Thursday, July 28, 2011

1st ears of corn

Luke showing off his husking skills
The corn is starting to come on. We picked the first three ears this evening. The first was perfectly full, perfectly ripe. The other two, picked from the edge of our little plot weren't fully filled out. Many kernels hadn't filled in. I understand this to mean that those kernels weren't pollinated. I find it amazing that there is a strand of silk per kernel and each of those silks needs to be pollinated. This is why you need to plant corn in blocks. I've read that, because corn is wind pollinated, it is best to plant at least four rows, by ten or so feet. This size block allows everything to get a good dose of pollen.

Our block of corn is undersized this year. I expect those ears in the center of the block to do okay and those on the edges to suffer. I'll happily suffer through a couple weeks of full and partially full ears of fresh corn.

1 comment:

  1. Yum! That's a good-lookin ear of corn! We just got back from a 2-week vacation to the Southeast & Southwest. We filled our bellies with as much fresh picked watermelon, cucumbers & corn on the cob as we could. We hope our corn ripens before first frost!

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