Welcome To The Corn Page

Here are the latest corn photos. More seedlings germinated this weekend. I replanted the back row with more seeds. The Marine Layer is keeping soil temps down hence the staggered germination. Eventually there should be around twenty-four stalks. You can also see our pole beans and squash next to the corn. Summer is still officially ten days away but it's looking good this year. Not too many cloudy days and the few we've had tend to burn off fast. We need to have several warm days in a row to have all the seeds germinate.

Well the corn is really starting to take off now. We're not plagued by the local Marine Layer as often as we usually are so it's been sunny and hot the last two days. The corn is still not completely germinated. We have about six more plants to go but this way we'll get a staggered harvest instead of everything getting ripe all at once. Newest pictures are below.

The corn continues to show excellent growth. All plants have now germinated. The spacing between germination from oldest to newest is about five weeks. The two oldest stalks are already showing tassels. The tassels appeared at the forty first day of growth. The tallest stalk is approximately four feet tall. It should reach about six feet tall when mature. The latest photos are below. It looks like we may get more two decent size cobs on each stalk. I'll get some close-ups of the cobs in a week or so when I see some silks.

Here are the latest corn photos. The tassels are clearly visible on some of our stalks now. The back corn row is bringing up the rear. Let's hope it doesn't get shaded out by the taller front rows. All plants are growing very well with the tallest now around five feet high. Now pests yet but we'll see what happens when the stalks start silking and producing corn. Just for some perspective, that block wall next to the corn is five and a half feet tall.

How about some new corn photos? And, a happy fourth of July to the USA. Happy Birthday America. The corn is now about six feet tall at the tip of the tassels. I can count four cobs forming on the largest stalk. I realize only two will probably be worth harvesting but these are extremely healthy plants.

This corn must be growing at least two inches a day. The tassels are at least seven feet above the furrows now and spreading out. I still haven't seen any silks yet but they should appear any day now on the largest stalks. The silks usually just show up overnight in most cases. Here are the latest shots of the corn.

Outstanding growth continues. We have three silks on the largest stalk. We'll pollinate the silks by shaking the hell out of the tassels. We should have some corn in about three weeks. All in all things are looking good. The marine layer is starting to dissipate earlier in the morning and it's getting warmer. More Sun equals faster maturing corn.

The tallest stalk of corn is now over seven feet high. It continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. We should be picking some ears in about two weeks. No problems with worms or varmints so far but we'll have to keep our fingers crossed on that. Our one drawback is the back row of corn is being shaded out by the taller two front rows causing very slow growth. Here are the latest pictures.

Well we are about ten days away from picking the first cobs. I'm still worried that they didn't get fully pollinated. The husks look sort of thin but I guess we'll find out soon enough. The tallest stalks are around ten feet tall. Three husks and huge suckers on each one. The cobs themselves are about twelve inches long. Here's hoping the wind and all my shaking did its job. Here are the latest pictures below. The two photos on the right show Kevin standing next to the corn for some perspective. To give you an idea how tall the stalks are Kevin is about five feet eight inches tall.

Well we picked two ears on July 31 and two more fair sized ears this morning. We are getting two on every stalk. We even picked a couple of Sucker/Sideshoot ears. They had lots of kernels on them although I don't really know if they're any good to eat. Hey - it looks like corn, smells like corn, maybe it tastes like corn too. More new photos are below and you can see the sucker ears. They're weird looking little fellows.

Update: The sucker ears we picked were lousy eating. Oh well, they looked like corn anyway.

We picked again this morning. We are still getting two ears from each stalk. We picked four this morning and all the ears are good eating sized cobs. They should be ready in about a week to ten days. We have about eight more stalks to harvest from. The back row failed to grow due to being shaded out by the two front rows. All ears have been worm free. The sweetness has varied from good to outstanding. The latest pictures are below.

Well the Summer is just about over and the corn harvest is winding down. We have about six more stalks to pick from. We have been getting two ears from each stalk which was a nice surprise. Both ears are of good size. Of course the second ear is always smaller but still very good eating. We've had very few pests. I found one worm on the first ear of corn we picked and that has been it. We have had hornets or wasps in the corn, I'm not sure what they are but I believe they are keeping the insect population down. I'll post a picture of one of the little yellow buggers as soon as I can get one to pose for me. There's also a close up shot of a Ladybug in the photo on the far right.

We're winding down the harvest now. So far all the ears have been good eating with some being outstanding. We lost most of the stalks in the back row due to they were shaded out by the first rows. Next year we will plant differently. We're still getting two ears from each stalk. All have been very good eating corn. Two new pictures are posted below. We're down to three stalks.

We picked the last ear this afternoon. The corn was very successful and we may or may not grow again next year. Home grown corn is great but it's too much work and space for too little results.

Date Picked	Number Picked	Comments	Totals to date
07/31/08	2 from one stalk	Good. Could be sweeter.	2 ears
08/04/08	2 from one stalk	Small. Could be sweeter.	4 ears
08/09/08	2 from one stalk	A little bigger this time.	6 ears
08/16/08	4 from two stalks	Four decent sized ones.	10 ears
08/19/08	2 from one stalk	1 Big & 1 small. Both were *very* sweet.	12 ears
08/28/08	5 from three stalks	See above. A little smaller this time.	17 ears
09/03/08	1 from one stalk	Little ear, but should be good	18 ears

Final Corn Summary - September 5, 2008

We had a very nice harvest. All stalks produced two ears each. We did lose several plants due to being shaded out by the taller front rows. The corn was nice and sweet with full cobs. The plants produced right on schedule according to the seed packs. Anyone who reads this post should take into account that you need a lot of space to get good corn harvests. It takes a lot of footage to make growing corn worthwhile. There is nothing like home grown corn but it is space intensive. But - there is nothing more fun than watching the stalks head for the sky and produce big fat ears. See you next Spring. Thanks Kevin.