Growing corn

[Smart Red]

I planted corn this season after not growing it for a long time. Not wanting cross-pollination with field corn, I waited two months after normal planting time to start mine. The sweet corn plants grew well, looked healthy, but ended up pretty much ear-less. Five rows X ten feet should have been enough for good pollination, but alas! I don't know what went wrong.

Then I stuck three short rows of Indian corn in another part of the garden. I didn't expect much from so few plants, but anything that grew would give me seeds for next year. The plants grew strong and tall. The ears are huge and beautiful and full.

Frankly, I would rather have had a few meals of sweet corn then decorations for the front door. Sigh!

 

[lesa]

The best laid plans... This was a terrible year for sweet corn here. Many farmers had fields that produced nothing. I guess corn didn't like this summer, anymore than I did! Rain, rain, rain.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I guess that just backs up Steve when he says all gardening is local. I didnt get your rain but my sweet corn did pretty well. I planted four different plantings each about 1-1/2 weeks apart. I got 9 or 10 pints each canning plus we were eating corn practically all summer once it started. Corn ear worms werent all that bad.

I got my last three ears today. Thats a good year for me with how much I plant.

Normally a groundhog or raccoon finds at least one of my plantings and does great damage, but I got real lucky this year. I noticed a groundhog just outside my garden a few days before the first planting was ready. I set a trap but never got it. Never saw that groundhog again either. But I got a raccoon in that trap just before that corn got ripe. If I hadnt seen that groundhog and set the trap that raccoon would have done real damage.

 

[journey11]

I didn't see a single corn earworm this year. Strange...

That is a bummer, Red. But maybe you could sell a few bundles of the indian corn for fall decorations and recoup your loss!

 

[seedcorn]

I didn't see a single corn earworm this year. Strange...

That is a bummer, Red. But maybe you could sell a few bundles of the indian corn for fall decorations and recoup your loss!

Neither did I. They were all married and had kids but no single ones...........

 

[Ridgerunner]

I know corn ear worms are supposed to get worse as the season gets later. My first harvest I only had three, and two of those were too young to even think about getting married. In later harvests there were more, but hardly ever more than 1 per ear. And some in the last harvest didnt have any. Not many, but a few. Often on my late harvests in other years Ill find two or three on most ears.

 

[baymule]

Red, that Indian corn would make tasty corn meal!

 

[seedcorn]

Reason you will only have one is that common varieties are cannibals. Iowa has strain that isn't and causes way moe damage.

 

[thistlebloom]

I didn't see a single corn earworm this year. Strange...

That is a bummer, Red. But maybe you could sell a few bundles of the indian corn for fall decorations and recoup your loss!

Neither did I. They were all married and had kids but no single ones...........

Of course Journey doesn't frequent single bars....so that could be the reason...

 

[digitS']

I didn't see a single corn earworm this year. Strange...

That is a bummer, Red. But maybe you could sell a few bundles of the indian corn for fall decorations and recoup your loss!

Neither did I. They were all married and had kids but no single ones...........

Sex and the Single Pest (Living on Earth, PRI's Environmental News Magazine) link Week of September 20, 2013

". . . the male sang his typical mating song to an appealing female, but the sound came out much quieter than usualand the female was too busy grooming herself to notice him!"

Steve