blown down corn

[kath]

No, my gauge only goes to 5" so I empty it partway through any big rain event. That's really interesting what you've noticed about the difference between tilled vs. un-tilled plots!

[JRinPA]

This corn block turned out to be spectacular production. I left that big block tied up - it is still tied up now. I would highly suggest to help corn back up and do a "tag end florida weave" if it is near tasseling stage. Without supporting these rows I feel I'd have been lucky to get anything salvaged.

8/29 picked 3 that looked good but all slightly immature
8/31 picked 14
9/2 picked 13
9/3 picked 21
9/4 picked 19
So far I did one lap taking at most one mature cob from each stalk, then most of 1st row again. 70 picked, there are at least that many left I think. The cob length is rather varied with all this rain and my hand pollinating technique.

My next rows I called block #2.5 because it had same age transplants, yet also half was direct seeded that day of transplanting. #2.5 had more shade and seemed to lag behind. I tied them up too with the same "tag end florida weave" BUT I decided to cut those strings after a few weeks. The weave was started at the transplant height and seemed to be "choking" the seeded corn. Big Mistake, should not have cut it. Within a few days there was another windstorm and a lot of them with falling pollen and silks showing laid over sideways into the tomato cages. I had to completely hand pollinate the seeded corn there and I don't know how well that took. Were I to do it again, I'd do the same weave but from the shorter seeded end first to make it lower, and then not cut it early.

My #3 block laid down sideways in that last big wind as well, but it was small yet and most of it righted itself in a day or two. I tied just a few up in the windward corner.

Pics of #2 block are from 8/28 before picking any - I thought they were ready and picked three the next day, but they needed a few more days. I hand pollinated this block a few times, then bagged pollen from later block to hand pollinate the late cobs. The soil blocks were double seeded, so there are many "twins" and a lot of those twins have two good cobs each. More than a few have three. Then there are late/weaker ones that only have 1 or zero cobs, but they provided some late pollen. General spacing between a twin block is 10"; when there was only one sprouted in the block, I set at 5" apart. I try to stuff them in there!

[JRinPA]

kath, I go over in the rain at times to see how the ground reacts and such. They get pools in the tilled plots because the entire plot gets rototilled, not just rows, then they walk in it to plant and tend. It is clay soil and gets packed hard.

I just ordered some daikon seed to plant in some plots over the winter. Hopefully it ships quickly. One of the plots was abandoned this year due to it being too hard to work. An older fellow had it, new this year, and didn't really want any help. He is used to his own garden for the 30 years that had been worked but never rototilled. This plot had been rototilled 4 times total I believe in '18 and '19 so was packed very hard. One day in June he came by, said he was pulling out! His deer fence at home got fixed. I helped him dig out his peppers and that was that. Good guy but I totally understood. A shame though.

[Tormato]

I grow corn in small amounts, small enough to do a Florida weave on them.

With a variety like Hawaiian #9 , which has thin stalks, and can grow to 11 feet, it's required even in moderately windy areas.

[JRinPA]

Hawaiian #9, a tropical supersweet, OP, grown in Massachusetts. Pretty neat. Do you get squirrel damage with it? Do you still have some growing or is done for the season? I just read about it on a hawaii.edu PDF file.

It mentions wind pollination and how it is important to plant rows parallel to the prevailing winds. I have mine just the opposite, NS rows the last couple years and would call the prevailing wind from the west, but it varies quite a bit, not like trade winds. The violent winds are usually from the NW.


I have one more block of incredible that didn't silk yet, not sure how that will do. I should have done soil blocks for that instead of seed. Seems like it's quicker by a week even in summer. I think the sprouts just like that nice 90f for 3 days and the good nutrition, versus going in the ground. I know I like spacing I decide. Good chance that transplants are more prone to blow down, yet the stuff that fell back over after I cut their strings a few weeks ago was the seeded corn, not the soil blocks. It didn't snap but it is still laid against the tomato cages and cobs are looking marginal.