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Photo: Farmer.pl / Karol Bogacz / PTWP Corn Hermaphroditism
The formation of cobs on tassels is an abnormal phenomenon. It is also called corn hermaphroditism (since the tassel is the male inflorescence and the cob is the female, and here they are combined). Farmer.pl discusses the reasons for its appearance and consequences for yield.
It is noted that such a cob is usually short and very rarely covered with seeds. Sometimes it can be quite large, but the grains on it are small. Often, such a cob breaks off and falls (because its center of gravity is shifted higher).
The low grain yield from such a cob is a direct consequence of poor pollination. It also lacks protective leaves. The absence of protective leaves is one of the main reasons why it often does not survive until harvest – the grain is eaten by birds.
Read also: Corn cob deformations and their germination: an explanation
However, Polish experts emphasize that this phenomenon does not lead to a significant decrease in yield.
“Firstly, cobs on the tassel usually appear in the marginal rows of corn, especially when the planting density is low. They appear more often, for example, in areas where treatments were carried out at the seedling stage and the sprayer could damage the plants and thin the sowing. It has been observed that sparse sowing can contribute to the appearance of cobs on the tassel. However, additional factors contributing to this anomaly include frost and drought, sometimes combined with strong winds (which are most noticeable in the marginal zone),” experts say.
Another reason for cob formation is the reaction to herbicides (sulfonylureas). However, it has not been proven whether the use of herbicides from this group under suboptimal conditions contributes to the formation of such cobs, or whether it is rather a matter of variety and susceptibility to possible cob formation in some cases after the use of sulfonylureas.
Alla Husarova, SuperAgronom.com
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