31 ears and counting: Kiski Township corn stalk vies for Guinness world record

For most of the summer, Julie Gerano didn’t think much of the corn stalk growing in the flower bed of her backyard garden in Kiski Township.

Now, however, Gerano, 51, is looking at a potential world record with her stalk sporting 31 ears of corn.

She filled out an application to the Guinness Book of World Records once her stalk topped the current world record of 29 cobs. And it looks like more ears are appearing.

According to Guinness, the current record is held by Matthew Jacovelli of Deptford, N.J., who grew the 29-ear stalk in August 2019.

“I first noticed it in June maybe,” Gerano said. “I’m honestly not sure. We didn’t pay any attention to it and then it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this stalk has five ears on it.’ Then we’d forget about it and count when we remembered it.”

Gerano and her family aren’t sure how the overachieving stalk grew there. Despite having quite the green thumb, Gerano never planted any corn. She theorizes that the seed was dropped by a hungry animal visiting her husband’s corn feeder that used to be a mainstay next to the garden.

“I just kind of like to grow things,” Gerano said. “When I noticed it growing in the flower bed, I just decided to let it grow for fun, and this is what we ended up with.”

Gerano has lived in her home for 14 years and has been tending the same garden for the past 12. She said she uses mushroom manure in most of her soil, but the dirt where the stalk is growing is “terrible.”

Gerano said this isn’t the first time a corn stalk has appeared in the garden. She said the first stalk “didn’t do much of anything” and died. The second one grew about six ears of corn.

In an effort to understand how her whopper of a stalk got the way it is, Gerano contacted the Penn State Association of Conservation Districts in Armstrong County. The group confirmed it’s rare for a corn stalk to grow this aggressively in an unnatural habitat.

“They told me we’ve had a dry summer, so the corn thinks it’s the end of (growing season) and it’s producing as much corn as it can,” Gerano said. “Since there’s no competition, it’s just going into overdrive and keeps producing. They did say it’s not common at all.”

She said she noticed the intense growth when she was watering the rest of her garden. Gerano submitted her application to Guinness on Aug. 29. She hadn’t thought of doing that until her husband’s co-worker suggested 31 cobs might be a world record.

Kylie Galloway, senior press relations executive for Guinness World Records North America, said the standard application review process can take as long as 12 to 15 weeks.

“Within our application process, we provide the applicant with guidelines that are specific to that record category and must be adhered to, to qualify,” Galloway said in an email. “These guidelines also detail the evidence that must be submitted.”

Once everything submitted is reviewed, Galloway said, the records management team will confirm if Gerano succeeded or failed the record attempt.

Until then, nobody is allowed to touch the corn.

“I didn’t even allow Annabelle to touch it when she was counting it the other day,” Gerano said.

Annabelle Casella, 21, Gerano’s daughter, said she didn’t really care about the corn until her grandmother began asking questions about it. Knowing about agriculture, her grandmother pointed out how rare the stalk’s growing habits are.

“We were stargazing, and she brought it up to me,” Casella said. “That’s when it really caught my interest.”

At the time, the stalk had about 12 cobs and local farmers had begun asking questions about it, as well. Once the stalk grew 26 cobs, the excitement began to spread.

Gerano and her daughters even posted to Facebook, giving updates on the stalk’s growth.

She said the corn has turned into a bit of a passion project for her family.

“It was just for fun and now — I don’t want to say we’re serious about it — but it’s definitely taken a different turn on the fun,” Gerano said.