I'm growing this corn:

http://sowtrueseed.com/corn-dent-corn/bloody-butcher/

in hydroponic culture. It's growing very fast and looks healthy. Lately it's started to do this:

http://town-farming.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/corn-tillers-1.jpg

namely, produce "suckers" or tillers, secondary cornplant stalks emerging from the base. I read somewhere these suckers are likely when the soil is moist and nitrogen-rich - and hydroponic systems are about as moist and nitrogen-rich as they get.

So as a result the suckers are growing to be almost as big as the primary plant. They're using up lots of nutrient in the process.

So my question is: Do these tillers produce ears of corn? If they don't, I want to remove them.