Sweet Corn for 2013! Let the countdown begin . . .

[TheWaterbug]

It's been warm the past week or so, and the row cover may have helped a few degrees. The germination and growth rates seems much better than for the pack that I planted in mid-April.

Here it is 8 days later:



At this rate it's going to catch up to and pass the pack I planted a _month_ earlier. These are 10 feet away from the earlier planting, and on the same drip system. Is it the row cover that's making the difference?

[TheWaterbug]

They were pressing up against the row cover, so I took them off:



You can see a small gap at the end, followed by the small stand I planted 3.5 weeks before the large stand. They certainly don't look 3.5 weeks older.

Of course I grew more than corn. I weeded the leftmost row about a week after planting. I didn't weed the other three until after I took this picture. Look at this glorious crop o' weeds:

[joed2323]

Your corn is looking very nice, good job thus far.

What variety of sweet corn are you growing

[TheWaterbug]

It's Bi-Licious, and here it is at 32 days:



Knee high, a month early!

But seriously, some stalks in the mini patch behind it (planted April 11) are starting to tassel already, despite being only about 6"-12" taller. I'm thinking the early planting is no good, and that I should always wait until it's much warmer.

[nightroad]

started corn in march. corn should be ready this month. started my second crop in may. will be starting my third crop this month. I am doing transplants. my plot is 6x12. I divide it up into two parts. I try to plant a 86 day and a 75 day corn about a week apart. I will grow melons from time to time. just doing corn this year.

[TheWaterbug]

Knee high, a month early!

I can't believe I forgot to put the PlantCam out for this!!!!

I'll have to find another use for it.

[TheWaterbug]

I'm also noticing almost the whole patch has tillers, typically 1-2 per plant, but sometimes 3.

I just read that "Tillers are most likely to develop when soil fertility and moisture supplies are ample during the first few weeks of the growing season" and/or when the planting density is low.

The row covers probably created a little more warmth and kept the humidity up. This theory is backed up by the glorious crop of weeds pictured above.

The article further states that sugars were observed to move from an earless stalk to an eared stalk, but not from an eared stalk to an eared stalk. Therefore tillers can help the main stalk, but won't hurt it.

[TravisD]

Looking really good! I planted my three little rows on April 25th and they're up to about my chest now. Had a bad storm last night that blew a bunch over, but I just stood 'em back up and I think they'll be fine. I haven't had to water anything last two weeks; it has rained every 2-3 days or so. Last night was almost 2 inches.

[hendi_alex]

Corn patch looks a little ragged this year, but won't be long until corn!

[TheWaterbug]

Corn patch looks a little ragged this year, but won't be long until corn!

What variety is that? Looks interesting!

[TheWaterbug]

TheWaterbug, If the party is already on the calendar and you want to hit it with corn just right, I hope you have kept records of past years, both planting dates and peak flavor dates.

All my notes are on helpfulgardener.com

I'm glad some of you guys get into growing corn like I do, its my favorite vegetable to grow, there is nothing better then taking a stroll through your corn patch at harvest time and picking that fresh ear off the stalk and eating it fresh, no cooking required.

Agreed. Although I also love these few weeks when the corn seems to grow while you're watching it. You can stroll from one end of the stand to the other and back, and you swear that it's grown another inch.

Squash vines are the only other things that seem to compare for raw speed.

[hendi_alex]

What variety?

Don't have a clue, as I just dump my seeds all together year after year. Half of the patch is mostly silver queen, but the nearer half in the photo is Double Delicious, Golden Bantam, probably a couple others. With the patch planted so close, variety doesn't much matter because of all of the crossing. About half comes out mixed yellow and white. Whatever makes always tastes quite good!

[TheWaterbug]

Agreed. Although I also love these few weeks when the corn seems to grow while you're watching it. You can stroll from one end of the stand to the other and back, and you swear that it's grown another inch.

And here's my Bi-Licious at 46 days:



That was 4 days ago, and today it's even quite a bit taller.

But this was a little worrying today:



In addition to the scalloping on the edge of the leaves, they also seemed a little droopy, so I increased their watering time. Does that just look like thirst? Or could it be something worse?

[SOB]

I'm going with something called jackpot...it reads good; we'll see how it tastes...

We are also growing Jackpot. This is the third or fourth year our family has grown that variety and we love it! Plus we get a bunch for free from the local Pioneer seed rep...

In addition to the scalloping on the edge of the leaves, they also seemed a little droopy, so I increased their watering time. Does that just look like thirst? Or could it be something worse?

Corn is a heavy feeder and LOOOOVES nitrogen. Have you been doing any fertilizing?

Below are pics of my corn. First planting should be reading in about 4 weeks. Tassles are starting to be exposed. Each additional planting was about 2 weeks later. I'm 6 foot tall BTW...

[TheWaterbug]

I'm in the middle of a 10-day trip abroad, and I woke up in a sweat yesterday because I dreamt all my corn was dead! In my dream the stalks had all fallen over, and the patch was a sandy swamp.

Home confirmed that my dream was just a dream (damn jet lag!), but it was scary!

[jal_ut]

My first crop is knee high today June 28. I am heading out to plant a few more rows since I still have some space. Whether it will get ready or frozen is yet to be seen, but I may as well try.

[SOB]

I tried sneaking in a crop last year and it didn't turn out so hot. If I would have thought about it earlier I would have been fine but I came up about 2 weeks short. I had 6 foot tall stalks, tassels and ears about 2-3 inches long then the frosts started to hit and everything browned up and died. Luckily the seed didnt cost me anything...it was a pretty good learning experience actually.

I think I planted in early August and had an 85 day maturation corn (Jackpot). Mid October the cold weather and frost shut it down. If I would have planted in late July everything would have been perfect. People thought I was crazy because they have never tried a fall harvest for sweet corn! I like to think I was being smart....just not smart enough

[btrowe1]

This is my corn, not sure how it"s supposed to look 1st time grower of corn.

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Compared to the rest of the garden the corn is growing but I thought it would be greener?? There's a few bare spots where some of it didn't grow right. Planted it the last week in May

[RogueRose]

Here's my crop as of two days ago 6/27. I planted it all on May 8th. There's 3 different types here:

Peruvian Corn: 92 days
Triplesweet Bi Color: 82 Days
Luscious Hybrid: 75 days

On the far right is the Luscious Hybrid and if I look down into it, it already has tassels coming up and I do see ears starting to peek out too. So it's been 53 days....I'd say it's more or less on track.





In the far back is the Peruvian. We'll see if I am actually successful with it this year.....

[freedhardwoods]

It's hard to believe my last post was 2 years ago. I guess I got busy and forgot to come back. I still plant a big garden every year though.

Everyone's corn is looking pretty good.

Here's a picture I took when I ran the tiller through my last patch. Weeded and hilled in one pass.

[freedhardwoods]

Sometimes some of the smaller corn will nearly get buried. Corn is tough. I just literally kick it back up with the toe of my boot before I make the next pass on the other side.

[freedhardwoods]

Here is my first and second planting after a downburst hit about a week ago. I didn't take a picture yet after it stood back up. The oldest was tassling when the storm hit. I'll have to wait and see how the ears fill out.

[applestar]

Hey welcome back!
I remember you posted about storm blown over corn field back then too.
-- you sound much more blasé and confident about it now.

[TheWaterbug]

I'm in the middle of a 10-day trip abroad, and I woke up in a sweat yesterday because I dreamt all my corn was dead! In my dream the stalks had all fallen over, and the patch was a sandy swamp.

Home confirmed that my dream was just a dream (damn jet lag!), but it was scary!

I had the dream again! Home emailed me some pictures, so I know the corn is ok, but I'm really anxious to get home now.

[TheWaterbug]

I had the dream again! Home emailed me some pictures, so I know the corn is ok, but I'm really anxious to get home now.

And so . . . 4 days after my first dream, home emails me this picture:



The brass splitter feeding the drip systems had broken off, and water was spraying everywhere. She says it must have broken less than an hour before she found it (it's not very near the house, so she has to make an effort to go down there) because the area by the hose tap was not all that wet.

She's off to Home Depot now to replace the splitter.

This is the second time I've had prescient dreams while on an extended trip abroad. The first time (about 15 years ago) both dreams came true--our house remodel was a disaster, and the IT guy at work got fired.

This time, the garden did have a major problem. This time I also dreamt that my company landed a major project. Fingers crossed!!!!

[applestar]

that's amazing! Good thing disaster was averted but imagine if the situation hadn't been discovered until later
I hope you 2nd dream comes true too.

[PunkRotten]

Waterbug -

How many ears of corn are you getting per stalk?

[TheWaterbug]

I'll let you know in about a month

I'm still out of the country for another two days, so I can't even see what's growing right now.

In previous years I've probably averaged 1.5 edible ears/stalk, with a mix of singles, doubles, and some singles plus a runt ear.

I think I might yield slightly higher this year, because the plants seem to growing bigger and faster than in the previous years, bad dreams notwithstanding.

This year I'm also trying some prophylaxis against ear worms.

[TheWaterbug]

that's amazing! Good thing disaster was averted but imagine if the situation hadn't been discovered until later
I hope you 2nd dream comes true too.

So true.

I had a hose extension blow two years ago, because I had it upstream of the timer, so it was under constant pressure that it wasn't designed to handle. We get a fair amount of rider/walker traffic on the horse trail behind my garden, so helpful neighbor saw it, turned it off, and left me a note.

So that part helps for preventing water disasters, but even the best neighbors aren't going to hand-water my garden for me when this sort of stuff happens

Now I use these high-pressure "hose savers" for the "always on" sections. Expensive, but worth it. I should probably put one of these above that splitter so it can hang straight down and not be under constant stress. Now that I think about it, I remember one of these failed on me 2-3 years ago also.

[TZ -OH6]

Here is an accurate diagram of my 300 sq ft sweet corn patch.



vv...v..vvv......v..................v............v


That is the only row where corn came up.

[bcallaha]

Freehardwoods, what part of SW Indiana are you from? I'm from Chandler.

Brad

[Gary350]

Your corn is looking great.

For some reason I recall the best crop of corn I every had was an accident. About 1980 I had an old wooden boat laying in the back half of the garden and it was worthless and falling apart too wet from spring rain to burn so to hide it from view I threw corn seeds ever where all over the place about 10 foot radius all around that boat. Corn came up in a donut circle around the boat and it was the best crop I ever had. I filled the wheel barrel many times hauled it to the freezer and just dumped it in as is. LOL. Pulled some corn out from time to time frozen solid, boiled it and it was good all winter. Then I burned the boat.

[TheWaterbug]

I'm home! The corn is doing very well. Here I am with Jr and Grandma:

I'll post a close up of the ears later today.

When is the last time I should fertilize?

p.s. the low tassels are from the tillers. I don't think any of my tillers have ears. I do have some aphid infestation on a few stalks, but I bought a carton of ladybugs and put them on this morning.

[TheWaterbug]

Here's the bizarre part:



The corn on the left is at 85 days, planted April 11. The corn on the right is at 62 days, planted May 4. Weird, huh? The ears on the left are further along than those on the right, but the stalks are just _so_ much shorter.

Same soil, same prep, same fertilizer, same watering regime after May 4th. But the corn on the right got the row cover for its first ~2 weeks. The corn on the left just looks stunted. I don't know what I did wrong.

[TheWaterbug]

Here's the 85 day corn:



It's still a few days, or perhaps a week, from ready to eat.

Here's the 62 day corn. Most of the stalks look like this, with one larger ear and one smaller ear. I don't know if the smaller one is smaller or just less mature. I suppose I'll find out in about a month:

[lakngulf]

Corn looks healthy. I know you will enjoy. Not to be outdone by my furry critters I planted a new row of corn this morning.

[applestar]

Harvested and ate our first corn this morning. Super yummy and sweet!

[jal_ut]

Its the variety, don't sweat it. Just enjoy what it produces.

Looking great. Wish my corn was that close. You are making my mouth water.

I have tried as many as 5 varieties in one season and ten or more over a couple of seasons
looking for the one that I liked best. Yes, they all are different in time to maturity, and
size of stalk and size and flavor of the corn. In the end I settled on Ambrosia, which has
been my one corn for several years now. Still happy with it. I make successive plantings to
spread out the harvest.

[dtizme]

Congrats to everyone on their successful sweet corn growing. No comparison between fresh stuff and the junk you buy from the grocery store. I'm fortunate enough to be able to buy fresh every year from farmers in my area but have never grown my own yet. I'm jealous

[Ohio Tiller]

Here is my corn last week as you can see we got a bit of rain!

https://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j176/ ... a21603.jpg