Mutant Corn?

[VeggiesToGo]

[align=left]This is my first year growing corn (2nd year of gardening.) I was all excited when the first ear appeared. It looke ready for harvesting, but was shocked when I opened it up to find a tassel growing out of the ear of corn (the corn otherwise looked okay.) I was scared to eat it, so I put it in my compost pile. Does anyone know why this would have happened? Does it mean my seeds were genetically modified or something? Would the ear of corn have been safe to eat? Has anyone else heard of this happening? Thanks for any info you can provide.[/align]

[Newt]

Hi Veggies To Go,

I'm not sure I understand what it is that you saw.* Did you happen to take a picture?* This corn diagnostic guide is one of the best I've come across.* Unfortunately it doesn't have pics, but you can look up the symptoms on google and click on 'Images' and you might get pics.* Do look at the stage of 'Tasseling to Maturity'.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/pag...iagnostic.html

Let me know if you find anything that sounds like what you saw.
Newt

[VeggiesToGo]

[align=left]Unfortunately I didn't save a picture. Thanks for the idea to google on images. I did find a similar picture http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/...Ears-0713.html[/align]
[align=left]The only difference is, in the picture, the tassel grew first and then the ear of corn grew out of the tassel. In mine, the ear of corn grew, then the tassel (about 1 inch long) grew out of the ear of corn--the tassel was short enough that it was covered by the leaves of the corn and I didn't see it until after I had shucked the corn.[/align]

[Newt]

That is a* good site you found.* I clicked around and found this about 'tillers' aka suckers.* Is this what you saw?
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/...lers-0623.html

Newt

[VeggiesToGo]

[align=left]Hmmm, it does sound similar, but mine did appear to be the main stalk of the corn. This is fascinating stuff, I never realized so much can go wrong during the growing process. It does sound like the corn should be safe to eat. If that happens again, I'll try it.[/align]

[VeggiesToGo]

[align=left]Hmmm, it does sound similar, but mine did appear to be the main stalk of the corn. This is fascinating stuff, I never realized so much can go wrong during the growing process. It does sound like the corn should be safe to eat. If that happens again, I'll try it.[/align]

[Newt]

I was doing some reading about mutant corn and that may be what happened to that ear.* I clicked on the link at the bottom of the page of this site and found another site that lists mutations.* For just the ear there were over 13,000 so I didn't continue.
http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/pub...e-gene-map.cfm

You are welcome to look for yourself though it's a bit of a daunting task.
http://gremlin1.gdcb.iastate.edu/Mu/...antBrowser.php

Newt