Talk:Field corn

I agree with the prompt on the talk page; the article defines field corn in terms of the United States, yet maize is grown all over the world. Someone also had written that popcorn was grown for consumption by humans in the form of "fresh kernals," something which it emphatically is not. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nomenclator (talk • contribs) 20:58, 10 March 2013 (UTC) Also, it seemed rather strange to me to see something defined in terms of what it is not, rather than in terms of what it is. Also, without first defining kernals, it was said that field corn was not grown for "fresh" kernals - without defining what fresh means in this context. Usually, sweet corn, which is a kind of corn that is not field conr, is described as corn that is picked in the "milk stage," that is, while the corn seeds are still milky, exude a milky-looking substance if squeezed, rather than have gone on to mature, and become dormant seeds. While corn grown as "field corn" can be eaten in this stage, and not infrequently is eaten this way by people involved with cultivating it, it is rarely sold commercially in this stage. There are varieties that are better suited for eating in this stage, varieties that taste sweeter and are juicier and will not dry out as quickly after being picked. But there is nothing to prevent someone from eating field corn in the milk stage. There is also nothing to prevent someone from allowing varieties of corn that are well suited for eating in the milk stage, to mature, and harden, lose their sweetness, and be ground into flour, or soaked in limewater to make nixtamal. So the article the way it is, tends to create confusion rather than elucidate the situation.Nomenclator (talk) 21:17, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Also, field corn is generally just referred to in most of the world as corn, or maize, and only sweet corn is distinguised with an adjective. Perhaps there should not ever be an article on field corn and instead, it should be mentioned, within the article titled "maize" that in some of the places where sweet corn is the main crop, or popcorn is the main crop, corn that is not sweet corn, or popcorn, is referred to as field corn, but there is really no kind of corn that is "field corn." It is more of an informal phrase, rather than a technical description. The main cultivars of corn that are grown are flint corn, dent corn, pop corn, and sweet corn, and maybe a few more. Each of these cultivars has 1000s of varieties — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nomenclator (talk • contribs) 21:28, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

I would suggest something like the following: There are numerous cultivars of corn, maize, and numerous uses to which it is put. The term field corn generally refers to maize that is grown to maturity and not used for popping. It refers to all maize with the exception of sweet corn, which is harvested in the milk stage, and not grown to maturity, as well as to popcorn. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nomenclator (talk • contribs) 00:36, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

For this article, I attempted to add more sources and made small grammatical changes. I also added a small paragraph explaining a process used to produce various products using different parts of corn. Cungrmawi (talk) 04:32, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

Maize

As the article itself says, field corn is just an alternative North American term for maize. Surely the small amount of additional info here should be merged into the maize article with a redirect? Or have I missed something? --Ef80 (talk) 19:09, 11 March 2020 (UTC)