How is corn cultivated

Corn plants go through different stages of growth:. The corn plant photosynthesizes and grows taller, then the corn tassel blooms and is pollinated by bees or other insects. There are many different types of corn.

Various breeds of corn have different genes that control characteristics such as the height of the corn, how sweet the corn is, and what color it is. Most of the corn you see growing in Iowa is field corn, which is used to make fuel, feed, food and thousands of other everyday products. Iowa has been the king of corn for almost two decades. Seriously, Iowa grows about three times as much corn as a country like Mexico. And Mexico is huge!

Just goes to show Iowa grows a substantial amount of corn. Corn has been the top crop in Iowa for more than years running! Corn is planted when the soil is warm enough to germinate the seeds but not so early that the young plants are likely to be damaged by frost. In Iowa, this can be in early April for the state's southern counties, but it can be several weeks later for the state's northern counties.

Corn grows on every continent except Antarctica. Most corn is grown in middle latitudes between 30 and 45 degrees , about equal to the area north of New Orleans and south of Montana in the Northern Hemisphere.

Officially, one acre is 4, square yards or 43, square feet. Nationally, the average is bushels per acre. In Iowa, some farmers begin harvesting corn by mid-September, though most of the harvest is takes place in October.

In a cool year, when the corn matures more slowly, much of Iowa's crop isn't harvested until November. Silk: The silk on the ear grows out of the top of the cornhusk and may be colored green, yellow or brown, depending on the corn variety. Husk: It is the green leaves surrounding the corn ears. These protect the kernels of the corn. Stalk: It is the main body of the plant, the stalk can grow several feet high and is quite sturdy to support the ears of the corn.

This picture shows corn that is around years old, and about an inch long. The history of modern day corn begins about 10, years ago.

Ancient farmers took the first steps in growing corn when they chose which kernels to plant. Corn comes from a wild grass plant called teosinte, which is still growing in Mexico today. Native Americans brought corn up the Mississippi River.

The earliest corn plant was very small, but after periods of breeding by Native Americans, pilgrims, and scientists, the corn plant has changed into the corn we know today. Modern Iowa farmers produce a bushel of corn with only six minutes of man-labor. By the time the first European settlers arrived on this continent, corn was the chief food crop of the native Indians.

The colonists quickly learned how to grow corn, and they enthusiastically adopted the new staple. In fact, much of the early fighting that took place between the settlers and the Indians was over cornfields.

The stakes were high; losing a cornfield meant losing your food supply. Back then, people raised what's now called field corn. Some corn was eaten fresh, but most of the harvest was cooked in fried cakes, breads and puddings, dried for winter storage or ground into cornmeal and corn flour.

Field corn was also used for livestock feed, as it is today. Sweet corn varieties weren't developed until the s. Over the years, cross-pollination during cultivation caused genetic changes that transformed corn into the shape and size we now know. Today, corn is still more popular in this country than anywhere else in the world. There are thousands of strains of corn, with more than varieties of sweet corn alone.

All the varieties can be divided into four basic groups: field corn, sweet corn, popcorn and ornamental corn. There are many varieties of field corn; some are favorites of gardeners and farmers who eat them as roasting ears.

These can be "dent" or "flint" corns, both of which can also be dried and ground for homemade meal. Flint corn has a hard-shelled kernel, and it does well in the cooler climates of New England and Canada.

Dent corn is somewhat hard-shelled, and the top of the kernel forms a characteristic dented shape when the ears are mature. Popcorn, another hard-shelled variety, contains very hard starch that expands when heated until the kernel pops.