Corn - Hokianga Red & Yellow

NZH. This corn was gifted to us from Joseph Land, who has been growing it in the Hokianga for many years. He received it from other local growers in his area. This corn has two colours and instead of being mixed on each cobb, single cobbs display completely red and others a yellow/orange hue. This is a first for us as growers to witness. Our grow out this year has roughly a 60/40 split on the cobbs with the yellow ones having a predominance. When looking into the origins of corn in NZ, a few interesting things came to my attention. It is commonly understood that corn originated in the Americas, a domesticated plant from the wild grass known as teosinte. By the time Europeans were arriving on these shores, they had already been cultivating corn since the Columbian Exchange. It appears possible that this corn is in fact one of the first varieties of corn grown in NZ by the name Marigold. It is interesting to note that many older varieties of marigolds, such as our Naughty Marietta, contain the two-tone colours of red and yellow just like this corn. In the late 1700’s corn was introduced to NZ but it was not widely grown until the 1800s. By 1826, bartering included maize in the Hokianga. So, we can presume this variety was grown sometime from around the early 1800s in the North. A very tall flour corn with minimal tillers that ripens late in the season. Can be eaten as a sweet corn when very young, or left to dry for grinding into flour or polenta.

Sow into trays in October in areas where there is frost, to 4cm diagonal spacing and keep in glasshouse . Transplant out to 25cm diagonal spacing in garden bed in November-December taking care to protect from frost. Or direct sow at 10-20cm spacing in October-November taking care to protect from frost. A heavy feeder, will require fertile soil.

40 seeds.