Too early to plant corn in So California?

[TheWaterbug]

Is this the beginnings of an ear?

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3552590/IsThatAnEar.jpg[/img]

[joed2323]

your corn is looking good ! I cant wait for my corn to emerge from the ground. Corn is my favorite crop to grow since its basically a meal.
keep us posted with your experience

[jal_ut]

I deliberately planted some seed from a Hubbard Squash I grew last season. We will see if it crossed with any of the squash and pumpkins I had last year. Even if it did I suspect it would still be a good eating squash. Have fun! Your corn is looking good.

[TheWaterbug]

Well, I sowed one pack on 3/11/12 and 3 more packs this morning (4/12/12).

My family ate the 3/11 corn while I was out of town between 6/15 and 7/4, or about 96 - 105 days from planting. They said it was good, but I didn't get to eat any myself.

We harvested the 4/12 corn for the Second Annual (?) Corn-U-Copia on 7/22:



That was 101 days from planting, and the corn was a least a week past its prime

It was still good eating, but it was nothing like last year when people kept raving about it and going back down to the patch to pick some more.

So I'm guessing that the corn had peaked ~10 days earlier, perhaps on day 90 or so. I couldn't do the Corn-U-Copia the previous week because I was out of town.

I did sample some ears before and after that Day 90 weekend, and I never did taste any that was as good as the prior year. It went from being light but somewhat tasteless to being somewhat starchy, with no "sweet spot" in between.

Could this have been the result of the higher density? Or possibly the fertilizer (I used none last year)?

Of the 2-4 stalks that came up per planting site (I didn't thin this year), I probably got an average of slightly less than 2 full-sized ears per site (not per stalk). So my actual yield of edible corn was not much higher than it was when I thinned, when I got 1.5 ears per single, thinned stalk per planting site. I did get a _lot_ more green matter, but that doesn't help at harvest time!

Next year I'm going to thin and fertilize, and I'll see how things turns out.

I also had major corn earworm infestation this year, hence the cut-off tops of all the ears. I ran through the patch with a pair of loppers just before all the guests arrived for the harvest party, since I figured all these suburban kids would just freak out if they opened their corn and found wriggling caterpillars inside

I'm going to try the oilcan + BT next year.

I'll probably also do 3 plantings--one as a bellwether crop, one for the Corn-U-Copia, and one for afterwards.