<p>95-105 days. The highest-yielding main-crop variety for canning or freezing in a hot summer. It may not mature in the cooler parts of the Coast over poorer summers. 20-25cm (81/2-9 in.) ears have 16-20 rows of kernels which hold their sweetness on the stalk and for a short time after picking. The yellow kernels are very deep, sweet with a rich taste.</p><p>CULTURE: Planting corn very early won’t usually give you earlier corn. Even our well-adapted varieties have a tendency to germinate very poorly in soil colder than 15 deg. C (59 deg. F). The shrunken kernel 'sugar enhanced' or 'super sweets' require a soil temperature of at least 21 deg. C (70 deg. F). Plant between May 15th and June 10th.</p><p>Sweetcorn is a variety of maize which has a grain that contains more sugar than starch. Maize itself is a very important crop, as important as wheat and rice, though most of the huge crop grown in the North American corn belt is for consumption by livestock rather than directly by humans. In parts of Africa and in much of Central and South America maize is the staple human diet, either in the form of porridge or tortillas. Popcorn is a distinct variety which has grains containing particles of starch that explode on heating. Maize originated in pre-historic times in Mexico, but is not now known as a wild plant. The earliest archaeological records of Zea are from the area of Mexico City, where pollen has been found in deposts dating from 60,000 to 80,000 years ago, before the area was inhabited by man. The earliest, very small and primitive cobs were found in the Tehuacan caves dating from around 3500 BC. The earliest finds in Peru date from 1000 BC. It did not become a staple crop until after 800 AD. These early small-grained forms are thought to have ben eaten as popcorn. The first discovery of sweetcorn was as a valued source of sugar, and was used to enhance the alcohol content of their beer. Modern sweetcorns are divided into groups according to the colour of the grain (yellow, white, blue or variously coloured) and the amount of sugar (sugary, ultra-sweet (also called supersweet, extra-sweet or shrunken, from the appearance of the seed) and sugary enhanced (derived from a sugary-floury cross)).</p>
