type makes it seem better than all others but that can't all be true.

I have heard that sh2 is the sweetest but that it also looses some of the "corn" flavor. What would you recommend as the best tasting sweet corn variety?

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Comments (5)

digdirt2
8 years ago
Here is a link to several of "best sweet corn" discussions from the past couple of seasons. They are full of suggestions but you will never get everyone to agree on just one or even on the top 10. :-)

http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/best-sweet-corn/topic=cornucop

And you'll find a couple more over on page 2 and 3 of the forum here.

IMO it is a personal taste thing and what some rave about others call yuck. Your best bet is to choose and try and mean time try some other varieties from the farmer's market to see what you want for next year or for a second planting if your season is long enough.

I would agree that many of the sh2 doesn't please my taste buds when it comes to flavor but others won't plant anything else. My personal favorites are white and bi-colors. Wife loves Peaches and Cream. I prefer Silver King or Silver Queen.

Dave
farmerdill
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Concur: Tastes vary among folks. SH2's (Supersweets) are very sweet, But I don't like either the taste or the texture. Su's are the original sweet corn. Sweeter and more tender than field corn. Golden Bantam, Silver Queen, Golden Queen etc. My personal taste run to Se's , shade sweeter. Silver King for example will pass for Silver Queen, but is a little sweeter when compared in a taste test. Synergistics are comparable to the best Se's. Cameo, Avalon and Celestial have done well for me. I have grown Mirai 421 W and Mirai 336 BC and was not impressed.
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Donna
8 years ago
Also agree it's a matter of taste. I grow Se because the corn will remain sweet for several days after it's picked as opposed to the old fashioned ones that need to go straight to the pot from the garden for best flavor. I dislike the supersweets because they are nothing but sweet. They taste more like candy than corn. But again, that's a matter of taste. I grew Bodacious last year and loved it. This year I am growing an early and mid synergistic (whose names escape me right now) as well as the late growing Bodacious.
matermark
6 years ago
So what variety did you grow? My favorite is Honey Select, a Triplesweet and an All America Selections winner, but some of them don't make it out of the garden, getting eaten raw!
vgkg Z-7 Va
6 years ago
I've tried several varieties over the years but keep coming back to bi-color Ambrosia se.