Testing Flint Corn Seeds For Germination. 3.11.22

With chicken feed prices rising, I thought it might help to grow some feed corn. We'll also try growing sunflowers, millet, and sorghum to see if any of those is worthwhile. I thought about doing that in the past, both regular yellow field corn and Indian corn. We did grow Indian corn 4 years ago and I still had seeds. I had yellow field corn seeds from last year or the year before, but never planted it. The books state that sweetcorn seeds only last one year. I wondered if flint corn might last longer, since it has a much harder and thicker shell. To test these seeds, I placed six seeds of each variety into folded, wet paper towels, then into zipper plastic bags, kept them warm on the seed warming mat. Here is the result.

Here are the original packets.

Within five days, five of six seeds of each variety germinated. That's more than good enough for me to plant both packets.