The CornTainers Are a Poppin (pics)

[rnewste]

Finally finished getting all of the 8 CornTainers planted for the Season today. For the first harvest of the early Summer, I've planted Northern Xtra-Sweet Bicolor sweetcorn. I staggered the seedling starts by several days so I should get a pretty good harvest spread starting in about 60 days (seed package claims 67 DTM).



One "experiment" I am trying this year is to compare growth comparing black versus silver reflective moisture barriers.



I'm not expecting anything huge - - just want to see if there is any noticeable difference between the two.

Raybo

[brismith70]

Raybo:

I don't remember your thread from your last CornTainer harvest. Did you get one or two harvests? Was it two or three ears? Or more? I am seriously considering this for next year. It is a little too late for this spring. Of course, I could always plant them in August for a Thanksgiving harvest (not bragging or anything).

Thanks,

Brian

[rnewste]

Brian,

I am able to use each CornTainer to get 2 successive crops per year. First planting is 8 'Tainers of the early Northern Xtra-Sweet, which I should be able to start harvesting about July 4. In parallel, I will start seedlings of Xtra-Tender 277A about June 20 in trays, to then plant middle of July as my second crop.

DTM of the Xtra-Tender 277A is listed as 81 days, so by end of September, I should have corn maturing by then.

I typically get about half of the stalks producing 2 ears (never have seen 3 ears per stalk).

Raybo

[amideutch]

Ray, have you ever tried this one. Grew it over here in Germany when I was doin it in the dirt and it is a super variety. Ami

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-5439-su...ns-f1-se-.aspx

[rnewste]

Hi Ami,

After several years of experimenting with numerous varieties, I have now standardized on "sh2" sweetcorn only. The Northern Xtra-Sweet gives me an early crop and the Xtra-Tender 277A in the main Season is the best variety I've ever eaten. It does take a very warm soil / growing conditions, or I would grow it in the Spring as well. So I reserve this variety for the hot August - October conditions here.

Raybo

[Daylilyfanatic4]

what zone are you in (both sunset heat and USDA) I'm just wondering since I'm trying to come up with a planting date table so using the info you gave about your corn in California and other peoples corn maybe I can come up with something for zone 6 in NY.

Thanks.

I'm new to corn so I'm just trying to figure out how it works.

[brismith70]

@Daylilyfanatic4: Have you tried searching the resources at your local cooperative extension website? If you are, indeed, in SE NY, then the website you are looking for is: http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/vegetables/index.html. See what they have to say.

[Daylilyfanatic4]

Hi, All that website has to say is plant when the soil temp is 65°. I'm just trying to get an idea of when that would be.