Your corn is maturing quickly because you planted at the hottest part of the summer. The days to maturity is likely figured for an early planting where growth is slowed by cool weather for the first part of the crop.

I've never seen that variety or any other vary 10-14 days in maturity unless part came up later. You won't find that difference if it all emerges together. At least I never have.

Sweetcorn may start 3-4 ears on a plant but rarely matures more than two ears that are large enough to harvest. And two good ears usually only occurs on border plants that get extra sunlight. A plant might make 3-4 good ears under exceptional conditions if it were out in the open where all leaves received maximum sunlight. With corn yield potential is all about light interception.

One characteristic of Kandy Korn that I don't like and one reason I no longer grow it is that, at least for me, the kernels are shallow. No amount of water, fertilizer, or sunshine will make a decent kernel on that corn for me.

I would agree with fruitnut. My peaches and cream corn that I planted on June 6th only took 61 days to harvest, from planting seed to harvesting ears. It is supposed to take 83 days. That is a full 3 weeks ahead of schedule. I think heat and water played a role in cutting down harvest time.

The batch I planted on March 19th took 84 days which was right on schedule.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden Blog

I find that no matter how I try to stagger the plantings, the later ones catch up and all the corn matures within the same week.

Maybe you need to do what I do. All 6 plantings have matured perfectly in order.

I've harvested corn from June until late October, nine plantings one year. Each planting after the first was planted when the previous planting reached about 8 inches height. This gave a planting interval of about 5 weeks between dates 1 and 2. In mid summer it's a new planting every two weeks. Harvests are two weeks apart from harvest 1 to 9.

In Illinois to get four harvests at two week intervals you'd need a planting about mid April, late May, mid June, and the end of June. This would give four harvests two weeks apart starting in July.

I planted my first sweetcorn for roadside sales in the late 50s. Went into the State Street Bank in Belvidere, Illinois to get change for the upcoming sale and sold it all before I left the bank.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Hey fruitnut, have any varieties of corn you would recommend? The sugar pearl was good, but those kernels were so shallow, you really didn't feel like there was any meat on those cobs. I really enjoyed the Serendipity, and would probably grow that next year again or select another triple sweet variety in its place.

Pitcom:

Mirai 301 has a deep kernel and keeps 10 days in the frig in good shape. I like it best when fairly mature. Two big ears makes a big pile of corn on my plate. The only issue with it for me was leaf rust on the late plantings. Tried another variety this year with better rust resistance and it wasn't nearly as good and didn't hold in the frig.

Mirai 301 is one of those supersweet varieties, isn't it?

Yes, an augmented bicolor supersweet from Harris Seeds.

Fruinut,

How many harvestable ears do you on average get from Mirai 301? If you have grown Serendipity, how does it compare to flavor, holding, and number of ears per plant?

Thanks.

Brett

When planted at about a 30 inch by 10 inch spacing I probably average 1.25 to 1.5 ears per plant. Roughly one ear per two square feet. Those are nice big ears.

I haven't grown Serendipity but can tell you that 301 is very sweet and tender. Mirai gets a lot of bad press on here. But a lot of people, in my experience, think it's great. I appreciate the holding ability. With a harvest every two weeks I can have corn every day all summer if desired.

I love the Serendipity i grew this year. I only got 1 ear per plant throughout the whole lot. Most of the ears were quite large and very sweet. We did have a bit of excess rain ( 8 inches+!) during their last week of maturing which did water down a few ears. But having said all that, all of my neighbors and family have been begging for more. I was hoping for a better yield but I will probably grow it again next year because I am enjoying it. I looked at the other corn seed Fruitnut suggested over at harris seed. I'll have to call them to see if they have any untreated seed as I'm not looking for any of the stuff that's been chemically treated.

{{gwi:104680}}

I realize this is a very old thread, however, it is new to me and I need a question answered I cannot seem to find anywhere.

Kandy Corn is a hybrid, the seeds are terrible at germination, so therefore, what on earth are Kandy Corn's parents? What are two corns I can plant and have the seeds of the two produce Kandy Corn?

Even though Kandy Korn is one of the first se corns, the parentage may still be proprietary. Syngenta I think is the producer of the variety.

Kandy Korn is the only variety I plant because the ears are so long and the succulent kernals are so sweet and flavorful. It is a challenge, though. One year every stalk had 2 side shoots and each shoot produced 2 ears. I had 3x the corn harvest that year. This year, some are slower to mature than others, but this is a different garden in a different location, so the soil may have a lot to do with that.