# A Question About Corn (Maize) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2021, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622 "2021-07-30T00:33:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/1 "2021-07-30T00:33:31Z")
I have it in my head that the wheat most commonly grown in the US as a commercial crop is a mutant or dwarf variety. It only grows to about 3 feet tall as opposed to the non mutant or dwarf variety which grows as much as 6 feet tall. Regardless of the correctness of that, it got me to wondering; is there is a variety of maize that doesn’t grow so tall thus being perhaps less resource intensive to grow? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/2 "2021-07-30T00:51:00Z")
Actually, the hybrid corns that farmers plant are already much shorter than can grow in the wild. Corn is a grass; like all grasses, it wants to grow tall for sunlight. Also, it grows in stages. [The stem doesn’t begin to elongate until it reach the fifth stage, and then the same energy that sends the stalks up also powers the development of the ears.](https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/articles.01/Short_Corn-0712.html) Under some circumstances, like a cold snap at just the right state of development, the corn plant can be stunted, while the ears develop normally, but that’s an environmental accident, not a genetic thing that can be bred in. At least, not yet. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/3 "2021-07-30T02:27:35Z")
Corn grown for ear production commonly runs over 10 feet in height, similar to older types of maize, though primitive strains that put energy into vegetative growth can be much taller. Commercial varieties can get to 17 feet if plants are to be chopped up for livestock feed. Sweet corn plants are more like 5-7 feet. I have a tub of a blue corn variety that’s producing ears at 3 feet. Sources: personal observation, [iowacorn.org](http://iowacorn.org) (which says Iowa corn gets 8 feet tall by midsummer), and Bing Crosby. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/6iAzCQYBkSU/hqdefault.jpg "The Iowa Indian Song (I-O-Wuh) (1949) - Bing Crosby") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iAzCQYBkSU) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/4 "2021-07-30T04:38:35Z")
There are thousands of varieties of corn, including a number of dwarf corn varieties. Try searching on “dwarf corn” if you want to look at some. Since the leaf surface is feeding the plant, my guess (though I don’t usually grow corn) is that there’s a tradeoff in which smaller plants tend to lead to smaller/fewer ears and therefore less production per acre; but that’s going to be only one of multiple factors affecting production, so it isn’t going to be as simple as ‘shorter plants mean less corn.’ You’re correct that some plants put more energy into vegetative growth and less into seed, and that facto (out of, again, lots of others) would work in the other direction, as lots of energy into vegetative growth would produce taller corn. Shorter wheat plants are less liable to lodging (falling over), and if/where the straw isn’t considered valuable in itself may also be preferred for that reason. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/5 "2021-07-30T05:08:45Z")
thanks everyone. Obviously there’s a lot I don’t know about growing plants. 17 ft!?! Crickety, thats as tall(ish) as my house! I did not know that there is a variety of corn that grows that tall. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/6 "2021-07-30T05:27:42Z")
I hear it’s as high as an elephant’s eye. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/7 "2021-07-30T08:49:04Z")
…An’ it looks like its climbin’ clear up to the sky ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/8 "2021-07-30T10:13:00Z")
I regularly drive by a field of corn being grown to be a corn maze in a few months. A few weeks ago I noted that the corn was about as tall as the rear bumper of an old pickup parked in the field. 2 days later the corn was as tall as the box on the truck. Yesterday the truck was totally hidden, the stalks are at least 8 feet tall. The stalks will be at least 12 feet tall by the time the maze opens. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/9 "2021-07-30T10:42:03Z")
> [@DorkVader](#): > > I have it in my head that the wheat most commonly grown in the US as a commercial crop is a mutant or dwarf variety. Not limited to just the US, almost all the world commercial wheat crops. I have doubts that “wild” wheats will grow to 6’. Certainly modern commercial wheats have been bred to be shorter . It means the plant puts more of it energy into seeding and doesn’t fall over (lodge) after seed set and become problematic for harvesting especially with combine harvesters [![](https://i.ibb.co/d64D1rF/Wheat12.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/d64D1rF/Wheat12.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/10 "2021-07-30T12:51:10Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > I hear it’s as high as an elephant’s eye. > [@Melbourne](#): > > An’ it looks like its climbin’ clear up to the sky I came here to say that this beautiful morn’ and got ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/11 "2021-07-30T22:54:01Z")
[![Google Photos](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/X-bpOXcapAfbrVQ9X2OMQPebGwrndiQ8GHJex7hwUmdhRJUiHcRkmjhyk3MkHb2mabkgF40k0yIXJ6KQgykEqDu-T6oFXO5Fr4tRXyKgXOI5HhfvF1nuiqT3ZQkrnqRd-ar6yfv8hg=w600-h315-p-k "New item by Pip Willow") ](https://photos.app.goo.gl/tmz4KNgcEBkxZCir8) My grandfather in front of his corn field sometime in the 1930s. He was fairly tall. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/12 "2021-07-31T01:18:05Z")
A sharp-dressed man. Not your stereotypical image of a farmer. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/13 "2021-07-31T01:37:29Z")
I suspect that the impact of the horse on the Plains Indians wasn’t just transport: for the first time they could see where they were going and what was up ahead. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/14 "2021-07-31T06:32:03Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > A sharp-dressed man. > > Not your stereotypical image of a farmer. He was out standing in his field. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/15 "2021-07-31T22:57:25Z")
Dressed for church I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/16 "2021-08-01T00:59:18Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > …An’ it looks like its climbin’ clear up to the sky   As related in the well-known fable of Jack and the Cornstalk? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-corn-maize/947622/17 "2021-08-01T02:19:16Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > > [@Gary\_T](#): > > > > I hear it’s as high as an elephant’s eye. > > > [@Melbourne](#): > > > > An’ it looks like its climbin’ clear up to the sky > > I came here to say that this beautiful morn’ and got ninja’d. You could have made a _Simpsons_ reference… > **[Petunia](https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Petunia)** > > Petunia is an elephant owned by farmers on a neighboring farm to the Old Simpson Farm.