starting beans and corn

[GardenRN]

Ok so this is way earlier than I usually start beans OR corn. But in the spirit of following the phenological indiators this year I am going to give it a shot. I respectfully admit that so far it has worked great. Everything is growing well and came up on time. The apple blossoms have started falling and the dogwoods are blooming...which in accordance means start planting those seeds. We are getting lots of rain right now also which I guess is a good thing when you're trying to get beans and corn to sprout.

The night temps are still getting down around 40 which is what scares me. But the weather is supposed to warm up by the end of the week and we just got over what I think was the final snow scare of the year (we usually have one in March). So I'll give it a shot. The worst that happens I suppose is I am out of corn seeds and have to go buy another couple bags from the store. No huge loss.

But I'll hope for the latter which would be another successful crop thanks to those phenological signs I am now hooked on.

Me and the kids made this scarecrow the other day, in the hopes of deterring squirrels and crows from getting to my corn seeds. This morning I saw a robin picking worms right next to it. But I guess if I wanted to stop that we should have built a scare-robin, not a scarecrow.

[img]https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v687/grnpez/scarecrow.jpg[/img]

[ozark_rocks]

I've been fighting the impulse to plant corn for two weeks now. We had such pretty weather, my brain kept saying "plant something", but I held off, and we have had a week off temps in the mid 30's. So as soon as it warms up again, and my garden dries out enough to be worked, I will defiantly be planting my corn.

We don't have dogwoods blooming yet, but it should happen this week.The redbuds are bloomed, and I'm expecting the whippoorwills back any day now. Our mayapples are opened, the bloodroot has bloomed,my asparagus is just starting to shoot, and my peoney plants are about 9 inches tall, so I believe it is time.

Looking back through my garden journal the latest I've started on corn was april 20, and the earliest was march 25, so it's time. My average planting date is April 7, about the same as the first whippoorwills' return.

Do you realize that if you plant now, you can be eating fresh corn by the end of June?

[jordanleereynols]

I always plant corn the last week of March. Not much to lose I don't think. Some years are alot better than others, but for a couple bucks in seed and fertilizer.

We usually do a couple rows of sweet corn and a couple rows of "indian corn." We can't have enough of the indian corn come october. It sells better than anything we put on the roadside stand. So even though it's sometimes ready in june, we pull up the entire stalk and put it in the shed to dry, then till and plant another row that is still ready by "harvest season."

Farmers plant thier corn around here staring sometime around April 7th, and mostly all of the bigger farmers are planting by April 15th.

Like I said, unless you are working with a really small area and/or a short growing season, you really have nothing to lose....

[GardenRN]

my normal practice is to wait til around may 1st. the same time I put the tomatoes and peppers in the ground. But as nature may have told me, I may have been doing it wrong all this time! We shall see. I agree with you, what's to lose? a big pack of corn seeds is only like $2 so let 'er rip!