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Corn Seeds, Waimanalo Orange

$4.50
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Waimanalo Orange Corn (Zea mays): A Cateto-like dark orange flint corn developed in Hawaii and brought to North Carolina. Waimanalo Orange started by crossing a number of breeding lines from Jim Brewbaker, a long-time tropical maize breeder in Hawaii focused on disease resistance, with a breeding population from Frank Kutka, a maize breeder from the Upper Midwest.

Germination Rate: 98%

Weight (avg. seeds): 21g (105)

Grower: Jay Bost

Laughing Springs Farm and Botanicals, Boone, NC

Jay came to farming originally out of a desire to understand how to sustain oneself in an ecologically responsible manner. This desire has been enriched by a fascination with crop diversity in the world and work to collect, preserve and use this diversity through exploring agroecosystems around the world, seed saving, and plant breeding. Jay has worked on diversified market vegetable farms, seed production farms and orchards in North America and  spent considerable time with farmers in Meso-america and the Pacific learning about low-input, diverse tropical agricultural systems. In 2022 Jay and his partner Nora, started Laughing Springs Farm outside of Boone, growing medicinal herbs, seed crops and lots of maize, beans and squash. Jay has developed crushes on maize, squash and amaranth (along with many other crops) and dedicated time to assembling diverse collections of them, learning how to grow them for seed, and to cross and select on them for the creation of new varieties with interesting culinary uses and adaptability to low-input agricultural systems.

USA Shipping Only | $5 Flat Rate or FREE Shipping on Orders over $45 | Our collective members pack and ship the seeds together. First Ship Date, Feb 15, 2025.

Seeds are going on sale on Jan 15, 2026 - Sign-up to get notified!

Waimanalo Orange Corn (Zea mays): A Cateto-like dark orange flint corn developed in Hawaii and brought to North Carolina. Waimanalo Orange started by crossing a number of breeding lines from Jim Brewbaker, a long-time tropical maize breeder in Hawaii focused on disease resistance, with a breeding population from Frank Kutka, a maize breeder from the Upper Midwest.

Germination Rate: 98%

Weight (avg. seeds): 21g (105)

Grower: Jay Bost

Laughing Springs Farm and Botanicals, Boone, NC

Jay came to farming originally out of a desire to understand how to sustain oneself in an ecologically responsible manner. This desire has been enriched by a fascination with crop diversity in the world and work to collect, preserve and use this diversity through exploring agroecosystems around the world, seed saving, and plant breeding. Jay has worked on diversified market vegetable farms, seed production farms and orchards in North America and  spent considerable time with farmers in Meso-america and the Pacific learning about low-input, diverse tropical agricultural systems. In 2022 Jay and his partner Nora, started Laughing Springs Farm outside of Boone, growing medicinal herbs, seed crops and lots of maize, beans and squash. Jay has developed crushes on maize, squash and amaranth (along with many other crops) and dedicated time to assembling diverse collections of them, learning how to grow them for seed, and to cross and select on them for the creation of new varieties with interesting culinary uses and adaptability to low-input agricultural systems.

USA Shipping Only | $5 Flat Rate or FREE Shipping on Orders over $45 | Our collective members pack and ship the seeds together. First Ship Date, Feb 15, 2025.

A Cateto-like dark orange flint corn developed in Hawaii and brought to North Carolina. Waimanalo Orange started by crossing a number of breeding lines from Jim Brewbaker, a long-time tropical maize breeder in Hawaii focused on disease resistance, with a breeding population from Frank Kutka, a maize breeder from the Upper Midwest.  Frank had developed a population based on a number of Cateto varieties from Argentina with a really deep, dark orange color( =high carotene). The combination of dark orange and good disease resistance has been selected after the initial cross for ~10 generations. Waimanalo Orange is longer on the maturity – flowering at around 75 days after seeding in Boone and ready to harvest at around 110-120 days. It's hard, glassy, oily, rich kernels are great for cornmeal, polenta, and masa. In our two years of growing alongside other Cateto types in North Carolina, we found Waimanalo Orange to be more robust and productive.


Luis Martinez, chef and CEO of Tequio Foods, says the Waimanalo Orange corn from Laughing Springs is one of his favorite corns to work with due to its flexibility. When it comes to corn, we trust Luis.

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