growing pop corn and sweet corn

[the funny farm6]

Does any one know if I can grow popcorn and sweet corn in the same garden? Some say it will cross and some say it won't. I hope to have 2 gardens this year, about 100 feet apart.

 

[Denim Deb]

They can cross pollenate. But, I don't know that it matters-unless you're saving seeds. If they don't take the same amount of time to reach maturity, you can plant them at the same time. That way, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[~gd]

Does any one know if I can grow popcorn and sweet corn in the same garden? Some say it will cross and some say it won't. I hope to have 2 gardens this year, about 100 feet apart.

You can but the big thing is to be sure they don't overlap tasseling time. The tassel is the male pollen producer at the top of each plant the ear is the female organ that produces the kernals with the silk catching the pollen.and tranporting it into the cob. Wind is the transport agent, not bees. since the breeze is fairly predictable in our area we plant corn is blocks {not rows} as far away from each other as possible while keeping the wind direction in mind. despite what D. Deb says, it does make a difference. A sweet ear with a lot of popcorn cross in it is not 'good eats' and pop corn with sweet kernmals produces a lot of 'old msids"[they just burn in the popper but will not pop. ~gd

 

[the funny farm6]

Hmmm... maybe if I plant them 4-6 weeks apart?

 

[Denim Deb]

It depends entirely on how long it takes for them to reach maturity. If you get a variety of sweet corn that takes 90 days to mature and you get popcorn that takes 60 days, you could run into a problem. But, if you were to plant them both at the same time, hopefully the popcorn would be out of the way by the time the sweet corn was putting out ears.

I know a few people who will plant different varieties of sweet corn in the same small garden, but follow this strategy. And, they've never had a problem doing it this way. I don't know if they still do it, but around here, farmers used to grow their good corn in the middle of the field. And then around the edge of the field they planted "horse" corn. This kept people from just stopping by the side of the road and filling their trunk w/corn. And, they never had a problem

 

[brandylorton]

Yes definitely you can i do not see any problem in that as the nutrition required by both of them are the same and the temperature will also be the same there so no problem at all.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Your question is not specific enough for a good answer. What kind of sweet corn are you growing, ie SE, SU, SH2, etc.? There have been a lot of changes with sweet corn over the last 30 years. You can plant numerous varieties close together as long as they are from the same group. Anything with a sugar gene will not get along well with others. I don't think anybody raises OP corn anymore. Corn will show signs of crossing in the first generation. If you don't believe it, plant Indian Corn next to your sweet corn. You will have grey kernels in your sweet corn.