On corn and in-laws
I put corn in my garden this year, not really with the expectation that I'd get a whole lot of ears out of it. I just thought it would be fun to give it a try.
I proudly pointed the plants out to my father-in-law, who grew up on a farm and visited us about a month ago. He is a lovely man but has a terrible habit of speaking the truth as he sees it. He pronounced my crop "anemic" and said it wouldn't do anything without a lot of Miracle-Gro.
Ever since, I've been a woman on a mission, out to prove I can grow corn without chemical fertilizers.
I've lavished my plants with $12's worth of compost "tea" from the Hamilton Crop Circle guy, who sells jugs of the low-tide smelling stuff at the JFX farmers' market and at Mill Valley General Store in Remington. I shelled out another $12 for an even fouler-smelling fish fertilizer called "Neptune's Harvest," also from Mill Valley.
I even dug up one straggler, put the skin from my rockfish dinner beneath the roots, and replanted it. (Isn't that how Squanto helped the Pilgrims show up their in-law naysayers?)
After several weeks of this special, stinky treatment, some of the stalks are taller than I am. (I'm only 5-foot-3, so maybe that's not saying much.) Other stalks are chest high. A few are just knee high. About half have sprouted ears. They're skinny-looking ears, but I think they're coming along. I like to think of them as svelte, not anemic.
I appeal to the more experienced corn-growers and spite-sowers out there. Is there anything else I should be doing for my corn?
Allegedly anemic corn. Photo by math-hubby
Comments
saving some money and your olfactory sense and using miracle-gro?
Posted by: bryanintowson | July 20, 2010 1:12 PM
Taking that 24 dollars and buying some corn? Or maybe putting it towards some professional help?
I haven't priced psychiatric help in a while, but I don't think $24 would buy me much couch time. LV
Posted by: JTK | July 20, 2010 1:16 PM
I am sure you know to be adding organic matter (compost, manure, leaf mold, anything that will decompose really) to the vegetable garden soil on a regular basis. That alone will help your corn. Corn is a high nitrogen feeder. I'm evil. I give it a balanced fertilizer feeding once when it is about 10 inches high. That's all.
Organic sources of nitrogen to give your corn a boost can be found here: http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/organicN.html
Posted by: Christopher C NC | July 20, 2010 1:43 PM
As Christopher says, corn needs LOTS of nitrogen. Urine is a good source... just dilute it in water first. (I know that sounds gross, but: Why flush it, when you can grow plants with it? And: Urine is sterile by the way.)
Posted by: Joseph Tychonievich | July 21, 2010 8:16 AM
Imagine the scene at the Thanksgiving table:
Hey, Dad. Enjoying that soup? I made it with that corn you said would never amount to anything. And guess how I got it to grow? Bodily fluids!
All kidding aside, I have read about using urine as fertilizer in Organic Gardening magazine. The magazine added a warning along the lines of, "Just don't let your neighbors see you collect it."
Posted by: Laura Vozzella | July 21, 2010 8:52 AM
Start earlier with the supplements ... Squanto buried the fish with the seeds, didn't he?
I am pretty sure he buried the in-laws. -- Susan
Posted by: Lazy Gardens | July 23, 2010 1:25 PM