OUTLOOK, Sask. – Market gardener Bill King can sell his table corn within a half hour of picking.
The Outlook grower said that is a competitive advantage for Saskatchewan growers going head to head with the truckloads of fresh corn coming from southern Alberta.
Saskatchewan corn acreage has dropped to fewer than 200 acres this year according to Statistics Canada, due largely to the availability of corn from provinces like Alberta, which grows 5,000 acres.
King prefers the taste of the sugar-enhanced varieties he grows, with their more tender, less chewy kernels, to the super sweet varieties grown in Alberta.
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“It’s not any better, it’s just been marketed,” he said of the Taber brand of corn.
His customers tell him Saskatchewan corn compares favourably with Taber corn, which often sits in trucks and on shelves for days before being purchased.
King thinks growers close to major centres like Saskatoon have a good opportunity to plant about 10 acres of corn and sell high-quality, locally grown product to the local market.
Growers had a chance to examine field trials and learn more about varieties at a corn field day at Outlook’s irrigation diversification centre Sept. 14.
A sweet corn production tip sheet released by Saskatchewan Agriculture and the University of Saskatchewan field trials recommends ample watering for seed germination.
Planting sweet corn in isolation will prevent the pollen from field corn from making it starchy.
The guide recommends planting a number of varieties in Saskatchewan, from the normal sugary Earlivee and Early Sunglow, to sugar-enhanced Blaze and Bojangles and the Super Sweet Candy Corner and Confection varieties.
Corn thrives in hot weather so the crop was challenged to produce in Saskatchewan this summer.
King said some of his three acres of corn were touched by an early frost Aug. 20, with leaves dying off above the cob and slower maturity.
“More than half of our corn we will not pick,” he said.
For the first time in 23 years, King did not finish harvesting his corn by mid-September. He normally starts picking the first week of August, but started Aug. 20 this year.
Doug Waterer of the University of Saskatchewan said cool wet weather delayed the corn’s development. Only one variety will mature of the 100 planted in the university’s field trials this year.
He said cobs didn’t fill to the end and the flavour is watery and bland, with plant growth coming to a standstill in the cool temperatures. He said poor weather at pollination also resulted in sketchy kernel patterns.
“It’s a write-off,” said Waterer, noting much of the crop has been plowed down.
He said sweet corn is marketed during the barbecue and summer months, so a September harvest of corn comes a little too late to catch that.
The Manitoba crop is also several weeks late, said Anthony Mintenko of Manitoba Agriculture.
He said the quality is OK but some cobs have immature tips.
Mintenko is certain there will be a market for local corn if and when it matures because most consumers realize why the prairie harvest is later than normal.
“People’s own gardens are very poor so they’re looking for produce,” he said.
Alberta, by contrast, had a good year in table corn in both yields and quality, said Chris Neeser, a fruit and vegetable scientist with Alberta Agriculture at Brooks.
Table corn was available a little later than normal due to mixed weather but escaped significant frost. It did suffer hail damage in some areas but hail affects corn less than other plants, he said.
“We were really lucky,” said Neeser.
