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Grow your own popcorn! Tiny kernels dot these 15cm (6β), multi-coloured cobs in yellow, brown, white, purple, red, and blue. Use Calico Popcorn seeds for edible popping corn, or simply as ornaments to mark the harvest season in early fall. Give the tall, slow growing plants as early a start as possible for the most ripe cobs. Expect mixed colours on every stalk. This is not a sweet corn variety, and is not intended for eating as corn on the cob. But the kernels really do pop once they have fully dried.
Matures in 90 to 105 days. (Open-pollinated seeds)
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Latin
Latin
Zea mays
Family: Poaceae
Difficulty
Difficulty
Moderately challenging
Season & Zone
Season & Zone
Season: Warm season
Exposure: Full-sun
Timing
Timing
Direct sow in late spring. If the soil is not warm enough, seeds often rot before sprouting β especially when not treated with fungicide. Untreated corn seeds should be planted only when the soil has warmed up above 18Β°C (65Β°F) β warmer for super-sweet (sh2) types, and even warmer for a good stand. Use a soil thermometer. If spring weather is cold, consider planting in flats or individual pots, indoors with bottom heat, for transplanting. Seeds should germinate in 7-10 days. If it rains after planting and corn does not emerge, just re-plant the area.
Starting
Starting
Do not soak corn seeds prior to planting. Plant 2-5cm (1-2β³) deep (shallower for sh2 seed or in cool soil). Sow seeds around 7.5cm (3β³) apart, in rows 60-90cm (24-36β³) apart. Because corn is wind pollinated, plant in a dense block of at least 4 rows, rather than in single rows. This increases the chance of corn pollen, which emerges from male flowers at the growing tip, to fall down onto the receptive female silks that extend from each corn cob.
Growing
Growing
Ideal pH: 5.8-6.8. Corn is a heavy feeder, so add manure or compost, and use 500g (1 lb) of complete organic fertilizer per 6m (60β²) of row, mixing it thoroughly into the soil beneath each seed furrow. Thin to at least 20-25cm (8-10β³) apart in the row. Large eared and double-eared varieties need to be 30cm (24β³) apart. Keep free of weeds until knee-high, and then leave it alone.
Use the days to maturity listed for comparative purposes among the varieties only βΒ every garden may be different.
Days to Maturity
Days to Maturity: From direct sowing.
Harvest
Harvest
When the silks at theΒ end of an ear are a dry brown, the cob seems to start to droop, and the kernels release milky juice when cut.
Harvesting Popcorn
Harvesting Popcorn
Leave the ears of popcorn varieties on the plants to dry as long as possible into late summer and early fall. The husks should turn yellow/brown as they dry and the kernels should harden. Once the plants appear to be completely dry, or if wet weather is in the forecast, harvest the ears and bring them indoors. Remove the husks. Store the ears in mesh bags in a warm, dry, airy location. The ideal humidity level for curing popcorn is 13 to 14%. Curing is the process after drying that allows for long term storage of popcorn kernels. Once a week, remove a few kernels and try popping them. Popcorn that is chewy or kernels that have jagged edges after popping both mean that the kernels are not dry enough. Continue curing and test-popping until the desired texture is reached. Then remove the kernels and store them in an air-tight container.
Seed Info
Seed Info
In optimal conditions at least 85% of seeds will germinate. Usual seed life: 2 years. Per 100β² row: 400 seeds, per acre: 87M seeds.
Diseases & Pests
Diseases & Pests
Disease: Prevent disease and nutritional exhaustion of the soil by using 4-year crop rotation and composting old stalks.
Pests
Pests: Wireworms are a pest in home gardens and may burrow into the seeds. Loopers are pale olive-green caterpillars up to 2.5cm (1β³) long. They chew into the centre of young corn plants and can kill the plant if the growing tip is damaged. Seed corn maggot is a small, legless maggot that attacks germinating seed. Planting in warm soil or using predatory nematodes may help prevent seed-destroying soil creatures.
Companion Planting
Companion Planting
Corn is a good companion to beans, beets, cucumber, dill, melons, parsley, peas, potato, soya beans, squash, and sunflower. Avoid planting next to celery or tomatoes. Amaranth makes a great mulch between rows by competing with weeds and conserving ground moisture.
More on Companion Planting.
West Coast Seeds is a family-owned company that embraces an organic lifestyle. A group of imagination catalysts and passionate educators, dedicated to producing products and services that better the environment. As part of our mission to repair the earth, we aim to inspire and empower people to take responsibility for the state of the planet. For us, organic is about much more than saying no to chemicals, it is about saying yes to building a healthy soil for the future.
For over 35 years, we have upheld our strong reputation as a leading seed supplier, seeking out the highest quality untreated seeds for organic growing and putting them through rigorous independent testing. We built our company on the exchange of generational wisdom in a masterclass community of newbies and masters alike. Our world may have changed, but our commitment to our people, our customers, and our planet has not.
Weβre a values-based business that has blossomed into a lifestyle ethos, with products that support seeders, feeders, keepers, and the tiniest of creepers. Our mission? To mobilize the next generation of gardeners with products that nourish soil and grow vigorous, sustainable gardens. We believe all plants should be grown without the use of chemicals, and that the seeds we supply are an important component of regenerative gardening.
We donβt just offer seeds, we offer experience, insight, and understanding. From timeless garden wisdom to new tech know-how, this is learning on the job: knowledge gleaned not from the pages of a book but from burying our fingers in the soil. We test, experiment, observe and adapt, never happier than when we get to share what weβve learned with others.
Gardens donβt just grow seeds. They grow minds and imaginations, people and communities. Our vision encompasses both the micro and the macro. We eat locally, protect pollinators, teach people to grow from seed, and support regional biodiversity. We think big but act small and deliver unexpected impact β always with community and purpose.
At West Coast Seeds we believe in the power of small and that little can be large. Like the tiniest seed germinates to evoke incremental change with massive potential, so to can our community of gardeners and growers together. Gardeners are the earthβs stewards, planting seeds of creative declaration. The soil provides the canvas, we provide the seeds.
Direct sow in late spring. If the soil is not warm enough, seeds often rot before sprouting β especially when not treated with fungicide. Untreated corn seeds should be planted only when the soil has warmed up above 18Β°C (65Β°F) β warmer for super-sweet (sh2) types, and even warmer for a good stand. Use a soil thermometer. If spring weather is cold, consider planting in flats or individual pots, indoors with bottom heat, for transplanting. Seeds should germinate in 7-10 days. If it rains after planting and corn does not emerge, just re-plant the area.
Do not soak corn seeds prior to planting. Plant 2-5cm (1-2β³) deep (shallower for sh2 seed or in cool soil). Sow seeds around 7.5cm (3β³) apart, in rows 60-90cm (24-36β³) apart.
Because corn is wind pollinated, plant in a dense block of at least 4 rows, rather than in single rows. This increases the chance of corn pollen, which emerges from male flowers at the growing tip, to fall down onto the receptive female silks that extend from each corn cob.
Ideal pH: 5.8-6.8.
Corn is a heavy feeder, so add manure or compost, and use 500g (1 lb) of complete organic fertilizer per 6m (60β²) of row, mixing it thoroughly into the soil beneath each seed furrow. Thin to at least 20-25cm (8-10β³) apart in the row. Large eared and double-eared varieties need to be 30cm (24β³) apart. Keep free of weeds until knee-high, and then leave it alone.
Days to maturity: From direct sowing.
In optimal conditions at least 85% of seeds will germinate. Usual seed life: 2 years. Per 100β² row: 400 seeds, per acre: 87M seeds.
When the silks at theΒ end of an ear are a dry brown, the cob seems to start to droop, and the kernels release milky juice when cut.
Leave the ears of popcorn varieties on the plants to dry as long as possible into late summer and early fall. The husks should turn yellow/brown as they dry and the kernels should harden. Once the plants appear to be completely dry, or if wet weather is in the forecast, harvest the ears and bring them indoors. Remove the husks. Store the ears in mesh bags in a warm, dry, airy location. The ideal humidity level for curing popcorn is 13 to 14%. Curing is the process after drying that allows for long term storage of popcorn kernels. Once a week, remove a few kernels and try popping them. Popcorn that is chewy or kernels that have jagged edges after popping both mean that the kernels are not dry enough. Continue curing and test-popping until the desired texture is reached. Then remove the kernels and store them in an air-tight container.
