Sweetcorn tassles

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anchorman

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Sweetcorn tassles
« on: September 04, 2015, 22:42 »
Hi all, I grew sweetcorn for the first time this year. Bought as little plants from Aldi they have done very well,  not fully ripe yet so only got 2nd prize at the produce show. So, where are the seeds???
Are they in the cob? And what happens if the tassles which look like seeds fall, will random plants start growing?
Weird plants eh?

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Salmo

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Re: Sweetcorn tassles
« Reply #1 on: September 04, 2015, 23:17 »
The bits on the tassles are not seeds. The seeds are all the yellow blobs on the cobs, the bits you eat.


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Goosegirl

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Re: Sweetcorn tassles
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2015, 11:07 »
Just to help out, sweet corn produces "tassels" at the top of each stalk which produce a very fine pollen that falls down onto the parts where the cobs are beginning to grow. Each of these potential cobs produces fine threads called "silks" at the top. When the pollen falls on the silks, the cobs begin to produce seeds called "kernels" which is what we eat. Putting it another way, the tassels are "male" and the silks are "female."
I work very hard so don't expect me to think as well.

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cadalot

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Re: Sweetcorn tassles
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2015, 11:45 »
GG - You mean to tell me that my corns been having sex on my allotment  :ohmy:

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Goosegirl

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Re: Sweetcorn tassles
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2015, 10:49 »
Yes - but I don't think your bunions have - YET!  ::)

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Salmo

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Re: Sweetcorn tassles
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2015, 13:03 »
It is very genteel sex with no touching allowed and pollen received on the wind. If you listen you can hear the rustle of sweet talk.

Each strand of the silks is the stamen of an individual flower. One of the wonders of nature that pollen can grow along the silk to fertilise an individual embryo grain on the cob.

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trunk monkey

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Re: Sweetcorn tassles
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2015, 20:30 »
What a beautiful and romantic post!

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Goosegirl

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Re: Sweetcorn tassles
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2015, 11:48 »
It was indeed. I grow some in the greenhouse and tap their stalks to release the pollen from the tassels which is so fine that all you see is a golden mist all around you. As Shakespeare would say - "It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven upon the place beneath."



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