TheWaterbug's Corn Season 1

[TheWaterbug]

I peeled back a husk one of my cobs today, just to see how they're doing, and it looks like I have pretty good "fill" on the top 3rd, at least (that's how far I peeled back), so pollination appears to have been mostly successful.

I have to resist the urge to check on it every single day

I am failing miserably at the resisting part, so I'm checking it every day

Here's my Delectable, on day 81 of an alleged 84 day maturity:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/Delectable_Day81of84_web.jpg[/img]

It certainly doesn't look like it'll be ready in 3 days, but it does look well filled, and I don't see any bugs.

Here's my Bi-Licious on day 67 of 77:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/Bi-Licious_Day67of77_web.jpg[/img]

That looks healthy, and less than 10 days from edible.

So my Delectable is behind schedule, perhaps by as much as a week, and my Bi-Licious looks right on, or perhaps a bit early.

Kinda makes for difficult planning, no?

[TheWaterbug]

First harvest!!!

So here are the first 5 ears of Delectable, picked today (Day 86):
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/FirstCorn080111_web.jpg[/img]

Of the 5 I picked 1 was under-ripe and tasteless, but the other 4 were really good! I think they were still just a tad early, as they didn't have their full color, and they weren't as sweet as they could have been. But they had good corn flavor, and they were tender and juicy.

The kernels almost felt like bubbles popping in my mouth. I ate three ears

[jal_ut]

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/corn_2011.jpg[/img]

[jal_ut]

For some reason It double posted.................
It looks like deleting a post is not an option?

I can edit a post.

[TheWaterbug]

jal_ut, what's the spacing on your corn? Everyone else's seems to be way denser than mine.

[Fig3825]

I have 10 or 12 plants there on the right. Can't remember which. Of the two rows, the one on the left was planted about 2 weeks before the one on the right.

[img]https://www.jtnewton.com/Images/Garden/07312011001.jpg[/img]

[jal_ut]

Posted: 08 01 11 Post subject:
jal_ut, what's the spacing on your corn? Everyone else's seems to be way denser than mine.

I planted it with a drill. It drops a seed every 9.5 inches. Sometimes two seeds will drop. I just let it all grow. The rows are 30 inches apart. You can see some tassels in the back, that was planted earlier. My early planting didn't do well. Poor germination. I had 4 rows, and ended up transplanting the one row over to fill up the other 3. Then it was cold and wet and it didn't get as tall as usual. The later planting, which is the closest in the pic, came on much better and is looking really good now. It is just starting to send out tassels. There are three varieties. Bodacious, Incredible and Ambrosia. I am about 10 days out to harvest for the first batch. Can't wait.

[jal_ut]

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/planting/plant_5.jpg[/img]

Here is a picture of the drill. It is the Earthway Garden Seeder. I use it for corn, beets, carrots, beans, and peas.

[TheWaterbug]

Looks fancy! I have a small patch, so I just use my finger

I just planted another patch of Bodacious every 12" on 2' rows, so we'll see how it works out.

[TheWaterbug]

We picked another 9 ears today. We only have about 130 left

I did a 360 panorama from approximately my kid's eye height. [url=https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/InTheCorn080211.mov]So this is what it looks like in my corn patch,[/url] from my son's point of view.

[rootsy]

With good fertility you can crowd a bit more in there. That means a lot of N and plenty of water and ZERO weed pressure. I had a couple of lbs of seed left over so I filled the Cyclo drum and stuck it in the ground the other day. Turned the population up to 30K on 38" rows... I generally shoot for a 20K population after germination loss. We'll see how it comes out and how it does for shading for weed control as well as competition. I have a lot of trouble with grass in row that I cannot cover simply with cultivation. Not quite sure it'll make maturity before we have a good hard frost in October...

[TheWaterbug]

^^
Can I assume that "20K" means 20,000 plants/acre ~= just over 2 sf/plant?

I'm going to be at ~2 sf/plant on this new patch. I'll have drip watering, so they'll get plenty of it, and I think I can keep the weeds away. My first patch had almost no weeds after my first ~2 weeks of going through it with a stirrup hoe.

I didn't fertilize my first patch much. I did it once at about 24" height, and then again at about 48", just before it started tasseling.

I keep reading that you're supposed to do it every two weeks after emergence.

[rootsy]

yes that is plants (seeds) / acre. Divide final stand # desired by the germination. If the seed has an 85 % germination divide say 20,000 / 0.85 and you come up with just shy of 23,600 seed needing to be put in the ground. It is better to plant light (with a planter) than heavy, especially on LARGE areas because hand thinning is just out of the question. On a garden scale, not too difficult. You can put it in at higher population if you are irrigated. 25 - 30K. Commercial dent corn is in excess of 40K now on standard rows on irrigated ground.. Some twin row setups are pushing 45K / acre.

I generally incorporate 200 lbs / acre 46-0-0 pre-plant (equal to 96 units of N), put down a couple hundred pounds of 11-52-0 (another 22 units of N) off the planter, banded 2 x 2 next to the seed furrow. I'll come back and put 28% liquid N as the balance on one time during a cultivation pass when the corn is about 12 inches or growing above ground rather than beneath. Adds up to about 150 lbs N / acre total.

Means nothing if the weeds, especially grasses, overtake it and choke off the H2O, sunlight and nutrients.

[TheWaterbug]

First harvest!!!

So here are the first 5 ears of Delectable, picked today (Day 86)

Corn Season 1 is over at TheWaterbug Farm

We had 23 people for dinner last night on a fine Tuesday night (corn waits for no man!), of which 12 were kids between 5 and 12 years old.

It's amazing how much carnage a dozen kids can inflict on a corn patch!

They picked about 75 ears, of which we ate about 50, and the guests took the rest home:
[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/Corn-u-Copia_080911_web.jpg[/img]

It was Day 95 (of 84) for the Delectable and Day 81 of 77 for the Bi-Licious. It was nearly all very, very good, except for a few ears that were a bit starchy. I'm going to suspect those were Delectable, although I can't be 100% sure. But it was all peaking, for sure, and there weren't that many days left in it (and I don't have room in the freezer/fridge) so I picked the last 18 large ears this morning and took them into the office.

It's a little bittersweet for me to see all the stalks bereft of corn, trampled into the ground, and torn apart, but I have terrific images of little kids with arms full of corn and big wide-eyed smiles. I have to keep reminding myself that that's why I do this!

There are a ~2 dozen "runt" ears on the stalks, still, but I don't know if those are going to grow any bigger. I'll just let them sit and see what they do.

Of course [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38488]Corn Season 2[/url] is just [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38806]beginning[/url]!

[bogydave]

Now that looks delicious.
Wish we could grow corn here. Tried it a few times, just not warm enough.
Great looking crop,
I can almost taste it!! ::: jealousy