Corn Gods taught me a lesson

[striperbware]

I hav a 2nd planting of sweet corn growing well now, due to harvest in mid-September. It is on average 4 feet tall now, and got top-heavy enough that some gusty wind blew it all over last night !

It was my bad because I neglected to mound dirt up around the base of the stalks, like I do with corn until now. Call me too busy with harvesting and saucing tomatoes the last month.

Anyhow, I got out there this morning and mounded dirt around the stalks after standing them up straight - they did not get uprooted, just laying over.

Does anyone have experience with straightening up corn that has blown over ? I will find out what damage has been done in about 2-3 weeks at most, but I am looking for anyone's insight as to whether corn plants can survive blow-overs and restraightening as I have done. Thank you for your reply.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes. I don't grow corn any more, but when I did, I several times had the experience of straightening up corn stalks that had gotten flattened one way or another (trampled by deer, etc). They do just fine!

[striperbware]

Thank you Rainbow ! I figured that this was a common occurrence. I am optimistic now that I will be enjoying the 2nd round of awesome corn in about 3 weeks.

[GardenRN]

I know I have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again because it is (as of this season) a staple for me in the garden.

The last two (maybe 3?) years, I have planted beans in with my corn. NOT for the "three sisters" reason of adding nitrogen to the soil, but because when the beans grow up the corn stalks and jump from plant to plant, they sort of tie them all together. This makes the whole crop stronger in a physical sense. Since I have been growing the beans, my corn has withstood a few nasty storms with winds (I'm not exaggerating) of over 40mph gusts.

I plant kentucky wonder, which is the same kind I grow for harvesting to eat. But instead of trying to find the beans among all the green corn leaves, I just leave them there to dry out, and harvest the seeds from these beans to plant the following year. It works fantastic for me. I don't hill my corn at all, and I don't have to worry about winds.

[joed2323]

I had this problem last year, one bad storm and it was laying over, felt like a dagger to my heart!! I watched in complete horror as the strong winds of a severe storm knocked my corn over

What I did this year Was I used my head, I actually raked my corn rows lower and mounted up the walkways, before I planted, then once my corn grew tall enough, I had plenty of dirt to mound up around the stalks, this worked very well for me, I will do this every year now on.

[GardenRN]

Jeff, that is a simply brilliant idea. Guess who is planting pole beans in the corn patch next year?

One note....Plant the bean seeds after the corn is about 6" or 8" tall. The beans grow quite a bit faster than the corn and they can wrap around and kind of constrict the plant, not letting the leaves open. IF/when they start to do this I just unwrap them and toss them down between the corn stalks. The do fine...

[RogueRose]

I've always had issues with corn blowing over. I prop them up using polls and sticks. Tiki torches work well too (don't light them, obviously!). The variety I am growing this year though tends to snap so I lost some that way. They usually recover pretty quickly.

[striperbware]

I am happy to report today after being away from home for 4 days, that the corn that I restraightened, and mounded the rows with dirt is doing fantastic, and none of the plants have died.

I do appreciate all the replies and I like knowing about the use of pole beans together with the corn to keep it up. With that said, I prefer to just put the work in and mound the dirt onto the base of the stalks to support it.

I am going to be enjoying my 2nd corn harvest in 2 weeks - something I have not done until this year. Like my signature says - I will never stop learning.

[lovethesoil]

this is my first post. ok.

I planted corn too close, so I pulled some out (literally, yanked) so as to thin them a bit and thought "hey how's about I just stick them in the soil over here." I did. It was mid-july and they were 1 1/2-2 feet tall so I sheltered them a bit with some new dry straw .....they did fine! I was amazed. I like to experiment. I tried this with potatoes last year. no go!

ok...what the heck does razz mean??!!

[DoubleDogFarm]

ok...what the heck does razz mean??!!

To heckle or tease

Eric