The Miracle of Corn, 1990

over the course of a growing season one kernel of corn will grow into a plant that may produce more than 600 kernels if you were to plant one acre of corn you might seed about 22,000 plants if each plant grew one ear and each year had 600 kernels that one acre would have over 13 million kernels if you had planted 400 acres you'd probably harvest more than 5 billion kernels of corn let's take a closer look at just how this corn producing factory works by following what happens to a single kernel the seat using the food stored inside the kernel the embryo starts to grow in warm moist soil a primary Ruth shoots down to gather nutrients for continued growth meanwhile the germinating kernel sends up toward the surface several rolled-up leaves within a shield that protects them about a week after planting the new chute emerges the leaves break through the shield into the light with the leaves out and the roots in place the corn plant begins making its own food the storage food in the seed having been used up food is made in the leaves by photosynthesis photosynthesis uses light energy from the Sun to produce chemical energy stored in the form of sugars as the leaves grow out so do the roots which take in minerals and water to change the sugars in the leaves into proteins and other foods as a result the young corn plant grows rapidly on its own the leaves tightly wrapped around each other near their base help support the plant as it grows the tassel emerges revealing thousands of small pouches holding the pollen needed for reproduction meanwhile lower down on the stalk the ear has been developing delicate silk like strands emerge from the end of the ear each silk has grown from a potential kernel sitting on the cob surrounded by the leafy husks there are 600 or more potential kernels so there are 600 or more silks with both silks and tassel displayed pollination begins it's been estimated that as many as 5 million grains of pollen are produced by a single tassel that's over 5,000 grains of pollen available for every silk that is to be pollinated when a pollen grain lands on a silk it sends out a tiny tube through the silk that reaches back to the potential kernel the female part of the plant male cells produced by the pollen moved on the tube to join with the female cells this is called fertilization it happens over 600 times on the ear once for each potential kernel when fertilization is complete each of the new kernels has the embryo of a whole new corn plant developing inside the plant is at its maximum height it will grow no taller food production by the leaves now goes toward the developing kernels maturity the kernels have stored up as much food as they can hold for months after the seed was planted the mature ear with its more than 600 full new kernels is ready for harvest harvest for feed food and other products for human use