A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Corn

I attempted to plant corn in my garden this year.
However seeing it took awhile for the corn to get growing so last weekend as the stocks we're starting to die away we harvested the corn, all the silks were completely dried out so I figured might as well. We only planted 7 stalks, 2 of which died. we had one cob each off the stalks.

It was easily the tasety corn we've had in a long time probably well over a decade (most corn these days just isn't as flavour full and sweet as it once was).

However with stunted stalks came stunted cobs, of the 5 cobs one only had 1 kernal fully develop 2 had two 3 out of 4 sides developed and the last 2 were proper little full cobs. and by little I mean the cobs were all approximately 3 inches long.

Corn needs to really be pollinated. So they suggest at least 2 rows so the winds can do their job. Hand pollinating works too.
Without proper pollination you end up with stunted cobs and fewer kernals. They also need a very long season to fully develop.

Shani, this time try a bi-color corn(sweeter than yellow)...look for a corn that has the least amount of days til harvest on the package and plant it in a square block(short rows side by side as Tina said). We have fewer days than most for our seasons and corn doesn't do well transplanted.

I usually plant 'peaches and cream' but might try the new variety 'pay dirt' it's supposed to ripen in only 60 days.

THanks, I'll keep an eye out for it and giv it a try, I'll definatley plant a block of it this year.