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Post by prairiegardens on Jul 28, 2017 22:02:48 GMT -5
Because of various reasons I didn't get much into the garden on time or anywhere near other than with perennial stuff. So I started some corn inside just long enough for it to get a couple of inches tall and it got transplanted into the garden about a month ago. Three different varieties all short season, hoping to get at least a couple of cobs before frost in September.
they're all growing, two especially husky and robust groups, now 18 inches to 2 feet tall. One of those groups is forming tassels already, and both of the more robust varieties are throwing out tillers that look almost as skookum as the main stalk. Many have at least 2.
Anything I should or could be doing? Our weather has been weird, Mostly wobbling between 22 and 29c , a hailstorm the other day, but just turned very hot so planning on giving them lots of water but anything else? I read somewhere that if fertilized after they start to tassel they will revert to all leaf and no cobs but it's a bit disconcerting to think of cobs growing on 2 foot high plants. Or maybe this is normal and I've just never noticed before but it seems as though they've normally been close to the expected height and these are nowhere near. None are dwarf varieties.
The tasselling is forming only on the main stalks, not the tillers.
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Post by steev on Jul 28, 2017 23:53:18 GMT -5
"Skookum"? Haven't heard that since Air Force ROTC (so many years ago). Damn, that's half a century; time flies, when you're having fun.
Regarding corn, I'm stock-piling TP spools for starting corn next Spring, when I expect/hope reasonable weather to prevail and my having reclaimed my planting lanes (could happen, if the creeks don't rise; joking; no way in hell the creeks could rise enough to flood my farm). Might rise enough to prevent me getting there, without detours, as happened this past Winter, but I'm well above the "waterline".
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Post by prairiegardens on Jul 29, 2017 6:42:47 GMT -5
I've never been very happy with tp rolls or with sections of paper towel core rolls but the timing might be wrong, they seem to tend to dry out faster and then come apart when trying to get the seedlings out. No luck with egg cartons either but they're too small anyway. Tried doubling the styro egg cartons with a hole in the top one to make a wicking arrangement with yarn but far too much hassle for the return, they're just too small imo. I keep wishing they'd make square drink cups but so far nobody is cooperating, the round ones work well but take up too much room and can be tippy to move. The little square yoghurt containers work and are a usable size but I can't bring myself to pay twice as much for the yoghurt just to get the containers. I've got lots of the big ones now and they're really useful but again take up too much space.
From time to time I've wondered if there was some way to stiffen the commercial ones so they'd be reusable, make them less flimsy but so far the procedure to do this has been elusive. Maybe next round I'll get a tray or two and spray the outside with automotive paint or something, see what if any help that is
I'd been told you couldn't transplant corn, clearly untrue.
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Post by reed on Jul 29, 2017 7:14:36 GMT -5
We have a place called the Re-Store where they sell a lot of salvaged building material. I love those vinyl windows, with the glass broken out, they usually cost five bucks or even less. Frames are hollow so when cut in sections they make nice squares. There is no bottom of course but I drill holes on the edges of one end and holes in the bottom of a plastic tray and tie them down good. It takes a little bit of time to make but they last a long time.
I had some old garden hose, it had ridges inside that ran length wise. I cut it into 5" sections and bundled them up in groups of ten. Worked beautifully for transplants like tomatoes the ridges kept the roots form circling like with store bought starter cells.
With both when it's time to transplant, just pluck out the plants and throw the starters behind the shed for next year.
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Post by steev on Jul 29, 2017 10:48:29 GMT -5
I just plant out corn in the TP rolls, being careful to set deep enough so the paper doesn't wick out water; no transplant shock involved.
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Post by RpR on Aug 9, 2017 11:10:16 GMT -5
OK, now I had a massive failure this year but over the decades just putting seeds in the ground has with few exceptions worked well.
Why do you start your corn outside the garden? I have transplanted corn with a sand shovel from one area to another and sometimes the shock seems to stunt it . This year as I said my cousin brought over and transplanted bareroot corn and it is tasseling way early but so is one I transplanted with a sand shovel.
I do think open pollinated corn transplants better than hybrid.
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 9, 2017 11:28:52 GMT -5
Don't usually start corn in the house but it was that or it was going to be way too late for even an outside chance of getting any. For the last 10 days it's been cool if not cold though, and rainy, so not holding out a lot of hope for it. One of them was Cascade Ruby Gold though, so it may cope better with this damp cool weather, so far it's looking robust but it's tasselling when it's so short.... and today caught a squirrel burrowing into a container with potatoes. I loathe squirrels, they are such destructive little beasts, I had hoped a feral cat or two had taken care of them but apparently not. They will no doubt be delighted to grab any cob that does manage to form, they won't even have to climb far to get it.
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 20, 2017 2:03:06 GMT -5
Well one third of the corn is growing well but no sign of any tasselling, one third is starting to tassel now and one third has cobs forming all over the place. Unfortunately I don't remember which is which, although only one has cobs of assorted colours, so that one will eventually be identifiable. The one setting cobs seems to be trying for at least two per plant, I'm amazed and very pleased, it's been less than 2 months in the ground and the weather for much of it has been cool and wet with a couple of weeks of hot days and cool nights.
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 27, 2017 10:44:07 GMT -5
I am so stoked! It's been just 6 weeks in the ground (plus a weeks start in the house) and several cobs are almost ready to eat, more hard on their Heels. It was 9 C or about 48F last night and that's been the sort of weather we've mostly had, only a couple of weeks of hot weather since they've been in, so they've done way better than expected. Going to leave the first two cobs to mature for seed. The rest is coming on very quickly, once they put out tassels they're not wasting any time. if the first frost holds off until the second week in September all three varieties will have produced a crop. Yay'!!
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Post by richardw on Aug 28, 2017 0:32:57 GMT -5
Thats very quick, any idea of the name.
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 28, 2017 15:38:15 GMT -5
Actually one may have tried to produce a crop but it's a flint corn, it'll have produced cobs but may well not have time to mature / dry them, so they'll likely get eaten before they've gotten to where they were intended to go. That's Cascade RubyGold. The other two are both short season sweet corn, one is Dorriny and the other Simonet. Unfortunately in the move to the garden the labels got dropped so I'm not sure which is which.
Apparently Simonet is known to set the cobs close to the ground so perhaps it's the quickest of the lot as the furthest along have set cobs very close indeed, a matter of inches. It would probably make an excellent candidate for raised beds for that reason.difficult to harvest corn 6 feet up the stalk with a two feet head start a raised bed (one of mine anyway) would offer. I've still got seed for all of them for next year so have changed my mind about saving seed from this batch. I'd rather know what is who. And they are unlikely to have enough time to dry properly before frost anyway.
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Post by steev on Aug 29, 2017 0:31:20 GMT -5
"Next year" is what all real gardeners hang onto. Granted, it's not "..in Jerusalem" for Chrissakes (landrace metaphor?), but hope springs eternal; just ask the Cubbies; ain't that an example of faith being rewarded, having been strenuously tested; Job, move over.
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Post by prairiegardens on Aug 30, 2017 1:33:32 GMT -5
Speaking of faith being rewarded did you happen to hear of the soccer team in Britain ( whose name I forget, not being enthralled by the game, although it's miles easier to watch than cricket... and if I did remember it, I probably couldn't spell it right ).....anyway it finally won its first league championship after something like 40 years of being at the bottom of the heap. The fans were in an incoherent state of equal parts disbelief and elation. TBH, it sort of seemed the players were too.
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Post by steev on Aug 30, 2017 2:08:36 GMT -5
Forty years? Pish. The Cubbies hung in for a century; I don't even follow sports, but I'm impressed by their fans' tenacity.
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Post by prairiegardens on Sept 1, 2017 8:43:59 GMT -5
Ate 2 cobs of corn today, they were very good even if slightly underripe. Cobs slender, about 6 inches long rows in pairs with slight gap between pairs. It's hard to know if the cobs are typical or not weather has been odd. But it was gratifying to get even a couple of cobs,more are almost ready to go but the majority will need at least another week. A little more attention to watering would have been a good thing. The water barrel kept filling up but that may have been more a function of water being collected from a large area rather than any significant rainfall, live and learn.
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