Bees In The Garden

Have to report what I am seeing on my MN 13 open pollinated heirloom corn growing in the garden. The hum of bees the last few days on the tassels is something else, audible from a distance. The bees carry the pollen on their body and you can see these pollen sacs. There are also mating lady bugs on the corn leaves, my beneficial insects are having a big party on the corn. This is how it used to be, the farm crops were bug friendly and with this biodiversity was sustained. I also have this same corn planted elsewhere on the farm but have planted some in the garden because I found 2 ears last year that had large and heavy kernels, nearly 50% heavier than the average. Want to see if the garden corn will replicate to any degree ears with large and heavy kernels.

There are cucumbers and pumpkins blooming, they are loaded with bees as well.

How does corn taste from large and heavy kernels?

This is a field corn and I do not know about using it for food. Have been working with it for about 12 years and the MN 13 I have has been selected previously for early maturity (about 87 days) for this part of the country. My quest is to see if it can produce sufficiently to replace some of the modern corn varieties. Roundup Ready and the neonicotinoid infused corns are not bug friendly. Modern farming is devastating our pollinators. I will in time send a sample to organic yellow corn milling companies for an evaluation but not this year, need more research here.

Anne Miller wrote:How does corn taste from large and heavy kernels?

If we could replace some of the 95,000,000 acres of US corn with more Earth friendly varieties, I would be happy and so would the bugs.