how would I know the corn is ready

Hi, this sounds a silly question. This is the first year we are growing corn. Now I saw some corn there already. My question is that how would I know the corn is ready?

Fang

When the silk on the end starts to dry up a bit and turn brown, and the ear feels "full" all the way to the end. It's a judgment call - a lot link thumpin' on a melon to test its ripeness ;o)

Some years here, I know the corn *was* ripe when I come out and find the raccoons had a midnight feast, and the terrapins have had their fill of melon.

Don't do like me fang! Last summer only ONE of my corn plants came up. Unbelievably it actually had ears too! Course I picked them too soon and was left with nothing! LOL!!

that's so funny. I hope those corn will last longer. We didn't have big property, probably 1/4 acre. After years living in New York City, we moved to NJ three years ago(the major reason was that we had a daughter).

The first year, we grew tomato. (Is that everyone in NJ grow tomato?). The garden is about 6 x 8. DH started from seeds, he planted 36 tomato plants. It was so crowded. And we had too much tomato for that year.

The second year, he decided to grow watermelon and cantaloupe. Well, all the cantaloup was rotten or eaten by animals. The final result for watermelon is about a baseball. So tiny, still we shared with our daughter.

Last fall, we went to a corn maze. So DH decided to grow corn this year. He stole one corn from the farm. Then we bought some burpee seeds. So now we have three kinds of corns: the farm one, early corn, sugar sweet. Let's wait to see if we can have some corns this year.

We also grow 5 tomato plants and 4 strawberries. But it's a war between us and animal regarding the strawberry. Next year, I am not sure what my husband is going to grow.

Fang

The farm corn from the maze might not be sweet corn. Most corn grown on farms is feed corn, the kind that they feed to the cows, or also the kind that is used for products like corn starch, corn oil, etc. Usually it is not the kind that people eat like sweet corn. The farms that make corn mazes here in Iowa do not generally make their maze in sweet corn - it's a much more expensive crop to produce. You can eat it - it would not hurt you to eat it, but it will probably not taste sweet, it will just be starchy. (Unless you are sure that your DH got an ear of sweet corn specifically.)

CMoxon, you are right. I don't think the farm corn is good for eating. It's a colored one. That's why we got two packs burpee ones. I told DH that since we are growing corns, I would like to eat them too, not just for decoration.

Great! Colored corn makes a really nice decoration in the fall. I hope it will make a few nice ears for you. Good idea to get the Burpee ones!