24,795 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening






The ones I can see in the pic all show damaged fruit, fruit that is either distorted or has stopped growing for whatever reason - usually incomplete pollination or insects. Far as the plant is concerned they are done and it is in the process of aborting or dropping them. So that is a normal response for the husk to pop like that. Remove them and toss.
Dave


I guess I want to better understand the situation, to come up with the best solution. Is space an issue? Will it be necessary to grow two crops in the same space, or can you succession-plant corn after another vegetable in a different space?
Personally, even if I had the season to do so, I would not follow corn with corn, for reasons of fertility. That's a good general rule of thumb for any vegetable, not following like with like... it also avoids or reduces insect & disease problems.
I prefer the succession crop method mentioned by Dennis, following a fast-maturing Spring crop (such as peas) with the second corn planting. To gain time, you could also plant them in a block of peas or bush beans, when the plants begin to flower. By the time the corn gets large enough to shade the peas/beans, they are already done... and the dying legumes would provide mulch & nitrogen. Hey, you might even find a few extra dry beans when you harvest the corn!
Oh, and lest I forget the first corn planting... you could follow that with a Fall crop of peas, brassicas, or garlic.
Haven't tried following potatoes with corn, but it might be interesting. When you hill the potatoes, plant the corn in the furrows. Then when you dig the potatoes (carefully!) hill up soil around the corn. My soil is too heavy for potatoes, or I'd try it myself.
Is the size of the crop an issue, or is the object just to spread out the harvest? How much corn & how much space are we talking about? You could just inter-plant two varieties in the same plot, one early, one late. You could use transplants for the early variety, but if they were too large, they might stunt the growth of the late variety planted between them. Personally, I would direct-sow the early variety, and direct-sow the late variety between them as soon as they had 2-3 leaves. Most of the main-season corns are taller than the early varieties anyway, but I would choose both varieties carefully to emphasize this difference, so the late crop would not be excessively shaded.
I'd have to agree with Wayne regarding the super-early corn varieties (such as the "polar" series). Their earliness seems to come at the expense of poor quality. I used to sow "Honeycomb" as my first planting, it's maturity is somewhere between early & main-season... don't know if it is still available. "Ruby Queen" has done well for me as a late planting, it seems to ear up well in cooler temps... I was picking it the night before frost last year.

Our corn should be ready to harvest en early July which would make a second planting a litle iffy for harvest before winter. I had a thought of planting new seed in the spaces between plants when they tassle. Then when we harvest just cut out the old plants with the new ones well established at about a foot tall,anyone got any input. This sound damn near genius to me. any opinions?


It's between 6 and 8 inches deep. I've filled it with old potting soil from pots I wanted to fill with fresh potting soil, a couple wheel barrels my native sandy soil then added some cotton burr compost I had on hand and a little peat moss. I planted my nine slips and covered the surface with straw have not watered in yet as it was starting to rain. Decided to let Mother nature water it. Will check moisture tomorrow to see if maybe need more water or more drainage holes. Thank you all for your info, and I will let you know results. Yvonne

This is how i cook Bitter MELON. Clean the Melon ,removed the insidesmthen chop it cross cut into quarter inch pieces remove the seeds,stir fry with onions and crushed garlics, seasoned it 3 tbsp salted sauce, then add a scrumbled 3 pcs.eggs.Do not over cook.Enjoy eating with Rice .

ltran,
Looks fantastic! I'm kinda bummed. I had gotten bitter melon seeds because my mom really likes these melons because they're really good for you. I started them inside, but none of my seeds germinated and it was getting late and I didn't want to sow more because I don't have that many. Never grown them, are the seeds difficult to germinate? Any tried sowing seeds from store bought bitter melons? Ya, we mainly eat them in vegetable stirfrys. They're great with asian eggplants and a black bean sauce.

<we did get a few days randomly around frost temps. but everything else is growing great my tomatoes are almost 4ft tall and flowering and transplanted the same time>
The difference in tolerance between tomatoes and peppers for cold exposure and cold soil temps is like night and day. No comparison as peppers are easily stunted by it, tomatoes aren't. That's the main reason why peppers are normally planted out much later than tomatoes are. They require 20 degree warmer air temps and at least 10 degree warmer soil temps.
So the odds are your peppers have been stunted by such cold exposure. If the weather cooperates and heats up fast they may recover but crop will likely be late and reduced.
I'd give them a kick-start of something stronger than compost tea. Good stuff but only effective if you have a really good and active soil food web in your soil. If you want to stay organic look into some of the fish emulsion/kelp blends. If synthetics are ok, a diluted 1/2 strength dose of MG All Purpose should do the trick.
Dave


Wow! I wonder how they can possibly justify that cost given what it is made of? For that price you could buy 100 rakes, a Troy-Bilt tiller, or 2 Mantis mini-tillers and not have to supply your own motor. But like jnfarm said my planter and my tillers more than fill my needs.
Dave


Lots of rain in central NY. My veggies aren't dying but they aren't growing either. We could use a break from all the wet weather (but it doesn't look like we're going to get it. The county just south of us got 4 inches of rain yesterday!
That is true all the way to Chicago and beyond. in the Detroit area, this qualifies as a very wet May-June. I think we have had 10 inches in the last month.