Sweet corn - GMO or ????

[tam91]

I thought the local farmer told me that just about all of the the lovely sweet corn that is grown by the farmstand guys here (bicolor) is GMO or something so that the silk contains something (BT?) that kills the worms that try to enter the corn. Am I remembering that correctly?

And if I am, does anyone know what those varieties might be, and where to get the seed? The lovely nice men that give me the garden space want to grow corn, and had trouble with the worms this year.

I am not concerned about it being GMO, organic, or whatever - just want to try to find the same thing that is sold at the farmstands.

If anyone has any information, thanks in advance.

[Redbaron]

Bt corn and other transgenic varieties are not available to the home grower due to protocols that must be followed in their production.

[kurt]

http://ldsmag.com/article/1/11697 There is a continuing discussion on the "transgenic tomatoes"on another thread going on now if you are interested.

[kurt]

http://www.seminis.com/global/us/Pag...al-Notice.aspx These guys will sell you the corn as a homeowner.

[tam91]

I have seen the tomato thread, thanks.

These guys are commercial farmers, just haven't done sweet corn. So they can probably purchase seed from any source. But I will check out that homeowner source also, thank you since they may not want a large quantity.

[Cole_Robbie]

If you plant BT sweet corn, you're supposed to plant a little bit of non-bt sweet corn in the field with it. The last I looked, it was every fifth or sixth row should be non-bt. Otherwise, you will grow BT-resistant worms.

[tam91]

Interesting. I wonder how they handle harvesting that? I'll have to read up on BT corn - but apparently that is what I should be using for a search term.

[kurt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_thuringiensis

[tam91]

Right, thank you - I know what BT is. I meant I needed to search and read up about "BT corn". At least I now think that is what the search term should be.