10 things you should know about Baby Corn(Maize or Makka)-An Elite Vegetable & its Farming.

Baby corn are young, unfertilized and tender cobs of maize at silk emergence stage or with only 2-3 cm long hairs. Pre-maturely harvested these young dehusked finger-shaped cobs in pre-grain formation stage are consumed as a fresh vegetable or in soups, salad, pickles, pakoras and also after canning later on. Baby corn is safe (pesticide-residue free), sweet and nutritious as compared to some popular vegetable crops.

Maize is a traditional food crop in our country, which is grown for its grains being used in several ways by human and animals. Recently it is being used for procuring bio-fuel also. For some past years, the crop is cultivated by a few progressive farmers especially around metropolitan and big cities as a vegetables crop in the name of “baby corn”, which is in great demand amongst elites and five star hotels. In fact, maize has an important vegetable since long in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, China, Japan, America etc. Probably it became popular especially in a temperate region with a relatively limited choice of traditionally cultivated vegetables as early as in pre-Columbian era.

The comparative nutritive value of baby corn (per 100 gm fresh eatable).

Ingredient	Baby corn	Cauliflower	Cabbage	Tomato	Brinjal	Cucumber
Moisture (%)	89.10	91.00	92.40	93.50	92.70	96.30
Fat (g)	0.22	0.20	0.20	0.20	0.30	0.20
Protein (g)	1.90	2.70	1.30	1.10	1.40	0.40
Carbohydrate (g)	8.20	5.20	5.40	4.70	4.00	2.50
Calcium (mg)	28.00	25.00	49.00	13.00	18.00	10.00
Phosphorus (mg)	86.00	56.00	29.00	27.00	47.00	25.00
Iron (mg)	0.12	0.11	0.40	0.50	0.90	1.50
Vitamin A (I.U.)	64.02	60.00	130.00	900.00	244.00	0.00
Thiamine(mg)	0.05	0.11	0.05	0.06	0.04	0.03
Riboflavin (mg)	0.08	0.10	0.35	0.04	0.11	0.02
Ascorbic acid (mg)	11.02	78.00	47.00	23.00	12.00	10.20
Niacin (mg)	0.03	0.70	0.30	0.70	0.90	0.20

Since the crop of baby corn may be grown round the year, it is a good option for promoting diversification and facilitating intensive multiple cropping due to shorter duration. Crop like mung, urd, lobia, potato, peas, French bean, cauliflower, cabbage, knoll-kohl, radish, turnip, spinach, fenugreek, garlic and gladiolus can be intercropped with baby corn to add to the income of farmer and fertility of the soil in some cases. Still, green stalks along with sheaths and silks serve as quality fodder either fresh or in silage form; releasing pressure on land for fodder production. Baby corn can be intercropped with vegetables and pulses to fetch extra income and in shortest possible time. Several value-added products and immense export potentials enhance its profitability, along with more employment generation in cultivating, processing, marketing etc.

Production Technology of Baby Corn

Maize being a C₄ plant requires warm sunny days for faster photosynthesis and growth. A well drained, fertile deep loam or silty loam soil with good organic matter content is considered ideal. One deep ploughing followed by 2-3 light tilling along with planking may suffice for preparing the land. Some minor variations than traditional grain crop are to be attended carefully for the successful raising of a good baby corn crop.

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1. Selection of suitable variety – Early maturing single cross hybrid of prolific (multi-cob) nature with medium height and lodging resistance possessing erect leaves, responding to high dose of fertilizers, longer period of greenness and 16-20 % baby corn from fresh cobs is to be preferred. Golden baby, Prakash, HM-4, MEH-14, C-15, VL-42 are some good varieties for baby corn production.

2. Sowing – February to November in Northern India and January to September in Eastern India are suitable time for sowing, whereas in Central, Southern and Western India the crop can be raised round the year. For ensuring prolonged availability, it is advisable to sow the crop at weekly intervals. Normally 25 kg seed is enough for one hectare; may sometimes be 30-35 kg per ha for larger seeds and close spacing. Seed treated with fungicides (Captan + Carbondazim 1:1 @ 2 g per kg of seed) and insecticide (Fipronil @ 4 ml per kg of seed) is sown 45-60 cms apart with 10-15 cms intra-row distance. Ridge sowing on southern sides is advantageous during kharif season.

3. Manuring – In absence of a soil test, 10 t/ha FYM at field preparation and 150-180 kg N alongwith 60 kg each of P and K and 25 kg Zinc-sulphate or alternatively, 15-20 t/ha FYM and 100-120:50-60:30-40 kg NPK per ha along with25 kg Zinc-sulphate should be given. Only 10 % of N and total of remaining fertilizers as basal dase and 90 % N to be top dressed at four stages (20% at 4 leaf, 30 % at 8 leaves, 25 % before detasseling and 15 % after detasseling) is recommended. Zinc deficiency evidenced by white bud, interveinal chlorosis followed by white necrotic spots and eventual death of seedlings may be corrected by zinc-sulphate sprays.

4. Irrigation – water stress and water logging both are harmful and, therefore, light and frequent irrigations are desirable. First irrigation may be given immediately after sowing in moisture deficit condition, and subsequent ones as per need depending upon rains and water holding capacity of the field; at 10-15 days interval. The soil must be kept wet to avoid frost injury in winters (December-February) and the crop must not face water stress at young seedling, knee-high, silking and picking stages. Draining of excess water is also equally essential.

5. Weed control – Pre-emergence spray of Simazine or Atrazin @ 1.5 – 2.0 kg/ha in 500 -700 litres of water using three nozzle booms by moving backward for creating no disturbance to herbicide film keeps the field free from broad leaf weeds and most of the grasses. Later 1-2 hoeings given after crop emergence help in improving soil aeration and destroying remaining weeds.

6. Plant protection – Stem borer during kharif, pink borer during rabi and sorghum shoot fly during zaid season may become serious problem and are to be watched. The catterpillers feed on leaves at early stage and bore into stem and ears later and 1-2 sprays of Carboryl (500 and 750 g/ha ) in 500 litres and 700-800 litres of waters (for 1^st and 2^nd spray), respectively after 10 and 20 days of germination by wetting the central whorl of the plants keeps the insect under control. Aphids can be controlled by Monocrotophos (0.03 %) or Dimecron (0.05 %, mildew by Dithane M-45 (0.2 %), leaf spot and leaf blight by Zineb or Maneb (0.2 %) and bacterial soft rot by Streptomycin (10 g) or Agrimycin (50 g) + Cerasan wet (2 kg) sprays.

7. Detasseling – Removal of male flowers (tassels) is an essential operation for maintaining the quality of baby corn as they are unfertilized and immature part of female flowers. Detasseling should be done as soon as the tassel emerges from the flag leaf and is visible. The operation should be done row-wise without removing any leaf with tassel (lest the yield is reduced) and be continued for 8-10 days leaving no tassel on any plant. Removed tassel may better be fed to cattle.

8. Harvesting – Delay in picking of young cob decidedly decreases the quality and taste of the produce and cobs must be picked every morning from the date of the silk emergence for fresh use/marketing and 2-3 days later for processing purpose. Harvesting must be by using knife or secateurs to avoid mechanical damage. Normally, 6-7 days picking are needed for complete harvest of the crop in 45-60 days and this duration may extend to 10-15 days in rabi season depending on weather conditions during crop life. Morning hours picking with prevailing high moisture content and low ambient temperature prove time, energy and cost saving for immediate pre-cooling requirement after harvest.

9. Post harvest management – Cobs should never be heaped and their pre-cooling should be done within 1-2 hours after picking as harvested cobs kept under ambient / improper temperature and loosing even 2 % moisture can cause denting of kernels and rapid loss of taste and quality. Hydro-cooling is best method for pre- cooling. Cobs are exposed / subjected to chilled or near freezing water impregnated with 100-150 ppm of either of sodium hypochlorite or calcium hypochlorite as disinfectant. Dehusked cobs are lengthwise graded into small (4-7 cm), medium (7-10 cm), large (10-13 cm) and mixed broken cobs before sending them to market or processing unit. These are better packed in perforated plastic punnet and further in well ventilated cartons. Proper storage condition for the produce is 5-7 °C temperature with 90 % relative humidity. Higher temperature encourages speedy conversion of simple sugar to starch.

10. Yield – Depending upon the variety grown, prevailing weather and crop care, 10-20 qtls of baby corn (50-120 q/ha dehusked cobs) along with 200-300 q/ha of green fodder can be expected. The income can further be increased by canning or converting into value added products like jam, jelly, pickle, burfee, and candy.

 

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