[maddave]

Hi, is this a problem?



Out of about 12 plants, this is the only one that seems to have split into lots of stems. Is was originally one plant.  Anything to worry about?

[mumofstig]

The offshoots are called tillers, they rarely produce a full cob, but they don't do any harm - I just leave them alone.

[maddave]

Thanks. I will leave it then.  Will I still get one big stem out of this particular plant and get a cob off it?  All the stems are pretty much the same height so not sure which is the original plant.

Edit:  Ah!  When you have the name of something you can find lots of information!  This seems an interesting article on tillers.  Good to see it seems to happen when the plant is in ideal growing conditions!!
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/articles.03/Tillers-0623.html

[mumofstig]

 

[bravemurphy]

I have one that has split in two so hope to have double the corn a BOGOF corn 

[mumofstig]

There's always hope, I s'pose - but it rarely happens.

[gavinjconway]

These "suckers" mainly help the plant grow stronger at the base and supports itself better in wind etc..