Purple Corn vs Yellow Corn. What’s the Difference?

[BroodyBambi]

What’s the difference between purple corn and yellow corn for the flock? Is it a gimmick? I know purple vegetables with have different nutritional values than their original color. Is it the same for corn?

P.s. I think it would be so cool if the yolks turned purple.. Halloween eggs!

 

[nuthatched]

Gimmick, hype.
Yolks are not going to change color. ;]

 

[Stravager]

Purple corn is higher in certain nutrients than yellow corn, but not enough to make a major difference in diet as far as I understand. You might have slightly less chance of the chicken developing cancer, for example.
Depending on what carotenoids are present in the purple corn you might get a more orange to red color. Highly unlikely that you would get dark red or purple.

 

[Perris]

What’s the difference between purple corn and yellow corn for the flock? Is it a gimmick? I know purple vegetables with have different nutritional values than their original color. Is it the same for corn?

It is not a gimmick. "Modern corn differs from its native ancestor more than any other edible plant...modern supersweet varieties can contain up to 40% sugar, bringing new meaning to the words candy corn...modern corn varieties are much lower in phytonutrients than the varieties raised by the earliest farmers. Blue corn...is extremely high in anthocyanins, giving it 30 times more antioxidant value than our modern white corn. Multicoloured 'Indian' corn also contains significant amounts of these compounds. One of the anthocyanins in blue corn...[in animal studies] has slowed the growth of colon cancer, blocked inflammation, lowered cholesterol and blood sugar, and even reduced weight gain caused by a high-fat diet." J Robinson Eating on the wild side 2013: 75. There is a lot more; the whole of chapter 3 of that book is about corn.

 

[Sally PB]

J Robinson Eating on the wild side 2013: 75. There is a lot more; the whole of chapter 3 of that book is about corn.

Excellent and interesting book. Wish I hadn't lent it to a bookkeeper.

 

[TexasBlues]

It’s incredibly fun to grow and breed your own corn.

 

[paradisepentacoop]

It’s incredibly fun to grow and breed your own corn.

Man, I am so jealous of your spread! I just moved and can't get my corn to survive yet. I got one cob off the last attempt. Used some of the kernels to try to get a strain that likes my spot. Beautiful corn!

 

[tripletfeb]

Man, I am so jealous of your spread! I just moved and can't get my corn to survive yet. I got one cob off the last attempt. Used some of the kernels to try to get a strain that likes my spot. Beautiful corn!

Corn is a wind pollinator. Plant it in blocks, not rows. That way when the wind blows, it pollinates all the stalks

 

[TexasBlues]

I’ll plant like 6 or more corn seed in each hole and then cull down to the 3 strongest. Something special about the Hopi corn is the seed can be sown at a depth of 8” or more.

 

[paradisepentacoop]

Corn is a wind pollinator. Plant it in blocks, not rows. That way when the wind blows, it pollinates all the stalks

I planted out a raised bed with corn and it just did not do well. I think it was other environmental factors, since they didn't even get to the stage of producing cobs. The one free standing one I culled from that bed and put with my tomatoes was the only one to produce a cob. So strange, but that bed also gets less sun. The corn only bed got basically 12 hours of tropic sun and I do not think the corn variety I was trying liked that.