Corn from popcorn?

This borders on being a stupid question. I can by bulk organic mixed popcorn which is a mix of 4 different colors (though I'm not sure about number of varieties since corn can be multi-colored) Will this germinate and grow? Not necessarily in the PNW mind, but might the seed be viable?

Edit: accidental elide

chances are it will grow, what would be your intended goals with growing it be?

If it's not a known variety, then it could very well be a hybrid. So who knows what you'll get. Anyhow, it should germinate just fine

Well Jordan,

I've never grown popcorn. Just sweet corn. Corn is kinda pushing it for here - But I think If I got the timing and placement right and we have another fairly warm fairly dry season I'd have a shot at it. Curious to see if it would grow here and how well. I mean popcorn still pops even with small stubby plant right? That's probably how it was domesticated right? As small tough cereals. Mostly I'm curious to see if I can manage to produce one of the worlds greatest stable crops. I could probably go through 70 pounds of popcorn in a winter/spring. I really like a good popcorn or sweet corn, but my thought is that popcorn might be less demanding - especially during the dry summers we sometimes get.

Justin,

That might give them a hybrid vigor! I actually don't think I'd mind a bit of a throwback to smaller plants if I could find one that was hearty to my conditions.

I'm not exactly sure what the limitations to your climate are, but I've had success growing popcorn here. It is a pretty long seasoned crop, so I start it in trays in my greenhouse because the soil is just cold for germination. The other trick is that it usually needs to dry. I just pick the ears and put the out in a dry area (I use a hay-loft.)

Have fun!

Thanks! Here also I have only had luck with starting corn in a a greenhouse. I have usually done these in small 72 cell trays. I think due to my geese I will instead try larger pots to see if I can get them large enough for the birds to leave alone.

I have never attempted popcorn before. That sounds great. I will have to try some and let ya'll know if it works. My boys sure would enjoy that. What a great idea.

I grew a lot of popcorn last year and it did well. I used colored (gourmet) popcorn from the bulk section at the health food store, mixed with regular store popcorn. It does take longer than regular corn, in fact if you plant it at the same time they will drop pollen one after the other so no worries about cross-pollination.

We had some ears that were like Indian corn, some that were mostly all black or mostly red (those had sharp, pointy kernels that hurt!) and a few ears that were all white. It was fun to shuck them and see what we got! Some of the stalks were purple as were the leaves, very pretty! Many sent up 3-4 stalks and each stalk had 2 or more ears on it. The ears were small but with so many we did get a lot of popcorn.

I filled a one-gallon plastic bag with all the corn, plus ground two batches into corn meal for a class I teach. The kernels are small enough to use in the Nutrimill grain mill to make into corn flour, unlike the larger regular corn kernels.

That is so awesome. I guess I thought the kernels may have been heated or treated in some way since they don't resemble regular corn. Silly I know. I usually buy my popcorn at Sam's club in the 5 gallon pail. So I have a ton of seed. All six of my kids play sports ,so we go through a bunch of popcorn because I bring a big bag to share.

So I've been doing this. I put about 2 cups of popcorn in a just wrung out rage in a dish on the window sill for two or three days then I poke lots of little holes and drop the sprouted ones (+/-85 percent germ) into beds. The chicken and ducks and geese got most of my first two rounds. I saw the first ones popping up today. By this evening they are about 1.5 inches tall. Pretty quick growth when its warm enough for um. Anyhow I'm putting up better bird obstructors and going for round three. 1.79 lb bulk organic popcorn.

I am able to grow Dakota Black popcorn successfully in Seattle. I start it indoors under grow lights. I will plant it out end of May. It makes very pretty little ears with spiky black kernels that pop to a pure white. Give it a try.

NOTE TO SELF

DO NOT REMOVE BRUSH PILE FROM ON TOP OF CORN EVEN WHEN THEY ARE 8 INCHES TALL AND ARE GETTING SMOOSHED

GEESE AND DUCKS WILL EAT

GRRRRR!!!

I love the note to self post. I had several of those moments last week. I let my ducks and geese out of their safe nursery area to graze and get a good run. My little boys and I were out with them working on clearing an area for our next Hugel bed. I have to keep an eye on them because the month old chicks will bully them. I set up a little pool nearby and all was well until they went missing. We found them sitting happily on my other bed giving a hair cut to all my freshly planted corn seedlings. So we rounded them back up and put them back in the nursery area. Meanwhile the Krackens , I mean chickens, managed to get into my seed beds and busily scratched up all the new seeds my boys and I had just planted. It's a good thing they are so small or they might have ended up as chicken nuggets by that evening.They had so far stayed out of that area. So the boys and I had to get busy putting up the fencing that I had put off installing to keep my little tiny critters locked up. I hate penning up any animal. So I had a lot of fencing because I planned to fence a large area for them. Note to self included , next time buy smaller rolls of fencing, wait for husband and bigger boys to help put up fencing, when sitting in the mud from the very recent downpour make sure that cell phone, camera ,and house phone that you left hanging in the bag on your chair are not getting soaked in the down pour, also make sure that while you struggle pulling the wire tight to hook it onto those dang green poles that you are not sitting in a lovely patch of poison oak. Note to self also included that if you are going to throw an impressive hissy fit and throw tools, swear and kick something good and hard , make sure you don't kick something with the foot that has the two recently broken toes. I had previously broken them tripping over the small table I had the fan sitting on during the night . I forgot it was there when I got up to use the bathroom in the dark. That note to self included never place an object in your usual path to the bathroom during the night. I am glad someone else is also having "Note to self " moments in life. I don't feel so alone in my smack yourself in the head moments. Lol.