You might have seen pictures of glass gem corn around the internet. The bright, multi-coloured corn certainly grabs attention, but is it worth growing yourself?
Well, as it happens, I grew some last year to find out what it was all about. Here are my thoughts.
Should you grow it?
That really depends on why you would want to grow it.
As a productive crop, I would say no, don’t grow it. That is because it is popcorn or flour corn and is unsuitable for eating straight off the cob.
It’s left on the plant until the corn drys, goes hard, and is then harvested, and as part of this process, it loses a lot of its unique colour.
Then if you do pop it, you can barely tell it even had any colour to begin with. So as a production crop it is really not worth the space and effort you would have to dedicate to it.
Why would you grow it then?
It’s an oddity, something fun to grow and experiment with – that’s why I grew it anyway.
I also have a young daughter who I am trying to get into gardening, and its growing exciting things that captures her attention.
So if you just enjoy growing strange crops or have children or grandchildren who you think would enjoy this corn, then I say go for it.
But if you don’t have much room and want to grow as many productive crops as possible then I would give this one a swerve.
If you are interested in growing this corn then I will include a few links below to where you can get it.
Where to buy?
If you want to grow this corn then you are going to have to grow it from seed as you are very unlikely to find it as a plant in any shops.
Luckily it is readily available as seed and is stocked by one of my favourite seed shops, premier seeds direct.
