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Corn Variety Trial

Sweet   Sweet corn continues to be a major vegetable crop in Florida. The crop in 2003-04 was reported at 38,700 acres with a yield of 369 42-lb crates per acre. The total value was $110.4 million. Popular supersweet (shrunken-2) sweet corn varieties in commercial use in Florida are: yellow types, Prime Time, Prime Plus, G555771, Summer Sweet 68 00R, and Summer Sweet 7640R; white types, Boreal, Summer Sweet 6801, Summer Sweet 7311, Summer Sweet 7641R, and Vail; bicolor types, Big Time, BSS 9686, Summer sweet 7102, Summer Sweet 8102R, and Tethys.

In the spring of 2004, a small sweet corn variety trial was conducted on the PSREU Hastings Farm, 9500 Cowpen Branch Road, Hastings, FL. The results of a duplicate trial conducted in Central Florida in cooperation with Long and Scotts Farm, Lake Jem, FL was reported in the Vegetarian 04-06. The Hastings trial included bicolor (ACX 1068) and four yellow supersweet (shrunken-2) varieties hand planted with two rows per plot, 45 feet long and replicated four times. Seeds were spaced eight inches in the row and rows were on 42 inch centers. Planting was on March 9 and harvest on June 1, 2004. Cultural practices were followed as outlined in Vegetable Production Handbook for Florida 2003-2004. Days to harvest ranged from 82 to 88, which was over 10 days longer than normal due to a cool spring and what appeared to be chemical injury several days after emergence. The soil type was a flatwoods Ellzey fine sand and seepage irrigation was used. Yield and horticultural characteristics are found in Table 1. Husk cover and ear tip fill data are not shown since there were no differences and were both in the excellent range for all varieties evaluated. Yield in this trial ranged from 112 to 264 42-lb crates per acre, well below the stare average of 369. Low yields were due to the early injury and lack of ear worm control during rains which lead to scheduling conflicts of insecticide applications. The Lake Jem trial had yields of 296 to 501 42-lb crates per acre. In both trials, Beyond, ACX 1068 and ACX 10824 were highest in yield and ACX 10724 and Prime Plus were the lowest in yield. Prime Plus, ACX 1068, and ACX 10824 had the longest ears while Prime Plus had the smallest ear diameter and were latest maturing. ACX 1068 and ACX 10724 were the earliest maturing at 82 days after planting.

Table 1.  Supersweet sweet corn variety trial results, Hastings, FL 2004.

Marion  White¹, Chad Hutchinson², Naphtali Caranadang¹ and Doug Gergela^2
1MREC-Apopka
²Horticultural Sciences Department
Vegetarian 05-03