Dynamite (South American) Popcorn

Five stars for ease of growing, consistent pollination, and big ears with loads of kernels that pop up really large for an OP popcorn! This would be the ideal "first" popcorn for a new corn grower, or for someone looking for a trouble-free plant for kids to grow. I neglected these plants pretty much all season, fed them nothing but sun and water, was out of town most of the time I'd have been able to hand-pollinate the block of plants, and still got a TON of popcorn from a small planting.

I'm generally a big fan of small, white butterfly varieties, and this is the fifth variety of popcorn I've grown successfully, but only the first yellow full-sized variety. If you're truly growing popcorn to pop and eat, this one is going to be great for people looking to make caramel corn or kettle corn, or to really fill a bowl. It has good flavor, and is surprisingly crisp and light for a popcorn that pops up about 75% mushroom and 25% butterfly (at least for me it does). The flavor is good, but I don't get the people who call it "buttery." I pop in very neutral peanut oil and would call this popcorn lightly sweet and mildly corny, not buttery. Definitely not a popcorn I'd grow for it's flavor, being kind of picky and partial to white popcorns, but still worlds better than anything you can buy! Just know that it's not a novelty popcorn or a tiny tender white...it's more of a workhorse popcorn that pops up similar in appearance to jolly time, or other commercial yellows.

This is my first year growing popcorn. I don't like the popcorn kernels that are available in the store as the skins of the popcorn are too chewy and the flavor is really bland. I got Dynamite because it was described as buttery and it sounded like a good producer. The corn was really easy to grow. I did have some issues with some ears not fully developing husks, so the corn got moldy, but out of two 3' square beds, I got a few pounds of popcorn.It is not easy to shell by hand as most ears have kernels with a pointy tip, but I was able to shell all the ears by hand. The kernels were small, and I only typically got one ear per stalk. Each ear gave enough kernels for about 4-6 servings of popcorn. I just popped some tonight. It didn't pop in the mushroom form, it was more butterfly. There were very few kernels that did not pop. The pops weren't big (probably due to my small kernels), BUT they were crispy! There was no chewiness. They had a good, really satisfying crunch. I'm definitely happy with my purchase and plan to grow this again next year.