TheWaterbug's Corn Season 1

[DoubleDogFarm]

[TZ -OH6]

I'm growing Painted Mountain flour corn for the first time, but we had some heavy winds the other day so you really don't want to see a sad picture.

Carol Deppe has bred a line out of Magic Mountain she calls Magic Manna, that is adapted to the Pacific Northwest,... for short season and low nutrient soil. It produces ears of four different colors with flavors for different usages from parching, to cake flour (including corn meals). But I don't think any of the colors is blue. I'm hoping that she offers seed again through her newsletter.

[applestar]

I haven't been taking pictures of my sad garden this year....

Oh, I have stuff growing... lots of different stuff... just not as much of each as I expected to... among weeds and struggling with the drought Not sure if I want to post them even if I took pics

I could show you the TWO surviving corn plants in last year's New Tomato Bed (against the SW side of the house) that the chipmunks didn't find. They are growing beautifully, but I've no idea how I'm going to get them pollinated. I mean I usually only plant small blocks but TWO? Although if successfull, I'll be able to at least harvest Stowell's Evergreen seed corn -- that's IF the chipmunks don't steal them first....

My 4x4 Veg(A) raised box has about 6 Double Red Sweet corn growing -- again, the others didn't grow so probably ended up chipmunk store. My second planting in 4x4 Veg(C) has several more coming up but among weeds that I haven't been able to get at and they are intentionally offset by 2 weeks. So no help in pollination there either.

My 8x12 SFH with another variety Buhl (I think) has had spotty germination (or chipmunk/bird) predation as well. Out of four 8' rows, only one row is coming up full... maybe too full. One row has not come up at all so maybe, just maybe, I planted double in that one row -- I'm pretty sure I did not, but I've no idea at this point.

Anyway, the empty row is full of vetch -- do you remember me posting that my daughter helped me "scatter" those seeds? I'll hoe them down and plant something else -- maybe there's enough time for an 80 day watermelon... or a Halloween pumpkin.... Maybe I'll plant some of the overwintered hot peppers that haven't made it into the ground yet there.

[TZ -OH6]

Pollinating two plants should be easy. Tassels start to shed pollen a couple of days before the silks emerge and then the best success is to get pollen on the silks over the next three days. Pollen is shed mostly mid morning, but not during rainy weather, so just shake the plant so that pollen falls where you want it or take off part of the tassel for closser work. IIRC I got hot and bothered about corn pollination one day and posted a thread with bunch of links.

[lorax]

I grow ten to twelve stalks of Harina Negra corn at least one cycle each year. It's a longer cycle than the sweet corns, and to really get fullness in the kernels you have to leave it on the stalks for what seems like forever. The key to knowing when to harvest is when the leaves above the ears have started to dry - then they'll be full enough to be worthwhile drying the cobs.

I follow the highland wisdom of planting the seeds overtop of a small fish (we use sardines, but the true traditional method calls for minnows), and then I fertilize along with the watering using algae suspension.

For watering, I water daily with enough to soak the soil to the depth of my first knuckle. Unless it rains - then I let Pachamama do the work.

I don't mulch flour corn, but if as they grow the roots become exposed I'll re-hill them. Other than that, I just let it grow and try to keep the big bumblebees from stealing all my pollen.

[soil]

we grow rainbow inca sweet corn. which is a sweet eating corn, as well as a dry flour corn all in one. taste great and non gmo/hybrid. i don't really have a corn patch, there just all over the food forest. all 500 of them.

the rainbow inca sweet corn makes for some CRAZY GOOD homemade tortillas, has to be the best ive ever had.

fed nothing really, all the goodies are in the soil. the only thing i water with other than water is ACT.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Soil,
http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_cen ... no=PS21567
Hooker's corn is also a sweet corn / flour corn. It makes some pretty amazing cornbread.

Lorax,
Funny you mentioned algae suspensions. I've been using my duck's pond water. I started watering with it last summer and now again this spring. When the water stops flowing, the pond gets really green. I just throw in a submersible pump and spray everything that doesn't move.

I've asked this before, but does anyone know the nutritional value of duck pond water?
Eric

[soil]

i think its pond dependent and duck dependent. lets just say its real rich and biologically active.

[applestar]

we grow rainbow inca sweet corn. which is a sweet eating corn, as well as a dry flour corn all in one. taste great and non gmo/hybrid. i don't really have a corn patch, there just all over the food forest. all 500 of them.

the rainbow inca sweet corn makes for some CRAZY GOOD homemade tortillas, has to be the best ive ever had.

fed nothing really, all the goodies are in the soil. the only thing i water with other than water is ACT.

I'd LOVE to see some photos of your food forest! What are the steps to planting this way. I'm having a hard time picturing the process without getting stuck in the conventional field growing method.

I'm putting Rainbow Inca Sweet on my list.

[soil]

sorry i don't have a camera, but everything grows with everything. there is no beds, no crop patches. no rows. companion planting on steroids. hundreds of species of plants from the tiny eatable weeds to the standard size cherry trees.

most of my corn this year is growing among the white clover and with the berries(blackberry,loganberry,raspberry,boysenberry,bababerry, etc... but there are plants all over the place from corn seedballs i tossed out.

the rainbow inca corn is BEAUTIFUL and tasty.

im liking the look of that hookers corn.

[DoubleDogFarm]

from corn seed balls i tossed out

Ok, Now I'm curious. How many seed per ball? How is pollination with such few plants?

Eric

[soil]

Ok, Now I'm curious. How many seed per ball? How is pollination with such few plants?

one seed per ball, about 1 inch diameter. pollination is fine as long as you sow thick enough. i tossed out a lot, like 100+.

[TheWaterbug]

How about some pictures of your corn patch.

Here's my corn patch as of three days ago:

It might be my imagination, but it seems like it's 6"-8" taller today. The leftmost row is Delectable SE, sown from seed on May 7 into ~4" divots filled with Miracle Gro garden soil. We sowed 3-4 seeds per divot, 12" apart, and then I thinned all but the strongest plant when they were about 12" tall.

I didn't get around to fertilizing until the day of the picture, and I just used some liquid 10-10-10 from Home Depot, diluted 1 T/gal into a watering can. I have a sprayer canister thingy, but I'm not sure how to mix it.

Maturity is supposed to be 84 days, which puts it at July 30, and I'm supposed to get silks 3 weeks prior to that, or around July 9th.

How accurate are these maturity dates, typically? I'm more accustomed to seed packs having a range of at least 2 weeks.

The other two rows are from Home Depot, and I don't think I saved the packet. I might stop by and snap a photo of a packet later this week, but IIRC the maturity was like 90-100 days, so maybe they'll all mature at once and I'll be very popular amongst my neighbors and colleagues!

I hope to have a big pumpkin patch party near Hallowe'en, so if this corn crop looks like it's going to be good I might plant another patch towards the end of July and try to time it to coincide with the party.

The 2nd and 3rd rows were sown 4" apart into a ~4" furrow filled with the same MG soil, and I thinned that to the strongest every 12" at roughly the same time as the first row.

I'm watering the whole patch with an automatic drip system, which is nice because I can spend all my time weeding

[TheWaterbug]

Here's my corn patch as of [June 24, 2011]:

and here it is on June 28:

The perspective isn't exactly the same, but if you look at the brick lines on the retaining wall, it looks like they're about a brick to a brick-and-half taller.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Nice! Thewaterbug,

That's quite a jump in 4 days. Are you getting extra heat of the concrete wall?

Have you grown corn before? Are you concerned with the cross pollination?

Eric