Tassel Ears in Corn (2024)

FAQs

Tassel Ears in Corn? ›

A corn plant is monoecious, meaning that the male and female reproductive organs are contained in physically separate morphologies. The tassel is the male flower and the ear shoots are the female flowers, both originally initiating as single flowers containing both male and female reproductive structures.

Tassel ears are often produced by tillers that result when the plant's growing point is destroyed or injured by hail, wind (green snap), animal feeding, frost, flooding, herbicides, and mechanical injury.

The tassel represents the male flower on a corn plant, while the ear shoots represent the female flowers. Interestingly, both reproductive structures initiate as perfect (bisexual) flowers, containing both male and female reproductive structures.

It is VERY IMPORTANT to pull tassels in a timely matter. They must not be allowed to produce pollen. If this happens it can ruin the crop. The tassels are pulled straight out of the top of the corn plant, leaving all the leaves with the plant.

After corn silks are fertilized by the tassels at the top of the stalk, they'll shrivel up as the ears mature. This happens about three weeks after the silks form. The corn kernels become ripe just about the same time as the silks become brown and shriveled.

If you don't remove the tassel, the pollen from the tassel will eventually fall onto the silks below, a process called self-pollination. Removing the tassel ensures the plant is pollinated by corn in adjacent rows rather than by itself, creating a hybrid.

VT Stage. Vegetative growth stages in corn cease with the production of a tassel, VT. This stage occurs when a tassel is fully extended (figure 5 and figure 6) prior to the production of silks (figure 7). Tassels will be visible for approximately two to three days before the formation of silks.

Trials applying nitrogen as late as tasseling show that this can still be very effective, but after tasseling application has yielded mixed results.

It is detasseling, and it's a process used by seed corn companies to produce high-quality products for their customers. In the very simplest of terms, detasseling involves removing the tassel at the very top of the corn plant, mechanically and by hand, to prevent unwanted pollination.

Ear/silk formation follows tasseling after about 2-5 days. If you don't have tassels yet, ears won't be there yet. If you have tassels, and pollen has been falling without any ears/silks formed to catch the pollen, there will not be any corn.

Why is it necessary to detassel corn? ›

Why do farmers detassel corn? Each corn plant has a spikey top filled with pollen called a tassel. Farmers sometimes remove the tassel, a process called detasseling, from some corn plants to control pollination. Corn detasseling allows farmers to make sure that one variety of corn pollinates another.

As a guide, corn should be ready around three weeks after the silky tassels first appear. However, you should always wait until the tassels are brown, then peel back the covering to expose some kernels and press using a fingernail. If you are too early, the sap will still be clear, so wait.

Removing the tassel eliminates unwanted random cross-breeding. For decades, nearly all corn was detasseled by hand. Precision machines introduced in the last few years now detassel 80% of the corn. The other 20% is still done by people – mostly kids.

It takes about 20 days after the silks first appear on the ear before the corn has developed enough. Ears will be ready to pick when the silks turn brown, but the husk remains green. Stalks should have at least one ear near the top before harvesting occurs.

The tassel is usually fully emerged and open before any pollen is shed. The length of pollen shed for each plant varies, but is usually 5 to 8 days with the peak production coming about the third day. It is estimated that each tassel will produce between 2 million and 25 million pollen grains.

Corn is typically harvested in late summer or early fall, between August and October in the Northern Hemisphere. Harvesting time depends on factors such as corn type, planting date, climate, and corn maturity, which farmers monitor by observing kernel moisture, color, and texture to determine the ideal time to harvest.

The main function of tassels in corn cob is to disperse pollen grains. Corn cob is a bisexual plant. The corn cob has long tentacles, which help the pollen grains to spread through the flow of air.

It is detasseling, and it's a process used by seed corn companies to produce high-quality products for their customers. In the very simplest of terms, detasseling involves removing the tassel at the very top of the corn plant, mechanically and by hand, to prevent unwanted pollination.

If the planting is too thick, ears may not develop, even if the corn has tasseled. There are different maturity groups in corn, i.e. different varieties require different length of time from plant emergence to tasseling, and ultimately pollination and ear growth.

Corn smut is a fungal disease that causes swellings (galls) on ears, leaves, stalks, and tassels of sweet and field corn. Smut is rarely observed in Utah and is not considered economically important for grain production.