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What Is Popcorn?

Answer:
There are six types of corn in the world, and popcorn

is one of those types. Popcorn is a cereal grain, and it originates from a wild grass. The scientific name for popcorn is “zea mays everta,” and it is the only type of corn which will actually pop.

There are three main components to popcorn: endosperm, germ, and the pericarp. Soft and hard starch granules make up the endosperm. The starch provides energy for the living part of the kernel, which is known as the germ or embryo. The outer hull of the kernel is called the pericarp, and it is made of cellulose. The pericarp is generally white or yellow in color, although they can be many different colors depending on the breed.

Popcorn seeds are bred in order to produce certain traits such as stalk strength, grain color, and good popping quality. The breeders specialize the special traits through using inbreeding. The process of inbreeding is taking the pollen from the tassel (male flower) from a single stalk and utilizing the pollen to fertilize the silk (female flower) of the same stalk. Inbreeding leads to genetic segregation, where the breeder can identify, select, and save the seed of the desirable stalks. This process is repeated for several years. It usually take eight years of inbreeding until the corn selection is stable and is no longer segregating. After this, then two inbreds are crossed together in order to create a hybrid, which the farmer then plants as popcorn seed.

The corn belt is where most of the popcorn is grown in the United States. These states include Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and Ohio. A corn planter is used by farmers every spring in order to plant the seeds one and a half inches deep and about six inches apart. That is roughly 28,000 seeds on every acre.

Popcorn seed germinates in roughly seven days and breaks out of the soil in about ten days. The moisture in the soil is responsible for dissolving important nutrients for the plant, such as nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. The roots absorb this moisture in order to fertilize the plant. When light shines on the plants, the chlorophyll in the leaves creates sugar, which the stalk uses to build more leaves and roots, as well as the ear of popcorn. Eighteen to twenty four inches of water are required during the growing season.

The popcorn is ready for harvest when the leaves are brown and dry, the kernel is hard, and the kernels have a moisture content of sixteen to twenty percent. The moisture inside the kernel is what allows the kernels to pop when they are heated.