Growing Popcorn
Last summer one new thing that we tried our green thumb on was popcorn. We grew 2 varieties: strawberry popcorn, on the right and a mixed color variety on the left.
We noticed right away the height difference between the 2 varieties! The strawberry popcorn was much shorter than the colored variety. It also seemed like the ears of corn developed faster on the strawberry variety.
I left the corn on the plant to dry as long as they could and when the cold weather started setting in, we pulled the cobs off and brought them in to dry out the rest of the way.
Just now, in January, we decided to shell the corn. At first, we tried to just use our fingers, and that was painful. And then we read where if you rub 2 cobs together, they will come off easier. That worked better with less cut up fingers!
We decided to save some of both seeds.
We used a funnel to pour all of the popcorn into a mason jar to keep everything sealed up!
And here was how much we got for a very small patch!
And for the leftover cobs and husks, the chickens enjoyed looking for any kernels that we missed and kicked everything around!
Now on the the important part, did it pop?! It sure did! They might not be as large as the store bought, but the taste is much better!
Next year I’m going to focus on the strawberry variety because they seemed to pop much better, and took up less room.
So, I consider this new crop to us a success! Does popcorn make your list for the 2018 garden? I’m going to stay under these covers and dream of the beautiful weather that will eventually come! 🌱💚
llewellynhomestead 
How fun!
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It was a fun plant to grow!!
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Love it! And I love popcorn!!! PS The lipbalm is wonderful!!!
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I love popcorn too! And yay for you likeing the lip balm! That makes me happy!!! 😊
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That sounds super awesome actually! How fun!
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It really was fun!! We will have more next year!
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Sounds like a great use for a patch of garden you don’t have plans for. When did you start the corn?
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I usually put mine in the ground around the middle to last week of May! It depends on the weather. Last year it was closer to the middle of the month.
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Very cool. We’ve been thinking of trying some popping corn. Thinking next year might be the ticket.
Word of caution on the seeds: Corn has notoriously light pollen that is disbursed by the wind and varieties being saved for seeds should be separated by a mile… (Though you can hand pollinate.) You also need a huge number of plants to really keep the genetics happy – like 100. It may seem like a lot, but ten rows of ten isn’t huge.
Good luck!
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Thanks for that reminder! You are so right! I might need to plant a nice little area of it next year!
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What a lovely idea! I always wondered why I would want to grow corn – I could never grow enough for a meal… popcorn makes perfect sense!!!!
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Yes!! I’ve tried growing regular corn before, but I always felt like it was too much space for such a little amount of food!
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It looks so fun!
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