Part 2 Super Succulent Sweet Corn

I wondered why people were asking me if my corn was field corn, now I know why. I didn't know Field Corn generally grows taller than Sweet Corn. Learn something new ever day. :)

This is the first time I've grown corn and it has actually produced ears of corn. I only hope the ears of corn do well. I've been watching them and every two or three days, I walk down the isle's with my oil can and oil anything that has popped it's silks out. It isn't all coming on at the same time, even though it was all planted at the same time. That's why I have to keep watching it and putting the oil on it when the new ones come out.

A couple people told me they put vegetable oil on theirs. I didn't say to much except I hadn't heard about using vegetable oil. It seems to me that cooking oil could turn rancid. Mineral oil seems more logical to me. Maybe it doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm using Mineral Oil.

I'm going to go outside and have my neighbor take a picture of the corn with me standing in front of it. I'm 5'9". I'll come back in and post the picture.

It started raining again. Maybe tomorrow.

you know all that rain will make the corn mature sooner!

here is an interesting article on corn growing methods:

http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/0705/weeds.shtml

Sweet corn can easily grow 7 ft tall, if not more. Whether it's "field corn" or "sweet corn" has no bearing on its growth but rather the variety is what determines that.

Darrel...be careful. Oiling your silks before their time will result in un-filled out cobs. Best to oil around 5-6 days after silks appear, no earlier.

good point shoe

my heirloom sweet corn that is long season gets 8 ft + tall. the short season sweet corn i grow is, well, short :-)

but i am still a newbie, haven't grown many different kinds...

I bought some mineral oil to put on the silks of my corn, so day before yesterday I figured it was time to oil a few. Strangely, though, the bottle of mineral oil I'd bought especially for this purpose got transformed into CASTOR oil at some point! I could've SWORN [and I did] it said mineral oil when I bought it! LOL! (Having ADHD makes life more interesting. And surprising! ; ))

Rhonda

hah! That corn is gonna go thru you like grease through a goose!!

Hah!....;>)

LOL Shoe! : )

oh, no! did someone make a switch? LOL

I have thousands of little black bugs. They started at the tops of the corn before they opened to let their pollen fall. When the tassels opened, the bugs left.

Now, the bugs are on the underside of the leaves near the corn stalks and in some cases, when the corn has silk coming out, there are those little black bugs. Hard to see them. They look like they have wings but I can't tell for sure, they're so small.

The silks that I put the mineral oil on, don't have any of those bugs. The silks that I haven't done yet, have them and so do some of the corn plants, under the leaves.

Worried again. Dang it!

those are sap beetles, they usually don't come till the corn is READY, but one time I had some early on. I jkust shake them off into a small bolw of soapy water. And while you're at it, CHECK THE CORN, IT MAY BE RIPE! :-)

no use worrying, just pick yur corn ;-D

tf

I have one of those spray things where I could put some consintrated soap water in it and then hook it to my hose. I could spray all the corn with soapy water. How does that sound?

like soapy tasting corn! but suit yourself. you probably don't have an infestation, just a few hungry beetles blowing through :-) for that matter just spraying water would work, but neither will work where they are in the corn or between the leaves & stalk...

We have had great corn this year--with the help of Tamara Faye.

We planted Sugar Buns from Johnny's and Parks. Karen Park said it was her favorite--so I ordered it. FYI, it is a lot cheaper at Johnny's. The corn is yellow, sweet and tender.

My family liked Casino from Renee's Seeds the best. It was quite expensive because I bought it in a little packet from a fancy dancy gift shop. I haven't looked to see if it can be purchased from her on-line store for less in a larger quantity. It is also all yellow.

A couple of years ago we planted Trinity. It is a bicolor that is wonderful. I will plant it again next year. And, Tamara, we'll plant it close enough together that we don't have to pollinate it ourselves. Thanks for the advice.

i needed a laugh tonight, thanks!

And, Tamara, we'll plant it close enough together that we don't have to pollinate it ourselves.

OK, I'm picturing folks in little bee costumes running through a field, wriggling their behinds over the flower stalks. ; ) (giggle)

I think I need more coffee...

Rhonda

I thought others might be bored with the WHOLE story - but here goes.

I have been "kindly suggesting" to my husband that he should work non-stop on our raised garden beds. Being human he couldn't get it all done in time for planting this spring. I didn't have a place to plant the corn and I had to have corn. We had planted raspberries in our regular old horrible dirt because we couldn't get raised beds done before they arrived in the mail. They had to be planted 8 feet apart which left a lot of room between them until they fill in.

I got the brilliant idea that we should plant 2 rows of corn between each row of raspberries. My neighbor said that would shade the raspberries too much so I only planted 1 row of corn----eight feet apart. Now, I know better than that. Why I did it I will never know.

Suddenly I realized it was not going to pollinate very well because it should be planted in blocks of four. I was too embarrassed to ask a general question to the whole world so I wrote to Tamara Faye and asked her what to do. We collected the pollen and put it on the silks by hand and then marked each ear of corn with a black magic marker to show that it had been pollinated.

Hubby did look cute in the bee costume but he threw his back out wriggling his behind over the stalks. LOL.

Hopefully I'll be smarter next year.

Gosh guys & gals & [wriggling behinds]
-
Now, in a few i'll get up off tha floor and go to work.
hahahahalol

thaks for the giggles :-)

The first sweet corn I remember was eating it at grandma's house. We had Golden Bantam and Country Gentleman and Stowell's evergreen. Grandma liked the white best, but I liked the yellow.......still do....more flavor.

Anyway we were raising Golden Cross Bantam for years and years. Then I tried the early Super Sweets...did'nt care so much for all that crunch and sickly sweet taste.

Then it was on to Burpee's yellows. Finally my neighbor suggested Kandy Korn...pretty good but it was tall and usually blowed down.

Next was Burpee's Breeders Choice yellow....so good for several years. Now it has more large grains in it and is starchier. One look at an ear of this corn and I could tell whether it was going to be scrumptous or not. The good ears were small grained and didn't look straight rowed and large grained.

Now after Bodasious[sp?] it's Ambrosia bi-color and Incredible yellow with a late planting of Delectable bi-color.

We hated the TRW Lucious bi-color.....big ears and sickening wang.

I'm with Garndma, Stowells is the best!

anyone ordering their corn seed now?

Hi TF, yes I have just ordered some from T&M. I decided to try 'Extra tender & Sweet F1 Hybrid (Swift)', whatever it is called I'm not sure!

The wording goes: (Tendersweet)
"Superior in both taste and texture, quicker to germinate and better vigour than other varieties, Produces 2-3, 18cm (7.5") cobs per plant, each with 16-18 rows of bright yellow tender sweet kernels. Isolation from other sweetcorn varieties not required."

Only 30 seeds, but that is all I can fit, so heres hoping it produces more than 1 cob per plant!

janet

great! now see the companion planting corn thread.... the three sisters... and the companion planting thread in Garden Talk forum

wallaby1, if it produce 3 ears per stalk then you'll have a bumper crop! Try it out and let us know how it does, please!

And TF/"Corny"...I can just tell you are itchin' for some fresh sweet corn already! :>)

As for me, I have lots of Kandy Korn seed in the freezer so will go with that again (for about 15 or more years in a row now!). There was an heirloom corn we talked about last year on DG somewhere, but I can't for the life of me remember its name right not. Wonder if it was Country Gentleman? If so, did anyone try it last year?

Shoe.

Haven't ordered any seeds yet, but have my list almost finished.

shoe, look in the first thread...

Darrell, haven't forgotten you, dmail me again.

Hey guys,
got a secret! Lol not really!

Some years ago I learned something from, 'university South Carolina Ag'.
Plant early, very early!
Growth point of tha seed is 3 plus to 5".
If it freezes before that its ok. it'll come back .
-
Plant close!

When I was laying out with my Troybilt 22" several years ago I planted corn super close.
I was surprised at production.
Never fertilize at planting! Hill after a few inches, fertilize then, at tassling and what ever ya think. Lots of info on this forum.

Going to add a few pic's. Most been posted before. Might be a few slightly different.
Talking corn heah! Lol......

Over tha years I've been a camera, picture nut.
Some years ago, again;
I had, have a camcorder! Took digital but, put out analog. Worked great on tha TV.
Por nada on tha puter!

Loved it 'cause you could snap shot any where in a movie.
I have documented from a push plow, though hand tools.
-
70 odd model Cadet Cub /attachments and a model M 1948 John Deere.
Current, Kubota with stuff, paid for! Hoho. Am I grateful yet!

All this is hands on!
Why now do ya say? aside from being 71 2/10/06 I'm one of those people that put it together slowly. [Have to]
Haha, and money, is something ya got a little of after your last child leaves tha nest.
50 years of marriage, eight boys & girls. I garden to live and live to garden.
______________

I found through Tiger Direct, which is an affiliate of mine a thingy!
A TV Card. I can watch tv on my puter. Several goodies but tha best part is my old camcorder MiniDv allows me to put it through to my computer.

Years of tapes. Thousands of pictures. I forgot several hundred beautiful flower pic's I had.
Ever seen Bighorn Sheep close up and personal, Colorado?
160X digital zoom [Oldie but goodie]

All these years been lost to me.
I thought money was my problem. It was! I could have looked at these pic's anytime on Tv. Bored out of my gourd!
_____

$29.99 solved my delimma. Here it is, thirty darn dollars!
I can make DVD's too. Oh my!

Oh well.
Here is a pic or two relating to corn.
By tha way, corn is a personal thing. Taste that is!
I don't really have a personal favorite. I lean from tha bicolored, various white to field corn.
I don't like a super sweet. I enjoy picking an ear in tha patch and eating it.
There are several names I can mention. In truth I'm jus a corn freak!

All this corn talk sure makes me hungry for some good bitn'. One of my favorites from last year and before was Parks Serendipity. I don't think I have received one of Parks catalogs yet. Actually I haven't really studied any of the catalogs yet. Too much other stuff going on. Must get started on my lists soon. DonnaS

Hi,

My wife and I are planting our first vegetable garden this year. I'm not much of a vegetable fan, i dig on the starches, potatoe, corn, onion. So I will definately be planting corn. I am wondering, how does one take corn and prepare it for pop corn? Is it a special variety of corn? Can it be done with any corn? I certainly plan to eat allot of fresh corn if we can make it grow, but thought it would be neet to use some for popcorn if its not too difficult.

Thanks
Andy

Popcorn is a special type of flint corn. Other types don't pop although many of the older flint corns will semi-pop into what used to called parched corn. For ideas just browse through the list in Plantfiles http://davesgarden.com/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=popcorn&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=cultivar&images_prefs=both&Search=Search

TF thanks, I will attempt to seek them out,

Horseshoe, I AM def going to try it out, can't do without my sweetcorn, had most rot last year and only had 3 cobs altogether....a long wait until next season, a not very sweet corny drought of sweetcorn!

heycharlie, not SURE if I understood half of that, but an Aquarian? me too, I too am not understood by the other 95% of the population either, does that mean by I get to your age I will be even LESS understood???

That doesn't look like a 1948 John Deere tractor, or is that just it's model number? making me awful jealous now, rows and rows of the stuff, and a tractor needed to shovel the stuff up? Way to go, sweet corn heaven!

I have always grown my sweetcorn close, space limited aside, it is best to cross pollinate for kernel set. Maybe not so necessary with a FIELD full, but when you only have about 4 short rows, essential! i start mine off mostly mid-April, pot on in a cold greenhouse, and by 3 weeks into May it is a good 6-9"+ in 5" pots, and I get cobs in August, that is even if it is a cold summer. I plant them about 9-12" apart in rows no more than 1' apart, mostly put a little extra home made compost in the hole. I leave a 'well' around them to water in tomato food, but don't do it as regaularly as I used to and still get good results.
I have grown Sundance in the past, tried another couple of years ago, they both did well, and mine get LOTS of shade. Sundance is the 'ordinary' garden type, not a 'supersweet', nor field type, and does well in short growing cool climates, but the seed seems to be deteriorating, as does many hybrids after years of production. Time to go ahead with 'progress'. I think the 'tendersweet' varieties are similar, just the kernels a bit 'juicier' and tender skinned. I HATE the 'supersweets', everything now is TOO sweet.

DarrellR, better get those runing shoes on, i have spent a small FORTUNE on seed that I was perfectly entitled to and no-one else was going to beat me to the BEST ones!

rutholive that means you too, where are your priorities???

Sharpes, what have you been missing? You, like me, like your potatoes, sweet corn, must include carrots, I can't STAND bought carrots, I would rather go without! You would have LOVED veggies IF you grew your own, I don't know what they do to them, but you just can't beat home grown. Sweet corn is JUST not a BUY option, you WILL be THRILLED! Try growing some hard skinned squash 'Nutty Delica' from T&M is a kaboucha type, and is absolutley GORGEOUS roasted.

janet

I grow my corn close too, 7 to 9" apart in the row and15" or so rows. Have to be able to walk through the rows. I have never had very good luck growing corn seed in pots or whatever and transplanting out into the garden. For the past two years I have not cultivated my corn area. Just spread the shreds from my own shredder on top of 1 or 2" of my homemade compost, plus Planters 2 scattered over the area. When time to plant the seed I use my old what I call ditching hoe to make a shallow narrow about 2"deep little trench. Drop the seeds in, one about every 3 or 4", cover with an inch or so of the soil / compost/sheds at the edges of the trench made previously. When the corn plants have grown to 4" or so tall, I usually pull out every other one, so they are spaced out to 7 to 9" in the row. That method has worked pretty good for me. DonnaS

This past year when I planted, "Honey Select", I did it two ways.

The first way was in 3 oz. Dixie Cups.
The second way, was direct seed.

If I had a choice between the two, I would have to go with the 3 oz. Dixie Cups because there was no wasted seed and I didn't disturb any roots. i.e., when I planted directly into the garden, I planted 2 or 3 seeds at a time in the same place. When I went back to pull out the weak looking ones, it partially pulled up the other corn seed with it. In some cases, I wasn't able to get the whole thing out and it "re-grew". THAT happened a lot. I ended up using a knife to cut out the seedlings I wanted to pull.

The long and short of it was the Dixie Cups with the corn sprouted about 5" tall, were put in the soil and watered in. Finished.

Now, here is something I found interesting about corn.

Corn is a "Grass" or belongs to the "Grass" family. Knowing that, I decided to use a water soluable "Grass Fertilizer" on my corn last year.

I noticed that in the area's where the plants were shorter than the rest, (places where the compost manure didn't quite make it or wasn't as heavy as in the rest of the garden), they began catching up to the rest of the corn. By the end of the season, you couldn't tell which ones were the short ones. ALL the corn grew better. Darker Leaves, Strong Stalks, and although in the center of the corn patch, there were fewer ears of corn, the rest of the plants produced 2 - 3 ears per stock.

I planted the corn every 6 inches and in rows 2 1/2 feet apart. I hilled twice. I think rule of thumb says to hill 3 times. I missed the last one. lol But anyway......I think the "Grass Fertilizer" made the stocks and roots stronger and even though I missed out on that last "hilling" of the corn, it withstood everything nature threw it's way. Well, untill the Racoon found it or a Moose or a Deer. I'm still not sure what got into it. All trampled down and half an ear eaten. Grrrrrrrrrrr

It was the best sweet corn I ever had. I don't know if it's because I grew it or if it was because of the kind of corn it was. I will grow it again this year.

Darrell

"It was the best sweet corn I ever had. I don't know if it's because I grew it or if it was because of the kind of corn it was. I will grow it again this year."

i would have to agree with you, it's hard to say why your own corn just tastes sooooo good.


yep, when you're thinning, best to chop them off at the ground, though they can come back. last year i over thinned, but still got a good crop of early corn. it was likely that snow they got as they sprouted that made em taste sooo good...

I plant my seed for a start in the small 6 trays, you know the ones with the squares that they sell bedding plants in. Several good reasons for doing this,
1) You will need less compost
2) The compost will warm up quicker enabling better germination
3) If some don't germinate there is very little compost to 'recycle' elsewhere.

Once they are getting enough root, I transplant the whole thing to a 5" deepish pot, or anything I have that is deep and a bit bigger. This does not disturb the roots, and they will quickly grow on when transplanted. Another reason for starting small is a general rule, when roots are kept restricted they generally make a more branched root system, which will only get better when potted on. Strong roots mean a strong plant, and better, quicker growth will follow.

Having only good plants to set out means no wasted space.

I don't hill mine up, but plant a little deeper when transplanting, and leave the well around them to water in food., or just water.

Lawn fertiliser will contain a lot of nitrogen, necessary for leaf growth. This may be to the detriment of fruiting or flowering, unless there is already sufficient of the food required.

A good tomato food fertiliser is perfect, about 10%N (Nitrogen for leaf growth), 15% P (Phosphorus for root growth), 30%K (Potassium for fruit or flower). Trace elements are also often included.

here is the next thread.

no corn for me this year. happy gardening everyone!