Silver Queen Corn

Zea mays 'Silver Queen'

vegetable

Silver Queen is a classic late-season white sweet corn, prized for its large ears packed with small, tender, creamy-white kernels and an old-fashioned sweet corn flavor. A standard sugary hybrid maturing in about 88 to 92 days, it is a longtime favorite for fresh eating, best picked and cooked the same day before its sugars turn to starch.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Beans — Fix nitrogen and climb the stalks in a three-sisters planting
• Squash — Shades the soil and deters raccoons in a three-sisters bed
• Borage — Draws pollinators and beneficial insects
• Sunflowers — Support beneficials at the field edge

❌ Keep away from

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Corn earworm →

  Apply a few drops of mineral oil to silk tips after pollination; plant on time

• European corn borer →

  Rotate, destroy stalk debris after harvest, and choose tolerant types

• Raccoons →

  Fence or use an interplanted squash understory to deter them near harvest

🌾 Harvest & storage

Pick about three weeks after the silks appear, when the silks are brown and dry, the ears feel full, and a punctured kernel spurts a milky juice. Sweet corn peaks only briefly, and standard sugary varieties lose sweetness within a day, so harvest just before cooking and chill or eat the ears promptly.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

Sweet corn provides fiber, B vitamins like folate and thiamin, vitamin C, and potassium, along with the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin that support eye health, in a satisfying, naturally sweet package.