Me and my dad decided to plant some corn this year, I don’t remember what kind of corn it is but it started developing corn kernels on the tassel. Has anyone else experienced that with corn they’ve grown? I posted some pictures of what it looks like.
by SecondEnvironmental
6 Comments
Not enough pollination. Apparently corn needs like pollination on a kernel by kernel basis.
Ok, this sent me on a rabbit hole! It has to do with the corn tassels and ears both having “perfect” flowers or having both male/female reproductive parts in both parts of the plant. Normally the tassels will become male and the ears female, but sometimes the tassels hang on to their female parts and produce kernels when pollinated. Not sure what triggers the mutation. Source: [Perdue Tassle Ears](https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/TasselEars.html)
That looks like Taosinte. Maybe it got mixed into your seed?
two different kinds of corn together?
Your corn didn’t pollinate enough.
Corn is unique in this sense because it relies on the win to pollinate it rather than bees.
Every single silk thread on top of the corn ear has to be pollinated to grow even single corn kernel. So it’s a miracle we consistently have corn at all.
Guessing the seed was the first-generation product of a commercial hybrid corn / maize.
Hybrids are great for yield, but they don’t breed true, and can throw up some odd random characteristics – this one is typical.
That’s why the hybrid seed industry exists.