Corn - Great Lakes Staple Seeds
Our corn plan has been evolving the last few years. Please see our Growing Corn In Michigan page for more information on our strategy as well as a collection of useful educational links. Also, our Digital Resources Collection has quite a few resources for the corn grower.
Scott's interest in the very short season corn considers these elements:
1) Should there be a very late spring frost (or endless wet cold days like 2019) short season seeds would be a recovery option to salvage the season.
2) The chance to find something to plant after the earlier wheat or more likely barley is harvested. I will investigate root crops as well. Currently, our fall grain plots sit mostly idle (except for sprawling squash!) after harvest.
3) And if planting corn after wheat/barley doesn't work, I will experiment with the other way around--following short season corn with time to prepare the soil and plant fall grains!
4) Sweet corn - while a tasty summer treat, sweet corn is not a staple crop. We are fortunate to have several local suppliers of fresh sweet corn for our enjoyment and as a result cannot justify it taking space in our gardens.
