Is this corn?

15 years ago

We recently had a big storm come through that caused tons of destruction in our city. All 16 huge trees in my yard were completely uprooted and our yard was a mess.

Anyways, I noticed not too long after the storm a few little plants that looked like corn stalks coming up out of the ground. I didn't really think anything of it because I didn't plant any corn and we went out of town for a week and a half. Now, we arrived back home and one of the little corn stalks is already about 4 ft. high and still looks very much like a corn stalk. There are a couple others that are about 3 ft and a couple still that I saw in the yard that sprouted up. Is it possible that corn blew into my yard from the storm or something? Or is there a weed that looks just like corn?

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Comments (12)

digdirt2
15 years ago
If you will please post a photo of it we can ID it for sure. Otherwise it is just guessing. Birds can carry it so can wind, compost, other garden mammals, etc. etc.

Dave
camdensmom
Original Author
15 years ago
I'll try and get a picture after I feed my kiddos some lunch. Now that you mention birds though, the one big stalk is coming up right next to the trunk of a big tree that smashed my birdfeeder. I looked at the seed mix and it says it has cracked corn in it. Would cracked corn sprout?
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jean001a
15 years ago
NO. But we still need a picture, please.
camdensmom
Original Author
15 years ago
OK...here's a picture
{{gwi:87298}}
wertach zone 7-B SC
15 years ago
Yep, that's corn!
camdensmom
Original Author
15 years ago
Ok..then if this is corn...here is another question. Will it produce anything without being in a field of corn? And if it does...would it be something safe to eat. I'm sure my kids would want to eat it.
biscgolf
15 years ago
probably won't get pollinated without other corn around, if it were to get pollinated it would almost certainly be safe to eat but quite possibly not overly palatable as there's no telling what type of corn it is...
denninmi
15 years ago
It could possibly be sorghum. To me, it looks more corn-like, but I've been fooled before. Volunteer sorghum is pretty common, because its put into a lot of low-end bird seed mixes.
wertach zone 7-B SC
15 years ago
"Will it produce anything without being in a field of corn?"

Yes it could. When the silks form on the ears shake the tassel and/or if several of them are tasseling pull a few tassels off, gently, and brush them on the silks of the other corn.
keen101
15 years ago
It looks like corn, but it could be sorghum.

Yeah, should be safe to eat, but you will need to hand pollinate it with it's own pollen to get any seeds on the cob to develop.
mark_roeder 4B NE Iowa
15 years ago
It was probably deposited by a bird feeding from a farm field, or a squirrel eating from a corn cob doubling as a squirrel feeder.

If you have large fields of sweet corn then maybe it'll be good, but my guess is you will have field corn. With one plant you'll likely have poor pollination, and not many kernels.
HU-397750403
4 years ago

I found corn too, which led me to this post. I was pulling out a weed and saw something odd. When I took a closer look, it looked like corn