Weak fires

From Cornburning

In it's simplest explanation, fire needs fuel and oxygen, and in the correct proportions. The fuel, in this case is corn, and the oxygen is in the form of air being blown in by the draft fan on your corn burner. Corn will not burn on it's own. No matter how many matches you hold to it, you can't get it to catch fire. However, that all changes when you have a forced draft

The flame in my corn burner is really dark orange with no blue and very little yellow. What does this mean?

The dark flame without blue or light yellow describes a fire starved for oxygen. Sounds like your stove or exhaust is plugged with ash and soot. What corn burner are you using? It's most likely ash and soot inside the exhaust chambers behind the burn chamber but could be ash in the chimney.