Red Aztec maize is worth growing just for the wow factor. The deep red cobs look great, and I couldn’t resist them from the seed catalogue. I had everything to learn about growing maize, and it’s been an interesting crop, but the first lot of cobs are mature now. From the main picture you can see that they’re not the big, full cobs one might hope for, but with this lot I would at least recover my seed.
One thing I had to learn to judge was when to pick them. The plants are still green, but I picked because we are about to head into more rainy weather after a few dry days. It turned out that some of the seeds are already germinating in the ears (the cob at the front) which means that the cobs are mature and have been re-wet by rain (http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/Vivipary.html). So at least I know the seeds are mature and ready to dry. Another worry about leaving the cobs too long on the plants is that rodents or birds will get them, even wrapped in all those layers.
These are from the Three Sisters stand that I sowed in September. That turned out to be too early, due to the drought, and the poor plants never recovered. Hence, I think, the small ears. But the thing with our subtropical climate is that there is plenty of scope for sowing. I put in another couple of rows in December, and they have surged ahead with the warm wet weather. They are now well over two metres high, and just starting to flower.
I see that the local corn crops are at a similar stage, so maybe the best thing is to wait until a wet season break and not be worried about Summer passing by. Or meet a local farmer who can tell me when. It will be interesting to see how these and another patch I planted down in the Low-levels paddock will do in the later season.
What do you do with red corn? Well I tried the first cobs back in January when they were immature. I cut the kernels off the cobs and put them in a mixed vegetable braise. They weren’t outstanding but would be fine subsistence food. The kernels were mixed yellow to red, which I put down to cross-pollination with sweetcorn growing down the hill. The maize pollination story is bit contradictory; you have to plant thickly to get good seed set as the pollen is weakly wind borne and doesn’t travel, yet you shouldn’t plant other types (i.e. sweetcorn) within a kilometre because they will cross-pollinate. It may also be that the seeds start yellow and mature red.
I will leave sweetcorn for the kitchen and go with the original plan of growing red corn for the chickens. These first cobs will definitely be in the chicken yard tomorrow, and I’ll see about seed saving from the later crops.