misty donkey herder on Nostr: the problem with field corn is that 99% of the literature is written for medium to ...

the problem with field corn is that 99% of the literature is written for medium to big ag, and they’re worried about being able to use equipment to harvest. And on top of that, 99% of the field corn we plant these days is dent corn and I’m growing flour corn, a more fragile and delicious type — all popcorn is flour corn, but not all flour corn is popcorn.
But what I’ve been able to find seems to indicate that as long as the ears stay 8-12” above the soil it’ll all be fine.
I’m very grateful to Richard Rollinson (npub1fqf…ajkk) for giving me the confidence to plant that patch so densely! If it wasn’t such a jungle in there, some of the ears would be in the dirt.
I’ve been trying to grow this kind of corn in particular since 2021, when I read a truly wonderful book called The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carole Deppe. I grabbed it because of the title, but to my delight quickly found that the author lives in west side Oregon and shares my food allergies. She’s got celiac disease and can’t tolerate wheat, and she grows loads of field corn for her grain needs. The book is very loosely organized, with incredible tidbits but not a lot of direct hand-holding, and I’ve learned a great deal about the types of corn, corn breeding, seed saving, planting density, etc - but there’s nothing much about when to harvest flour corn! Sooner than flint or dent, that’s as specific as she gets. Aghhh 😫