Different Type of Sweet Corn

A cross between corn and sugar cane could be a new crop for the Midwest that could potentially double ethanol production per acre.

According to a story in the Kansas City Star, Seattle-based biotechnology company Targeted Growth has been testing “sugarcorn” in test plots in Illinois and Indiana.

Sugarcorn is a takeoff on a type of maize grown in the tropics, which grows traditional ears of corn.

Researchers found that when the tropical corn has a longer growing day, such as those in the Midwest, it delays its flowering and sends more energy into making sugar in the stalk instead of producing starch in the corn.

We did a story on tropical maize research being done at the University of Illinois over a year ago – that’s where the photo comes from. Targeted Growth is trying to take the crop from the research stage into commercialization. The company hopes to make sugarcorn commercially available in two years.