Zimbabwe Maize

This field maize came from a Zimbabwean friend, with the variety itself supposedly originating in Zimbabwe. Maize is highly diverse, with many forms being weak in the wrong growing conditions. Zimbabwe maize is a rugged field variety from tropical Africa with strong heat tolerance. We have have good success growing this variety in the spring as well as in the hot tropical weather of Florida summer. Maize is a demanding species which performs best for us in well watered garden settings with ample nitrogen.

Throughout the tropics, sweet corn is often virtually unknown and field maize is roasted at the “milk” stage and eaten as Americans would eat sweet corn. We quite enjoyed eating Zimbabwe maize at this stage. It is dense, doughy and only mildly sweet. As a grain, the cobs are left to dry on the plant and stored for future use.

We almost lost this variety. We had previously shared this seed with our friend David Scanlon at Practical Plants who stewarded it over some years before generously sharing it back. David has had great success with this variety and has been selecting towards plants that make two ears on each plant.

We have a growing stash of tropical maize seed that we want to grow out and trial in the future. For now, we are offering Zimbabwe maize as our best candidate for the time being.

30 seeds

Zea mays