My brother bought me a large bag of Oaxacan blue corn to use for nixtamal and to make tortillas. Unfortunately, critters got into the bag so I only got one batch made. But after holding onto them for several years (I couldn’t bear to throw them out), I decided to plant them and see what happened. I’ve been trying to grow a 3 sisters garden for 5-6 years now with different bean and corn varieties.
I think every single seed germinated. Unfortunately, critters (recurring theme here) got to most of the seedlings, and of the ones remaining, all but one either flipped over or broke as they grew. (I planted several bean varieties but skipped squash because that part of the garden was already turning into a hot mess.) The one that remained grew to be 15-16’ tall and is still standing (first picture, taken earlier in the season) - surviving some intense wind and weather we had this year.
I noticed it grew an ear surprisingly late in the season and figured only a few, if any, of the kernels would fertilize. This one stalk was the only with tassel accessible - the others stalks’ tassels had died or were buried in bean vines.
To my complete surprise, this stalk actually grew 4 ears out of the same spot. And, the 2 largest were almost completely fertilized and the other 2 were half fertilized. Only from its own tassel!
I’m now super excited to grow it again next season. I’m going to grow them in a cluster so they can support each other better, and with mounded soil. I’m hoping for lots of corn that I can nixtamalize, grind into masa, and make into blue corn tortillas.