Anyone grown Indian Corn before? In the desert?

[Heiko27]

I thought I would try growing Indian corn this year. I tried an heirloom Hopi variety. It had some problems with lodging in a few storms and other people's sweet corn did not, in the same area. I have grown sweet corn for a few years and have never seen problems like with the Indian corn. I know the corn was grown in the east, and I know its and heirloom, so I knew it was just going to be an experiment, and it was fun and the cobs were beautiful! Except for the fact that for every 10 plants I got maybe one or two good cobs. I've never seen such poor rates. I know most sweet corn produces 2 or 3 cobs per plant and most Indian corn does one maybe two. I did stake up half the corn after it lodged and did it quickly, but their rates were not any different than the others. Some impressive looking cobs were empty. I got maybe 2 in half grocery bags whereas in the past probably had 20 bags for the same area. I know its not fair to compare it to sweet corn, but wow. I don't think they handled our heat well. (I live in Utah) I tried watering only2 or 3 times a week after they got root to avoid shallow root syndrome and encourage root growth, after it heats up like I usually have done with my other corn, but wow! They seriously almost died! So I'm going to try a "desert" heirloom corn next year. Anyone have any similar experiences or ideas? I do like the flour it makes.

Oh ya I did let two sweet corn plants grow on the edge. I know this can contaminate the seed but wanted to see what might happen. Still poor fertility( but they were on the outside row, but even then seemed poorer than usual,- oh and they had mixed color kernels that looked different from both the Indian corn and what they should be, it was rad!) The 2 sweet corn plants had no problems with lodging and they actually got higher than I've ever seen them get before ( They seem somewhat drought tolerant and we have had the moistest summer here I have ever seen) The other Indian corn on that end row grew only to about four feet- it was the shortest row of the whole field, but the Indian corn there actually produced better than the middle. Odd eh?

 

[chickened]

I raised Indian corn several years ago and had similar results it was in good soil in blocks and well fed and watered and was still a poor ear. I think it is just that way, maybe someone else has had better results.

 

[Randy]

No, but your post reminded me that I still have some seeds around here somewhere that I orderd a few years ago.