growing field corn from kernels

[Moocowman123]

my neighbor allowed me to collect corn dropped on the ground from his harvest. Originally I was going to feed it to my chickens, but now I am thinking about growing it next spring? Would it grow? It doesn't have any pink powder or anything on it. So would it produce?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The pink powder you speak of may be a fungicide.
The seed should be mature so it will definitely grow. However, it's likely a hybrid.

My wife and daughter brought some corn from Thailand and I planted it. Saved more seed from it and planted it again.
The stalks must be 10' tall.

 

[shortgrass]

The pink powder is herbicide. Don't touch pink corn lol and definitely don't feed it to anything.

Yes, you can feed field corn to them, that's what's in the bag you buy, so you're getting free corn! better corn too, fresh stuff!

Growing might be tricky if its hybrid field corn; your ears will look funky from the second generation of the cross, but you'll still get corn nonetheless

 

[btguy]

actually even hybrid seeds will germinate and produce, what they wont be is the same as their parent plants. it would be like crossing 2 cornishx and expecting to get another broiler, you may, but far more likely you will get an ordinary barnyard chicken.

 

[shortgrass]

Yep, that's what I was trying to convey lol; there will be no uniformity to it, but it will still be corn. Don't expect pretty, straight rows and a lot of ears won't pollinate correctly, but corn it will be

 

[Ridgerunner]

That pink powder on seed corn is most likely a fungicide for disease prevention, probably Captan. Somehow the thought of a herbicide on seeds meant to sprout sounds kind of strange but maybe. But whatever it is you should never eat anything you buy as seed. Many of them are treated for disease prevention or to break dormancy. They use some really nasty stuff on seed potatoes to help them break dormancy for example.

That corn from the field will not have anything like that in it. It should be perfectly safe for the chickens to eat and it should germinate and grow. The odds are really high that it is a hybrid, but it was not mentioned that it was “field corn”, just that it was corn. Most garden corns are hybrid too but there are a few that are not. Dad grew a white sweet corn that was not hybrid and of course you have popcorn and Indian corn, butt practically all corn is hybrid, field or sweet.

In any case it should grow and probably produce. Since it is almost certainly to be a hybrid you don’t know how well it will produce. It could be great, it could be horrible. It will likely be inconsistent. It’s always fun to try something like that to see what you get. You could talk to the neighbor to see what it is.

If you really want to grow corn for your chickens you are probably better off feeding that corn to your chickens and getting some seeds for dent corn or field corn so you know what you are dealing with. There are a few people on the sister gardening site http://www.theeasygarden.com/ that could help you with varieties and where to get seeds. Or if you have a local Mom n’ Pop gardening store near you try chatting with them. Those people are normally pretty good and their seeds will be a lot cheaper than ordering online.