Florida Sweet Corn
Florida is the nation’s leader in the production of sweet corn,
with Palm Beach County leading the way. During the 1999-2000 growing
season, the county produced 63% of the state’s crop. In fact,
the EAA region is one of the world’s largest sweet corn producing
areas!  Sweet
corn seeds can be planted any time from August through April, depending
on the specific production region, however growers in South Florida
tend to plant anywhere from late September to early March.
Even though the ancestry of corn has never been truly discovered,
carbon dating  of
pollen grains indicates that corn is at least 8000 years old. However,
the development of sweet corn has been much more recent. Before the
sugary gene (su) people consumed field (dent) corn
at an immature stage. It wasn’t until the 1820’s that
sweet corn, with the su gene, was listed in seed
catalogs. In the 1950’s the shrunken (sh2) gene,
which greatly increased the sugar levels, was discovered. Then in
the 1960’s a corn that was sweet and creamy was developed. This
type of corn is known as sugary enhanced (se). Since
many different varieties within these types have their advantages
and disadvantages, breeders have recently begun ‘stacking’
the preferential genes from each type. This has led to varieties that
are very sweet and do not lose this sweetness rapidly after maturity.
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