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Post by reed on Jun 15, 2015 15:27:22 GMT -5
I have couple types of corn that are beautiful little plants, little being the operative word. They are beginning to tassel and silk. Problem is the silks are in some cases not more the six inches off the ground. I'm taking extraordinary measures with fences and traps to guard form coons and the like but I don't want to develop a corn where you have to do that. SO, I am considering ripping it all out and planting some late sweet corn in it's place. The other corns in that patch are four to five feet tall so timing to prevent crossing should be fine. I just have problems with the notion of ripping out an otherwise healthy patch of corn. Any opinions?
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Post by flowerweaver on Jun 15, 2015 22:09:43 GMT -5
At least a third of my corn is tasseling at 8 inches to 2 feet. It's short corn, but never THIS short before. I can only surmise that five weeks of cooler than normal temps and daily rain has had something to do with it, since the field was planted in beans last year. I'm going to let mine go onward. I have a long enough season to get another planting of corn in, only I really don't have a field open for it right now.
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Post by DarJones on Jun 15, 2015 22:34:19 GMT -5
Nitrogen starvation will cause similar short stalks on corn that is normally 6 to 8 feet tall.
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Post by RpR on Jun 15, 2015 23:27:37 GMT -5
Get a really, really short silo and make silage out of it.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 16, 2015 1:31:54 GMT -5
reed: You are a plant breeder now. Culling is your new way of life... At my farm, I wouldn't call a patch of corn healthy if it was tasseling before it was a foot tall. flowerweaver: I sent some of my sweet corn to Malaysia. It is very hot there. The corn flowered when it was very short. But when I ran Growing Degree Days calculations, they had received all the heat the corn needed to mature in less than half the time that it took in my garden. So the story I told myself about it was that the corn just couldn't acquire enough sunlight in such a short period of time to grow to the same size as it would have in my garden.
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Post by steev on Jun 16, 2015 1:35:04 GMT -5
Ditto, Joseph; not worth wasting the space when you could plant something else.
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Post by philagardener on Jun 16, 2015 5:06:03 GMT -5
+3 You've got other varieties in the patch performing well (the 4-5 footers) under same conditions; those are the genes you want in your next generation.
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Post by reed on Jun 16, 2015 7:17:38 GMT -5
Plant breeder, has a nice ring to it. The short corn is gone. I went back out and looked at it after I posted and thought crap, I just can't have it in the gene pool so I got out the big weed eater on wheels and mowed it down. It did occur to me that there could be some environmental difference in the corner where it was but the line between short corn and to me "normal" looking corn was just too pronounced. Some of the other especially in the se patch is also pretty small, maybe at least in my climate early = short. I'v detasseled some and I'm watching close, if anything too short still has tassels when the bigger corn starts the short tassels will have to go. Some of the su types are also tasseling at just three or four feet. Maybe in coming years I'll have to go more heavy on some of the longer season ones to arrive at a happy medium. Corn not quite as early as I might have liked but tall enough that a coon can't just walk up and take a bite.
That Oaxacan Green Dent is strong beautiful stuff, about six feet now and just saw the tip of a tassel. Some of the se, probably Argent and or Silver King is just about in perfect timing with it and just as big and strong. I'm imaging a crop next year 1/2 (Oaxacan mother x se) and 1/2 (dehybridized and crossed se). The Oaxacan is supposed to be drought tolerant and by it's growth even before the rain I'd say it is. It also sprouted 100% in the cold damp when it was first planted. The Argent and SK are supposed to be disease resistant. Maybe I stumbled on to something.
I think I might replant the empty spot with these three along with some other se and su and detassel everything except the Argent and SK.
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Post by jondear on Jun 16, 2015 19:07:59 GMT -5
Feel good about your victories instead of feeling bad about a few underachieving plants.
How does the Oaxacan green shake out when crossed and it starts to segregate? Is it still mostly green or does it go blue and yellow? Just curious.
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Post by reed on Jun 17, 2015 3:59:33 GMT -5
I'm curious myself what will come out of the Oaxacan. Of all I planted looking for drought tolerance it is the only one that is doing really well. Painted Mountain is OK but again it is very short corn, it has already been detasseled and pollinated by some also short se types. Hopi is OK to but also short and although it stood back up it lodged pretty bad in a storm.
The Oaxacan and the taller stronger looking se types that appear to be maturing together really have my interest. Very similar looking and sized plants, single strong stalks about six feet tall and both developing a ring of anchor roots and a hint of tassel, Oaxacan has wider leaves. I'm gonna plant some more today, if it isn't too wet. Oaxacan to be deasseled along with Argent and SK so I should end up with a nice stock of the cross. I currently only have about 12 of the Oaxacan plants in this patch.
I'm also wondering how it will act and taste as a sweet corn and how long it will take.
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Post by flowerweaver on Jun 19, 2015 23:49:14 GMT -5
My corn had plenty of manure and followed two seasons of beans so I don't think it is lack of nitrogen. Last year I planted some of the same corn in my backyard in totally unprepared and unamended soil as a privacy screen after the tornado and it grew and produced normally. It probably has more to do with the lack of sun and growing degree days as Joseph pointed out, and waterlogging. Out of five corns two kinds are now tasseling at 4-5 feet.
In three years my corn has gone through so many different extreme weather events that just being able to survive is amazing. Once nature is through culling I'll be able to select for other desirable traits.
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Post by reed on Jun 20, 2015 6:40:57 GMT -5
I have around twenty or so kinds in the flour corn patch just a couple had the dramatic miniature growth. I didn't cull quite all of them as they may have some other trait that might be good in some other way. I detasseled them though. The Indiana farmer market corns, Cherokee White Flour and Oaxacan are big. The Colorado, Oregon and Hopi corns are little. Mandan, Seneca Red Stalker and some others are medium. I haven't added anything at all to the soil except those diakon radishes I planted last fall.
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