side dress sweet corn at v12?

[ess]

wow thats amazing, i live up by lake superior and am 1 mile away from the lake, i get some lake effect(cool) but i dont think its as bad as right by the lake and im uphill from it

Q do you think i could apply the 5 inch final spaceing in my coolish weather

the reason i did so well is becuase i planted the seeds 1 month before the last frost date on a day that was warm and it had like a week of warm, when it frosts out i put towels and cloths over the plants(and a big tarp also), i had to do this like 4-5 nights

 

[ess]

Q2 do you have other tips or tricks with other vegetables or fruits of the garden that you do that you have learnt over the years, that is like that, not exactly the standard garden techniques

 

[gary350]

We have relatives in Michigan, I have been there many times and lived there once. Relatives in Cadillac MI last frost is about June 5th. Their first frost is in Sept. That gives them a short growing season about 3 months. I suggest planting 72 day corn. You could plant 90 corn but play it safe plant seeds inside in plant trays then transplant then outside day of last frost. Corn likes cooler weather much better than hot weather. I know michigan soil is frozen about 8" deep most of the winter.

 

[gary350]

Q2 do you have other tips or tricks with other vegetables or fruits of the garden that you do that you have learnt over the years, that is like that, not exactly the standard garden techniques

Learn what each plant likes then try to give each plant what it needs. You need to learn tricks how to deal with mother nature. Look at my garden it is under water for 6 months all winter until about May 15 they rain stops garden is dry as desert until Oct. We had about 5 feet of rain last winter & spring then about 1" of rain per month June to Oct.

 

[ess]

the tricks i learnt are, i dont watch tomato suckers that closely but at first i do some, if the tomato sucker is growing fast i just leave it if its not then i pluck it off. i think tomato suckers do a good job if they are growing fast, i even have one plant that has 3 banches comeing out of the base and each is acting like a tomato plant and doing fine,
one time someone told me while i was seedling shoping, that the ones that have 2 plants in one pot just leave them together and they grow fine, i also do that, and yes good

and plant before the frost date and cover the plants with towels if it frosts was enormous for cool weather gardening
with slugs stop useing mulch

this areas last frost date is june 15

 

[ess]

does planting that close require heavy watering,
i saw on the interent mentioned if you plant corn closer together you have to make sure to water it really good with allot of work or use soaker hoses

i have been thinking your phrase spring chicken and what that would mean, i think its kinda funny, i never grew up with chickens so im just guessing

 

[gary350]

does planting that close require heavy watering,
i saw on the interent mentioned if you plant corn closer together you have to make sure to water it really good with allot of work or use soaker hoses

i have been thinking your phrase spring chicken and what that would mean, i think its kinda funny, i never grew up with chickens so im just guessing

Corn likes lots of water. Our summers are very dry June to Oct 98°F all summer with only 1/2" to 1" of rain every month. I hate to water plants if mother nature does not water my garden I don't either. I learned long ago to plant early as possible spring rain helps plants grow and as rain slowly stops plants grow deeper roots in search of water. When rain finally stops deep roots keep plants alive when garden soil is dry as desert. We had a very dry June this year no rain for 6 weeks I did not water either. But when corn was 2 ft tall I gave each 40 ft row of corn 1 lb of Uren then just enough water to dissolve fertilizer into the soil. I fertilized again when corn was 4', 6', 8', and ears had silks. We finally got 1/2" of rain when corn was 4' tall and another rain 3 days after ears grew silks. Corn turned out better than ever mother nature did good giving the garden water at the correct time. In the past I have flooded corn with water in hot weather but full sun and heat all day is never that same at rain & cooler cloudy weather. Last year I threw water hose in the corn turned it on for 4 hours it was a swamps in hot blistering sun just too HOT for water to be helpful plants need over cast cloudy 20° cooler weather too. Planting corn closer together does not seem to matter here in TN 5" seed spacing is about as close together as I want to try. I planted each row with different seed spacing this year just to see if 8" spacing is better than 5" seed spacing but it made no difference. Most plants if you crowd them too close they compete for water & fertilizer and you get smaller plants but not for corn this year. Years paste I was very stingy with Urea fertilizer and got very small ears I was always worried too much nitrogen will kill corn but corn loves it. If I put that much Urea on any other plants it would probably kill it. I do garden plant experiments every year to learn new things. Corn is nitrogen hungry and plants seem to set there and wait for water then shoot up a foot taller after a small rain. If you water your garden do it 1 hour before dark.

Here is a interesting true story. I moved to Arizona 10 yrs ago lived there 3 yrs then moved back to TN. When I moved in to AZ house several neighbors told be to water my yard every morning. Some people said 1 hr of water some said 2 hrs of water every morning. House automatic irrigation was already set to water yard 2 hours at 6 am. I know the best time to water plants is before dark plants take in water after dark to grow, plants take in sunlight during the day. I changed the house irrigation to come on at 9 pm an water yard for 12 minutes. My yard grew better & greener than any house in the neighbor hood several people came and wanted to know what I am doing to have such a nice yard. I told them what I was doing but no one believed it. Roomers in AZ say, water in the morning, everyone believes it. LOL.

 

[ess]

you mentioned experiments what else have you learnt about other kinds of plants and vegetables in your experiments

i noticed that a few of corn plants have top tassels were purple what does that mean (just a few of many) but i applied some urea and its starting to perk up a little

 

[gary350]

you mentioned experiments what else have you learnt about other kinds of plants and vegetables in your experiments

i noticed that a few of corn plants have top tassels were purple what does that mean (just a few of many) but i applied some urea and its starting to perk up a little

I read online purple color means soil has a shortage of something that can be corrected with fertilizer. I had several purple colors this year on the north west part of the corn crop. There are lots of trace elements in wood ash I burn old lumber & tree limbs I save the wood ash in 5 gallon buckets. Corn is a very heavy feeder it uses up all of the K in the soil that causes purple color. K shortage causes sugar in corn leaves to not be able to move to the ears & kernels. This year when I saw purple color I did Google search then gave my plants 15-15-15 fertilizer and wood ash in the area where plants are purple color. I decided to do the same thing to the rest of the corn it might turn purple too if I don't. This year corn was exceptionally good year for corn I think it was because we had rain several times at the correct time corn needed rain.

We usually only have 1 small rain every month June to Oct corn is often small. In the past I also grew 72 day corn this year I grew 90 day corn. 90 day corn ears & kernels are 2 times larger than 72 day corn it takes 250 ears of 72 corn to equal 150 ears of 90 day corn. G-90 corn that I grew this ears is better suited for hot weather. 40 years ago we grew yellow corn then we tried white silver queen we grew that for 20 years now we like bicolor corn I have tried several bicolor corn so far G90 is the best & flavor is just as good as Peaches & Cream corn. I tried 2 different kinds of SUPER sweet, sweet corn germination in only 50% to 60% I learned to plant 6 rows of corn then transplant corn to 3 rows to fill in the blank spots. Transplant 150 corn plants 1 shovel of soil each time is too much work. Last year I did not transplant corn we had 6 rows over very spotty corn that wasted a lot of garden space.

Next year I will only plant 3 rows of G90 corn 50 plants per 34 foot long row and hope for the best. If I am forced to water plants 150 plants will won't a big job like 500 plants we had this year. I did over kill this year to make sure we finally got a very good crop and we had corn to give away. If my garden space was bigger I could afford to plants several types of sweet corn all in the same season to learn what works best in our crazy 100° hot blistering summer heat with no rain.

Years ago when we lived in a different house my garden was much smaller than what we have now. I use to plant 10 rows of corn in a 10' x 10' crop. I planted 10 rows of corn with rows spaced 12" apart with seed spacing 6" apart. 200 corn plants in a 10 ft square crop. Corn planted this close together I could not weed with the tiller only things I could do was with weed from all 4 sides with the hoe. Corn crop was extremely easy to grow that small and we always had a very good harvest.

 

[ess]

I planted 10 rows of corn with rows spaced 12" apart with seed spacing 6" apart

1i thought corn needed wide rows to grow you even said your self it need 32 inches in an earlier response, how do they get any sun, i have a small garden this would be helpful if it worked,

2 my summers are cool between 70 -90 but mostly 70 something, does that make a difference in applying your ideas to my corn

3 the 1 pound per 40 foot row is that per year or per application

4 do you happen to have any pictures that show how much fertilizer you put on the ground

 

[ess]

its ok if you don't have a picture

1 how do you apply the fertilizer without fertilizer burning the corn i try to be close to perfect which takes time

2 the 1 pound per 40 foot row is that per year or per time

 

[ess]

i am coming to the point where my silks on the corn are drying up but the corn is half done, i pulled one open and it has full kernels below but the upper half is full of small undeveloped ones

do i wait till it goes to close the top and devolves more

there are a few that are more fully developed,

it just seems like the corn has slowed way down in growing, the temperature has cooled to about 70s allot.

i know you said that you prick the corn but im confused what to do when to prick it, it seems like maybe they are watery, sometimes i see a little creamy color come out but mostly watery maybe

. When silks start to dry out pull open husks on tip end of a few ears break open a few kernels if liquid looks like clear water it is not ripe yet.

 

[ess]

what i have done so far is just let it sit until it develops more and then pick it, it tastes like corn and its decent taste but its slightly rubbery. i planted the early bantam variety(small cobs), its a 70 day, this year it was much dryer than normal raining sparcely

i was thinking next year of trying the 90 day super super sweet is this a mistake in my situation

 

[ess]

it seems that i can get most of the cob to grow but about 1 inch on the top doesnt grow(unless i just let it sit and sit there and be rubbery), but the silks dry up early before its done, so i have to go by feel it seems. if i time it right the corn isnt as rubbery and good tasteing, maybe in the future ill figure it out better

anybody have these issues and know of a way to tell if its done not by the dry silks

 

[Marck]

Usually sweet corn cobs are ready to harvest when the silk turns brown, but it is good to double-check by cutting a sample kernel on one of the cobs. You wan to examine the color of the juice. It should be slightly milky. Clear juice is under ripe and opaque juice is over ripe.

Don't expect the kernels at the the very top to mature correctly, but if half the corn cob is undeveloped, it is probably either insufficient water or poor pollination. Water your corn well, don't let it become drought-stressed. If you can catch your corn when the pollen is mature and the stigmas are receptive you can try assisting the wind by doing some hand-pollinating