Last Of The Corn's In

[GoDawgs]

Two days ago we processed the second picking of Silver Queen corn, 34 ears. Pickles bagged up the tray frozen kernels yesterday. Between the two pickings of 89 ears there are 13 quart bags of frozen corn now in the freezer and there is no more room for any more.

This morning I went down the corn rows and picked what I call the nubbins. These are ears where the top half isn't filled out but the bottom half is just fine. There's a 5 gallon bucket of those that I need to shuck this afternoon. We'll keep some of those for fresh eating and give away the rest. Thus endeth the corn season for this year.

Tomorrow I will pull out the corn stalks to make room for planting Big Red Ripper field peas in those rows.

Meanwhile the popcorn is still in the silk stage.

[brownrexx]

My sweet corn is just starting to tassel.

[JRinPA]

Oh geez I saw this "last of the corn's in" and brownrexx's name and I thought, how the heck?... The forum format still gets me turned around when it comes to threads, started versus last post.

So you do two pickings? When they start coming here I pick every day until there are too many ripe to eat, then I'll pick the rest of the row. Also funny that you are putting the corn rows into peas. I just planted my second corn where I pulled the peas out. Some years, last year included, I do go corn into fall peas as well.

I have some ears formed here...pollination started started right around when we had a bunch of rain a week or so back. I'm not happy about that. Rain the week before would have been great, but not when dropping the dust. I didn't get a chance to get out and hand pollinate any either. Last year this "incredible" was very strong with filled rows but pollination weather was dry. I have some silk turning brown, but not as much as I'd like to see. Also saw a butternut vine at the top of a corn stalk and had to put it back in its place.

I put more corn in a couple weeks back. 150 double seeded soil blocks while it was dry, then some seed right before 3" of rain. They came up quick and should catch up. Last year was the first year getting corn in the freezer. Whole cobs squared and vacuum sealed, not blanched, turned out best. It was nice and I can only hope at this point that it turns out as well as last year.

I might buy some silver queen for next year, but I still have quite a bit of seed. 2lb goes for a bit. Germination was still above 90% for this seed bought January 2019.


Pics of my peas to okra/late corn. The okra just started flowering the other day. That is about 110 corn blocks planted there.

I don't seem to have any recent pics of my first corn. Those are a couple weeks old at least. The scapes were starting to straighten out.

[brownrexx]

That's funny JR.

No, it's not me finishing corn harvesting. I don't usually pick corn until August.

I have 2 plantings this year about 2 weeks apart. I don't like to have my corn mature too late because late corn gets the corn earworms around here. I hate those ugly things!

[GoDawgs]

Great day, JR! You're going to have okra coming out of your ears! Do you use all of that?

We'll pick corn for the table every day but to get the quantity for putting up I do several pickings. The first one is all the ears whose ends are somewhat rounded. The pointy ends usually aren't as ready as I want them. About four or so days later I'll pick most everything else.

Then a few days after that I'll get all the small ears. They're usually thin with the top half not filled out but a nice bottom half. I call those the nubbins. Pickles fries up some bacon, takes that out and then sautes the corn and a bit of onion in the bacon drippings. Add back the chopped bacon and OH MY! Good enough to make you lick a hole in your plate!

It's hard to get a second corn crop here. Way too much insect pressure and heat. That's why I push the envelope early and try to get an early variety planted in a raised bed around mid April. This year that went in April 7. The Silver Queen needed warmer soil and didn't go in until April 28.

I'll be planting 4 rows of field peas this evening where the double SQ rows were. I'll be picking the very last of those right before the first light frost.

[JRinPA]

I like late fall snap peas just a little frost kissed, but I guess field peas would rot with a freeze? Never tried field peas here.



I also have some okra in the backyard garden. I did make an effort this year to grow plenty of everything. Even more than usual.

I'll pick okra every other day when it starts. I share some. Many here have heard of it but never eaten it, let alone grown it. I was told 6 weeks of picking is good here, but I have been getting longer. When we get an overload a week after a big rain, bag and freeze. I tried some others last year but we didn't like the taste/texture as much as clemson spineless. I really do appreciate the spineless part, too. Some choppee got me good last year. Pod or plant, I can't remember. I just put all that drip tape in the okra/late corn patch a few days back, so I brushed a lot of okra with no issues.

I had them planted through clear plastic that just came off. The clear was 2ft on either side of peas, split and reused from the first corn patch. The peas were in the middle of each row where there are now radish/red beet/parsnip planted. It was lot of work there to cut the thin plastic out around the okra and corn and lay in the drip tape. The plastic kept the weeds down, water and heat in. Still, I miss the black bio mulch I used. We scored that one year for $5 an end roll.

Next year okra may gets its own patch. It'll be drip tape down first. I need to save and mark all these drip tapes on a big roll for next year. I'm thinking vented plastic hoop tunnel. We bought 2kft of that (6ft wide) a few years back that needs used up. I think okra would love the heat under that, even more than AG19. Maybe even wood chips as mulch, though I don't normally do that. This year the okra didn't get tunneled by anything and I feel they are short/behind partly due to that. And of course, no rain. We took a lot of peas out of that patch in early June, so there was no way to do a tunnel until they came out, and I just didn't feel like installing one for just a few weeks. I didn't have a drip tape setup yet, so there would have been no easy way to water.

Whew...umm...thread hijack complete? LOL I need to go work in the garden, it has been 93 in the shade for hours, maybe it has cooled off? I just laid drip tape in the backyard garden yesterday evening. Running it off a drum with a boat bilge pump, like that comm garden patch. But I don't have float switch for this pump yet so I have to babysit it somewhat. Last night I estimated it pumped ~15-20 gal/hour for 4 tape runs of ~15 ft-17ft. It really needed it. Right now I have okra, sweet potatoes, red beets, and a lettuce row in there.

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by JRinPA

I like late fall snap peas just a little frost kissed, but I guess field peas would rot with a freeze? Never tried field peas here.

Yeah, the foliage kind of melts when frosted. But I'll have most everything picked by then.

Originally Posted by JRinPA

I'll pick okra every other day when it starts. I share some. Many here have heard of it but never eaten it, let alone grown it.

I believe it! I'm originally from Delaware and I never heard of it until I got to the South. No thanks to boiled okra but yay for well fried okra dredged in a cornmeal/flour mix! Or cooked in with field peas.

Originally Posted by JRinPA

When we get an overload a week after a big rain, bag and freeze.

If you like breaded, fried okra, you can cut and bread it ahead of time and then tray freeze/bag it. That saves a lot of time and mess. It's ready when you are!

Originally Posted by JRinPA

I tried some others last year but we didn't like the taste/texture as much as clemson spineless. I really do appreciate the spineless part, too. Some choppee got me good last year. Pod or plant, I can't remember

Over the past six years I've been trying a lot of kinds of okra. This year it's Choppee again (first time last year) and new to me Cajun Jewel. That Cajun Jewel is a monster plant with a ton of production points! It's just starting to produce but I can see a lot coming. BTW, it wouldn't have been a Choppee pod that got ya as they're velvety and smooth as a baby's butt.

Originally Posted by JRinPA

Whew...umm...thread hijack complete? LOL

That's funny! I don't mind at all. Good discussions are the name of the game! And if corn turns into okra, it's all good.

[JRinPA]

I think it was pod base, stem or leaf. Definitely a choppee plant at that spot. The do look weird. Longhorn was on the other side of the raised bed last year. I didn't think the production for either was as good as clemson and the choppee pods were sort of fibrous. Nice to try different though. I decided to stick with the safe bet this year.


Supposed to be hot yet tomorrow, then I hope it cools off. I'm going to try to get out in the morning for a bit and try to find some pollen to catch. Some of that first corn block didn't germinate well and I ended up doing soil blocks to catch up. They were behind by 10 days, so maybe I can get some pollen from those tardy corns to brush into silks everywhere.

I wonder if I grow just a few corn in the back yard, how they would time up for dropping pollen versus the corn at the comm garden. I could make a setup just to catch pollen. I seem to remember reading about freezing pollen, but was it corn? I don't mind hand pollinating but I'm just never over there in the mornings when it is happening.

[JRinPA]

First okra picked yesterday, woohoo! Really good tasting too. About 20 pods from the comm garden patch just showed on up. Easternmost row had about half of them. I hadn't looked at that side recently. One was actually too hard already. I put a handful in another gardener's bean bucket. They always ask how I make them, and I always say we chop it 1/3", roll in plain breadcrumbs, and fry in butter, but use whatever you use for sauteing other vegetables.

I don't have any tomatoes yet other than a few trusses of cherries. A few blushing tomatoes but not many. Really poor blossom set in this heat, from what I can see. So the okra really seems early to me.

Yesterday wasn't as bad with humidity dropped some, but this has been the hottest stretch I can recall in years. It feels like when I was in high school with 3 a days. The okra is loving it since it is getting watered a bit. It even rained last night, almost 1/16th of an inch. The northern edge of a strong front tried to break up a few miles west, but it still clipped us.

Looks like I should have pretty much corn in the first block, but I'll need to keep watering it. I did manage to get over Monday to hand pollinate some. 36 hours later a lot of yellow has begun to brown up, so I have to think it helped. I found about 6 tassels along the perimeter that had pollen to catch, and some more inbetween the rows, but that was hard to catch in there.

I was just thinking how some rich guys follow the duck migration from north to south in the fall. I think I would like to follow the corn migration south to north. Keep eating the first local corn at each spot!

[JRinPA]

Okra is coming hot and heavy.

I don't know if it has been two spectacular growing years for corn and okra, or if I just have them down pat. My first corn finally seemed ready last week. Picked 6, then 8 after two days, then 10 after two days, 11, and now after another skip I cleaned up the rest of the ready first cobs and and the likely second cobs, 68 in all. Most were about perfect, a few wormy up top and a little fragrant. Only a few were incomplete pollination. There is an interior row of corn in that set that started late. The seed just didn't sprout, seemed to rot. So it was late and has smaller first cobs that should be ready last week. But it seemed to help pollination of second cobs for the initial corn, so I think it worked out. The corn is buggier than I'm accustomed too, but I think if I had gotten the initial planting in the ground as soil blocks like usual, it would have been earlier and missed some bug pressure.

I wanted to get the ready cobs in before this storm that is forecast as 3-4", flooding, and wind. Taking a break now between husking and vacuum sealing. The timer for the steamer went a few minutes ago.


I still have butternut under that corn and sowed the outside row of stalks with pole beans this past week. I saw some germination there today. Might get something out of it, if not, it took 3 minutes of exercise.

[PhilaGardener]

Your corn looks amazingly great! Hope the rains and wind from TS Isaias didn't do too much damage to your garden. (Mine fared OK, all things considered, and out power was restored after a few hours of being out - lots of folks not as fortunate.)

[JRinPA]

My next corn blew down; it is at tasseling stage. I did some internet research yesterday morning and decided to tie it back up. Bumped an old thread about blow down yesterday and posted there, same subforum as this I think. Other than that, most stuff held up okay. Eggplant and peppers were woven strong and loved it. Unstaked tomato cages blew over, no big deal.


Even the current corn block held up fairly well. We took 103 good cobs out before the storm. I took a few yesterday. I think there are still some good ones to go because one of the three rows was late germination, and second/third cobs as well.


I had almost 5" in backyard gauge. The gauge at the comm garden was pegged to overflow at 5". My backyard gauge may well have tilted in the wind load and spilled some, now that I consider it. It was a lot, I had the sump pump going. But it was nice timing, not some overnight storm. A nice morning storm!

My brother's power was out up near Allentown, still out as of yesterday afternoon. They have buried cable there, development built in the mid 70s. That's always the problem with buried lines; they don't go out often, but when they go out, it can be days.


We're already back to our old pattern here. The stuff that came through this morning from the SW, hardly touched us, just broke up around the berks/mont line and reformed on the other side...

[GoDawgs]

We got 2" two afternoons ago and then 1.5" last evening. Last night's had wind with it and blew half of the popcorn stalks over but that's OK. The ears are made and I'm just waiting for them to dry down. They're about half way there.

This evening I'm going to straighten the fallen ones and use some baling twine to tie them and the erect ones in loose groups just to keep the ears off the ground.

[brownrexx]

I put my first corn in the freezer this afternoon. I grew Incredible and Delectable

First Corn 2020 by Brownrexx, on Flickr

[JRinPA]

How does delectable compare?
I still have plenty of incredible seed, but if I ordered more I was thinking an earlier/shorter one. I think it was bodacious? Supposed to be the same gene type (SE) so if it happened to cross it would not ruin kernel taste.