We grew a variety of maize. Our maize was the maroon, white, yellow and mixed color of maroon with white or yellow or both.
Maize occupied quite a chunk of our land, as it was one of the staple foods of our home. The first grains we planted we bought from the local market. It was not special maize in that it was not treated in any special way. It was simply grown, harvested, dried and bagged in the area ready for sale for consumption.
We would use this maize for as long as we did farming and so we never bought seeds again. We dried some of the chosen cobs and kept them in cob form or shelled for planting the following planting seasons, as it was a seasonal crop.
We chose the cobs with big grains, straight lines and many lines to be the seeds. We took them out to dry every two to three months so that weevils could not get a chance to infest them.
We stored them in dry and cool areas where air circulated properly day and night like in the granary. We also hanged some still in the cobs above the fire place in the kitchen where smoke kept them safe from vermin and dried them further.
At planting time, we prepared the land by clearing, hoeing, marking lines and digging holes. Humus had already been spread on the land before hoeing so that at the time of hoeing, the humus got mixed with the topsoil.
This was not a waste of humus because other crops like legumes especially beans, cow-peas, green gram and pumpkins planted in between the rows of maize (intercropping) benefited from the extra humus on the soil where there were no maize stalk roots.
Maize was planted before the legumes and pumpkins. After the first weeding of the maize, legumes and pumpkins were planted. This was done so to stop the legumes and the pumpkins from dwarfing or choking the maize.
The first round of maize weeding was done when the shoots had just three tiny leaves to stop any weeds from weakening them. After which the intercropping took place and as soon as the legumes and pumpkins started germinating, round two of weeding was done to stop weeds from choking everything.
After that the situation was easy because legume and pumpkin tendrils and leaves spread around and it was a question of uprooting the occasional weeds with very little use of the hoe around the area. The first two weeding sessions were very crucial and had to be timely.
Development of maize after that was fast and before we realized, tussles and female flowers were forming and bees were a buzz around the area.
We ate some of the maize green and gave the cows the green stems, husks and seedless cobs. The mature and dry maize took three to five months depending on the type to complete the whole developmental process. We dried some for flour. We selected some for seeds. The cows ate the half dry stems, cobs and husks too. Poultry ate some of the dry maize every day.
The roots of the maize stalks were left in the soil to rot into humus ready for planting the following year. We planted maize once a year during the long rains because it needed a lot of water during its developmental period.
The only two problems we had with maize were as follows. There was stalk borer disease here and there but it was not serious. The Agroforestry practice around the farm helped to some extent. Birds were fond of eating the top parts of some of the maturing cobs.
The other problem that we had occasionally was the destruction of some of our crops by monkeys, wild pigs and porcupines. We periodically woke up in the morning and found that one of the last two entered some areas with maize and broke quite some stalks in their struggle to reach the young forming cobs. Monkeys irregularly did the same damage right under our eyes day time.
Some lovers of hunting in the area trapped the last two for meat, caught them and the problem eased for some time. Some farmers kept vigil by sleeping at their farms with fires on all night to frighten the two and keep them off the maize fields.
We simply chased monkeys away so long as there were men in the homestead to do the chasing because monkeys had no respect for women and would not budge.
The crop was for home consumption only.