Never use drain cleaner as nixtamal lye unless it is 100% sodium hydroxide with no other additives — and know the method. Ash lye from oak or hickory is the old way.

When to sow

Soil 60°F+, usually May 5–20. Plant 1.5 in deep. Don’t rush cold clay.

Spacing

8–10 in in-row, 30–36 in rows, in blocks of at least 4 rows so wind pollinates.

Days

100–120 to dry dent (Reid’s Yellow Dent, Bloody Butcher, Hickory King)

Harvest

Husks dry, kernels hard, milk line gone. Pick, husk, and finish-dry on screens until a kernel shatters, not dents, with a thumbnail.

Store

Whole kernels below 13% moisture in sealed buckets with bay leaves or diatomaceous earth. Check monthly.

Save seed

Open-pollinated only. Save from 100+ ears in the middle of the block, not the edge, or you inbreed.

Companions

Pole beans up the stalks, squash on the ground — the Three Sisters still works on these hills.

Pests

Raccoons the week it milks — a dog, a radio, or an electric strand. Corn earworm — mineral oil on silk tips.

• Sweet corn is a fresh luxury. For doomsday, grow dent or flint.
• Lye hominy (food-grade sodium hydroxide or hardwood-ash water) unlocks niacin — untreated corn as a sole staple causes pellagra.