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Non-GMO
Easy to Grow
Heirloom

Country Gentleman (White Shoepeg) Sweet Corn

Quick Facts:

  • Heirloom "shoepeg" variety ca.1890
  • 8-foot-tall plants, 8-9" long ears
  • White, irregularly spaced kernels
  • Sweet and tender
  • 90 days to harvest

View full description

Quantity: Packet (50 Seeds)

shipping estimated time of arrival Get it between Monday January 13th - Wednesday January 15th

Country Gentleman Sweet Corn

More about Country Gentleman

Zea mays

Also known as "White Shoepeg Corn," Country Gentleman is an heirloom sweet corn variety that was released in 1890 by S.D. Woodruff and Sons.  Bred over a period of fourteen years, proprietor Frank Woodruff named the variety Shoe Peg Corn, referencing the long, slender shape of the kernels.  The unique corn immediately gained traction and has maintained its popularity ever since. 

Country Gentleman is an excellent garden variety with eight-foot-tall plants that produce 8 to 9-inch-long ears, densely packed with sweet, white, irregularly spaced kernels.  Although not as sweet as modern hybrids, Country Gentleman was one of the sweetest varieties of its time and remains a great variety today.  We recommend... More

Less

Zea mays

Also known as "White Shoepeg Corn," Country Gentleman is an heirloom sweet corn variety that was released in 1890 by S.D. Woodruff and Sons.  Bred over a period of fourteen years, proprietor Frank Woodruff named the variety Shoe Peg Corn, referencing the long, slender shape of the kernels.  The unique corn immediately gained traction and has maintained its popularity ever since. 

Country Gentleman is an excellent garden variety with eight-foot-tall plants that produce 8 to 9-inch-long ears, densely packed with sweet, white, irregularly spaced kernels.  Although not as sweet as modern hybrids, Country Gentleman was one of the sweetest varieties of its time and remains a great variety today.  We recommend picking this variety 21 days after pollination when the kernels are at their peak sweetness.  It is among our favorites for freezing since the residual starch in the kernels does a great job of soaking up water, leading to a creamy consistency upon thawing. 90 days to harvest.  A packet contains a minimum of 50 seeds.

Fun Fact: Research published in 1998 demonstrated that the disorganized, crowded appearance of the kernels in Shoe Peg corn is due to a naturally occurring mutation in the gene indeterminatespikelet1, which occasionally causes extra kernels to be produced by the ear's floral organs. With nowhere to go, the kernels fill out the space they have, leading to a crooked row pattern and narrow, deep-set kernels.

Zea mays

Also known as "White Shoepeg Corn," Country Gentleman is an heirloom sweet corn variety that was released in 1890 by S.D. Woodruff and Sons.  Bred over a period of fourteen years, proprietor Frank Woodruff named the variety Shoe Peg Corn, referencing the long, slender shape of the kernels.  The unique corn immediately gained traction and has maintained its popularity ever since. 

Country Gentleman is an excellent garden variety with eight-foot-tall plants th... read more

read less

Zea mays

Also known as "White Shoepeg Corn," Country Gentleman is an heirloom sweet corn variety that was released in 1890 by S.D. Woodruff and Sons.  Bred over a period of fourteen years, proprietor Frank Woodruff named the variety Shoe Peg Corn, referencing the long, slender shape of the kernels.  The unique corn immediately gained traction and has maintained its popularity ever since. 

Country Gentleman is an excellent garden variety with eight-foot-tall plants that produce 8 to 9-inch-long ears, densely packed with sweet, white, irregularly spaced kernels.  Although not as sweet as modern hybrids, Country Gentleman was one of the sweetest varieties of its time and remains a great variety today.  We recommend picking this variety 21 days after pollination when the kernels are at their peak sweetness.  It is among our favorites for freezing since the residual starch in the kernels does a great job of soaking up water, leading to a creamy consistency upon thawing. 90 days to harvest.  A packet contains a minimum of 50 seeds.

Fun Fact: Research published in 1998 demonstrated that the disorganized, crowded appearance of the kernels in Shoe Peg corn is due to a naturally occurring mutation in the gene indeterminatespikelet1, which occasionally causes extra kernels to be produced by the ear's floral organs. With nowhere to go, the kernels fill out the space they have, leading to a crooked row pattern and narrow, deep-set kernels.

Gardener holding seedlings
person holding seedlings

How to Grow Corn

Hand pollinating corn

Customer Reviews

Based on 5 reviews
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(4)
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20%
(1)
W
Weaver Cattle Co
Popcorn!

I grew several rows of this last year and this is clearly POPCORN and not sweet corn!

It is extremely tall and prone to being blown over by wind too.

We ended up cutting it down and feeding it to our cattle instead. Planting this was a complete waste of time!

Thank you for your honest review! We don't produce any tall popcorn varieties, so this is unlikely due to a seed mix-up, however I think you accurately describe some of the challenges to growing heirloom sweetcorn. The narrow harvest window of Country Gentleman makes it difficult to time picking and it will never be as sweet or tender as the sugary-enhances Supersweet hybrids we're used to today, but we still find it worth preserving and it can be quite good when harvested at a very young stage. Secondly, it is true that this variety can get quite tall, which makes it more prone to lodging-- selection for short stature is a more recent focus of sweetcorn breeding. We're going to send you a free sample of Hayes White sweet corn, which I think will be more to your liking. It is a short-statured (~4' at maturity) variety with very tender, white kernels that come as close to modern sweetcorn flavor and texture as anything we've found. We hope you'll like this sweetcorn better (and that these plants don't find its way to the cattle lot ;)

G
Glenn Hall
So far so good

It's only been around 2 weeks since they sprouted, but they are growing great.

S
Sarah Defnet
It will be knee high by the 4th of July

Planted my corn late but it is thriving and germinating well. Glad I found thresh seed .. great varieties with reasonable shipping.

J
Jaime Hudson
Still growing but doing great

My corn is growing so fast. Can wait to let my kids pick it and eat it.

W
William Coffel
Country gentleman

Everything looks good so far plants look good

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