Hey everyone, first time growing corn and one of the cobs is looking positively haunted, I’m pretty sure these are enlarged kernels, have anyone seen something like this? Know why it happens? And if it ripens, is it safe to eat?

  • uphillbothways@kbin.social
    11·
    1 year ago

    Huit la coche is really good. I’ve had it. It’s a little sweet like corn, but tastes like a mushroom. Great fried up with eggs or prepared in other ways. Pretty much any way you’d use mushrooms.

    Harvest when firm and gray. If it gets wrinkly and black inside it has gone too long, but can be used to inoculate other corn to make more once it starts showing spore growth on the exterior.

    • PitzNR@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Thank you! I have a few cobs left on the stalks that are not going to be fertilized, do you think it might be a good idea to let it spore the rest?

      • uphillbothways@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        You’d need to inoculate before pollination/during the pollination period. You’d save the spores and put them on the silks (maybe in a dropper mixed with water) when they start showing. Probably next year at this point. Some sources say freezing is bad for saving the spores. Some say it’s fine. Keeping them pretty dry is probably going to be the most important part.

        I’d probably let them dry in a cool garage/cellar/cupboard in an open jar and then cap that until the right time next year.

        If your corn has already started forming kernels and filling the husks, it’s too late for new fungus to take hold.

    • AnticorpEnglish
      18·
      1 year ago

      It’s not a joke. There’s a fungus that can grow on corn which is considered a delicacy.

    • Cris@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      The fungus growing here is apparently called corn smut. Smut is also a word for nsfw content; you night say that erotica or a horny romance comic are “smut”

      apparently the corn smut is also delicious, which is neat