Sweet corn puzzle
What's wrong with this picture?
(Guess before you peek!)
If you said that
Artemesia was eating our sweet corn, you got tricked by the zoom-related
flattening of the photograph. Our little doeling was actually about
five feet beyond the corn in question when I clicked the shutter button
on our camera.
On the other hand, if you noticed the large distance between the corn plants, you're on the right track. My germination test
this past winter suggested that last year's corn seeds were fine. But
in the real-world setting of our garden, those same seeds came up very
spottily. That's a problem since corn is wind pollinated and relies on a
relatively large stand to ensure the seeds develop well and the ears
bulk up. In fact, I was expecting to see lots of cobs like the one
pictured above when the time finally came to harvest our crop.
To my surprise, most of
the seeds seem to have set even with less than a dozen plants to spread
their pollen. While I'm glad the corn plants came through for us this
time around, I've resolved to stick to buying corn seed every year
rather than trying to eke out those packets for a second season. It
appears that corn, like onions, is simply better planted during year
one. Live and learn! At least we can still eat my mistakes.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I had that problem too, since I only plant a 4' x 20' patch with three rows, I had seed left over from a previous year. Very spotty germination.
This year I bought new seed (Golden Queen) and due to last years poor germination I over planted, and should have thinned but did not. My result was very thin, weak stalks that produced little 3 and 4" cobs.
Grew up in MN and can garden there but despite years of living in coastal GA and consulting local gardeners I still can't garden like I used to!
NaYan --- I hadn't mentioned corn varieties before, because we hadn't really settled on a favorite. But I think the variety we've been growing last and this year is a winner --- Vision. Keep in mind that we have simple tastes when it comes to corn --- the sweeter the better. And I'm willing to eschew seed-saving in favor of super-sweet hybrids as a result.
Eric --- I'm sorry to hear that! It seems like every change we make to our gardens requires a few years of learning, so I can only imagine how hard a couple of thousand miles change in location would make it!