watching the corn grow

[wolc123]

I usually aim for "knee high by the fourth of July".  Today was one of them rare days when, if you look close enough, you can actually see it grow.  It takes warm weather, lots of moisture in the ground, nitrogen, and plenty of sunshine to make that happen.  At about 3:00 pm this afternoon, after grilling the girls some deer-burgers for lunch, I stood on the edge of my 2-1/2 acre plot and watched as it grew past my knees.    

[Swamp_bucks]

I know what you mean drove past my parents road a couple times today and seems to be taller there everytime i went past. 

[dmandoes]

my corn is at 3 feet now, southwest columbia county.  beans r close to a foot.

[growalot]

My sweet corn is 6 " and just breaking ground...Farmers field 1ft. The sun shows up at 4pm most daus a we ate are averaging 2-3 syorms per day at least 5 days a week.

[wolc123]

6 minutes ago, growalot said:

My sweet corn is 6 " and just breaking ground...Farmers field 1ft. The sun shows up at 4pm most daus a we ate are averaging 2-3 syorms per day at least 5 days a week.

I skipped the sweet corn this year, after about 4 straight seasons of dismal results.   It was too dry last year, too wet the year prior.  This year looks like it is shaping up pretty good for that but my ground will benefit from the extra year in clover, so next years crop should be good.   I usually like to get in a little sweetcorn because it makes it easy to eradicate the coons before they can get to the field corn.    

[the blur]

Do the deer munch down your corn stalks ?

[wolc123]

On 7/19/2017 at 4:05 PM, the blur said:

Do the deer munch down your corn stalks ?

Good question.  On rare occasion, they chew off a few stalks, soon after they sprout.  For the most part, they don't touch them.  Deer are extremely efficient consumers of field corn.  On our farm, they usually wait for it to get ripe and dry (mid to late October), then eat all the seeds from each cob, before starting the next one.  They leave the shucked cobs right there on the stalks, with the husks neatly peeled back.   I listened to a buck do that in early November last year.  I was in my elevated blind, on the down-wind edge of the plot.  When his vitals cleared the corn, I put my arrow thru them.   I used all of my senses on that one, before and after the kill.   As he approached, I got a real good whiff of that "rutty" smell, and I got to feel the warmth of the guts in my hands when I ripped them out after he fell.   

In contrast to deer, raccoons are the most destructive and least efficient users of corn that I know of. They knock down the stalks, and start nibbling the end of the field corn cobs, just as it starts to ripen (they hit sweetcorn about a week before it is ripe).  Other critters (such as wild turkeys and squirrels) clean up the knocked-down stuff, but leave it alone otherwise.  I once thought that the turkeys were the culprits hammering my corn, but it turns out that they only eat it when the coons knock it down for them.    

Fortunately, NY state allows land owners to trap and kill coons that are causing damage, and the coon is about the easiest fur-bearer that there is to trap.   They do require that the carcasses be buried or burned if taken prior to the opening of trapping season (I suppose to reduce the spread of diseases like rabies, mange, and distemper).  By aggressively trapping coons, starting at the end of the summer, I can get by with a lot less acreage of field corn, and still have it last well into hunting season.  Back in the days of high fur prices, trappers and hunters, did a very good job of controlling the coon population.   Now it is all up to me, coyotes, rabies, and distemper.   I can usually create a "coon-free" zone, by the end of archery season, using a combination of box traps, baited with peanut-butter coated marshmellos and dog-proof "beer can" style traps with a little cat food in the bottom.        

This year, I am hoping my 4-1/2 acres will again make it all the way thru the end of late ML season.  The same acreage just barely made it last year, with my neighbor killing a nice 2-1/2 year old 8-point buck on the last day of ML last year, on the edge of my larger plot (it expired right in the center of the plot).  That was in spite of the worst drought we have had in more than 50 years last summer.   I have not yet secured next years RR corn seed, so I am hoping that I can harvest and shuck a few bushels over the Christmas break this year, to use for next year's spring planting.  That should not be a problem, judging by all the rain we have been getting so far, and I fertilized a little heavier this year.  

I did an experiment with some RR corn that had passed about half way thru a buck a couple years ago.  Two little piles were all that remained of the gut pile after a week or so.   I planted (10) seeds in a tomato flat.  Not a single one sprouted.   I will definitely test the germination of any that I harvest from the cobs and shuck myself this winter, prior to planting.   I have heard of other folks who have done ok planting it, and they say it even carries the RR trait (I will test that also).  Usually I can gather enough free, leftover RR corn seed, for my own use, from friends and relatives but they have not come up with enough yet.  That stuff always germinates real well, even if I have stored it on a shelf in the basement for up to 5 years.                  

Edited July 21, 2017 by wolc123