Follow These Guidelines
(Continued from Pane All)
sell that com.” Said Hassell,
“Please do not buy cheap seed,” he
said.
“Don’t bargain on the price of
com seed. If you do, you’re going
to get just what you asked for.”
Producers, he said, need to ask
“as many questions as possible of
the seed company representative.”
Also, growers need to deter
mine, from their customers,
whether they want certain charac
teristics, such as crunchiness (the
sweet breeds are very crunchy, he
said), or creamy (some SEs pro
vide that, but some SEs can also be
very crunchy). Some bicolor can
provide large kernel size, and that
can differ from customer to
customer.
Hassell noted that researchers
have come up with a way of mea
suring the toughness of the peri
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carp. “Every silk is attached to two
kernels,” he said. So it’s important
to ensure that no damage is done to
die silk and enough moisture is
available.
When the com is under drought
stress, other challenges can pre
vail. In one season, according to
Hassell of Clemson University,
sweet com test plots went in. with
a range of 60-90 day maturities.
That same droughty year, all the
varieties “matured at the same
■time,” he said. “It was a very hum
bling experience.”
Sweet con manufacturers fol
low a variety of procedures to
come up with a com that will ger
minate between SO degrees and 96
degrees Fahrenheit And contrary
to popular belief, the largest seed
in the bag is not necessarily the
seed that will germinate best
“Sometimes the largest seed is the
worst seed,” he said.
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Sweet com is a plant that
responds to heat, measured in heat
units. Maturity, said Hassell, var
ies with heat units, not days to
maturity. Growing degree days,
used to determine heat units, are
based on a comparison of maxi
mum and minimum temperatures
to base temperature.
In general, the shrunken, or SH2
varieties, have poor germination in
cold soil temperatures. The SEs
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His research has indicated that
the small seed germinated the best
and the medium seed the worst
Also, some quality control at
seed companies was questionable.
Researchers were seeding “differ
ences in damage to kernel” by the
machines that handle the com.
Growers should understand that
if growing the shrunken varieties,
most will germinate between
64-68 degrees Fahrenheit.
The SEs will germinate in the
upper 50s or lower 60s of soil
temperature.
n S
§8
3 °
require less soil heat The sweet
breeds germinate real well under
cool soil temperatures. The SUs
germinate under field com soil
conditions.
For growers who want to follow
consecutive plantings, don’t plant
until the youngest com in the field
has the first two leaves appear. In
the spring. When summer arrives,
plant on a weekly basis.
A uniform planting depth is
recommended, not deeper than 1 to
1 'A inches. Look seriously at an air
planter to provide a consistent,
uniform depth, noted Hassell.
“Prepare that seedbed,” he said.
And ensure that “your planter pro
vides the same uniform depth.”
Growers must, above all, ask the
questions necessary of their equip
ment and seed representatives.
At harvest, growers should real
ize it is critical to keep the com
away from heat Many times, the
com is piled up in the wagon and
sits for hours in the sun.
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“Field heat takes away swi
ness,” said Hassell. Field
reduces the amount of sugar in
com. Some growers used fort
air or hydrocooling in trailers
get rid of the Held heat.
More about the fruit and vej
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next issue of Grower & Marke
special pages of Lancaster Fat
heduled March n.
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