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Late fall / early winter means it's time to select seeds for next year's garden!

What varieties of sweet corn are good for both eating fresh and freezing? The seed catalogs seem to be silent on the latter point, mostly emphasizing the fresh eating qualities. I plant enough so that we have all we can eat fresh, and then some extra to freeze and eat during the winter.

  • Willing to plant two varieties, but I can't isolate in space, only in time.
  • Short season, about 90 days
  • If you don't want to offer specific varieties, I wouldn't mind some pointers on how to navigate the maze of SU (normal sugary), SE (sugary enhanced), SE-SE, etc. in terms of what will freeze best. (This might even be better -- "teach a man to fish".)
Lorem Ipsum
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bstpierre
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2 Answers2

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For freezing, sweet corns that develop their sugars to starches slowest are best, Because they hold their flavor better than more starchy sweet corns. Super-sweet(sh2) are good for this, but have tougher skins and less flavor than others. On the other hand, you have sugary-enhanced(se) corn with tender skins and good flavor, but is more starchy. What I have grown for two years now is a variety that combines the sweetness of super-sweet(It is actually quite a bit sweeter), The tender skins of sugary-enhanced, and the flavor of normal corn. The variety name is 'Mirai 350 BC' a sh2/se/su corn that has bicolor, eight inch ears on 6 1/2' plants. It matures in 78 days. You would not believe how good this corn tastes. It makes old Silver Queen, a white su variety, taste like cardboard, even when freshly picked. Is stores well, and you can leave it in your fridge for four weeks, in its husk, and it will taste better than other corn. The earliest sweet corn is Earlivee, a 52 day yellow corn with 6" ears on a 3 1/2' stalk. It is an su corn. It can be planted at the same time as the Mirai, without fear of cross-pollination. Its seeds are also much less expensive.

J. Musser
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    Nice info, Jmusser. Any idea how I'd know what variety I've got? (Seedlings garnered from vege swap). – Lisa Dec 14 '11 at 06:16
  • @Lisa Have you grown any to maturity? – J. Musser Dec 16 '11 at 02:01
  • Not yet. It's currently got large tassels. – Lisa Dec 16 '11 at 02:08
  • How tall is it? Also, try to keep in mind what day you planted it, because that will help to tell what variety it is. – J. Musser Dec 19 '11 at 02:59
  • About a metre I'd say, possibly more. Over the weekend the female pods erupted with their stigmata waving in the air (can you tell it's the first time I've grown them). 5cm seedlings planted approximately 22 October. – Lisa Dec 19 '11 at 04:09
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Let's update this conversation. Sweetie 82 Hybrid is one of the best for freezing. It maintains it's kernel structure and has the old fashion taste of corn a lot of people expect and truthfully I want. While I love Honey Select for eating direct from the garden, it's kernels are relatively small and when I cook from frozen, it's sweeter than what we want corn to be.

HappyNana
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