CORVALLIS, Ore. — If you grow corn at home, you can harvest fresh “baby” corn ears in summer.
Baby corn — popular in many East Asian dishes and familiar on salad bars — is largely imported and often sold canned or jarred. But you can grow and pick your own.
Baby corn doesn’t come from dwarf plants. The tiny ears are simply immature ears from regular-sized plants, said Jim Myers, retired Oregon State University vegetable breeder. Specialty varieties exist, but most common corn types work: field, regular sweet, sugary enhanced or super sweet. You don’t need special seed to try it.
Don’t expect sweetness, Myers noted. Because baby corn is harvested before pollination and before sugars accumulate in kernels, it won’t taste sweet like mature sweet corn.
Harvest timing is everything
Corn grows quickly, so timing is crucial. A delay of even a day or two can make ears larger and tougher than you’d want for stir-fries or salads. Practice helps: pick a few ears at different stages over several days to learn your preferred size.
Start by checking ears as soon as silks appear. On each plant, different ears reach this stage at different times, so monitor closely. The ideal size is two to four inches long and one-third to two-thirds of an inch in diameter.
Planting for a baby-corn patch
A few seed companies offer baby-corn varieties bred to set more ears per plant. They are full-sized plants, not dwarfs, and if allowed to mature would produce medium ears of field or sweet corn, Myers said.
If you’re dedicating a block to baby corn, you can save space by sowing seed closer than usual: plant about four inches apart within the row. Keep row spacing at 30 to 36 inches.
Fewer pest problems
Baby corn typically has fewer insect issues than full-size ears. Pests like corn earworm and cucumber beetles tend to damage ears later as they fill and mature.
Mix and match harvests
Home gardeners can harvest baby corn and mature sweet-corn ears from the same plant, Myers said. “You may want to harvest the lower ears for baby corn, then allow the top ear on a plant to mature for sweet corn.”
Most any sweet-corn variety works as baby corn. Information from the University of Minnesota notes that starchy field corn — which often produces multiple ears — also performs well when harvested young for baby corn.
Store or preserve right away
Refrigerate baby corn with the husks on immediately after harvest if you won’t use it right away. Preserve by any of these methods:
Pickling
Canning
Blanching and freezing
For more detail, visit the Extension publication Baby corn.
Previously titled No need to baby your corn to get miniature ears
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