...And Sometimes The Experiment Fails - This Year's CornTainers (pics)

rnewste · September 22, 2011

Some of you may remember my CornTainers of last year, and how surprising it was to see 6 to 7 feet high stalks of corn growing in the EarthTainers:

Well, I thought that if the 3:2:1 Combo Mix was now working so well for my tomatoes, peppers, cukes, snow peas, etc. that it MUST work equally well for sweetcorn this Season. WRONG!!

Same two 'Tainers as in the first photo - but notice how poorly the sweetcorn performed in the "improved" 3:2:1 Combo Mix.

The ears were paltry:

So, next Season, I am going to dump the (expensive) Sunshine #4 Mix, and go to Lowes / Home Depot and buy again the cheap Sta-Green / Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, and then use it without adding in any Microbark nor Perlite.

Yep, the straight Potting Mix smells like swamp-gas when emptying it out at the end of the Season, but it appears that corn does NOT like the well draining 3:2:1 Combo Mix, but instead prefers the dense, compacted 100% Potting Mix media.

Raybo

September 22, 2011	#1
rnewste Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Campbell, CA Posts: 4,064	...And Sometimes The Experiment Fails - This Year's CornTainers (pics) Some of you may remember my CornTainers of last year, and how surprising it was to see 6 to 7 feet high stalks of corn growing in the EarthTainers: Well, I thought that if the 3:2:1 Combo Mix was now working so well for my tomatoes, peppers, cukes, snow peas, etc. that it MUST work equally well for sweetcorn this Season. WRONG!! Same two 'Tainers as in the first photo - but notice how poorly the sweetcorn performed in the "improved" 3:2:1 Combo Mix. The ears were paltry: So, next Season, I am going to dump the (expensive) Sunshine #4 Mix, and go to Lowes / Home Depot and buy again the cheap Sta-Green / Miracle-Gro Potting Mix, and then use it without adding in any Microbark nor Perlite. Yep, the straight Potting Mix smells like swamp-gas when emptying it out at the end of the Season, but it appears that corn does NOT like the well draining 3:2:1 Combo Mix, but instead prefers the dense, compacted 100% Potting Mix media. Raybo