I live in Wabash county Indiana and listen quite s bit to The urban farm podcast as Im a townie at this time. I often hear interesting conversations from seed savers that say if you plant any corn, and save seeds from them, they will adapt genetically to your unique microclimate. This really isn't an answer to your question but I thought it very interesting. So if you have a season with lots of rain the survivors that didn't die of rot will be adapted next year to survive this. If next year it is s drought (for example) then the survivors will be potentially resistant to drought and rot. Not a perfect science but nature does adapt and survival of the fittest is strong. You can also save seed from the ones that you think are the best color, tallest,shorter etc.
