My Peaches & Cream in back of the house is making nicely. About another week before meal time. P&C in field is silking & the HK is just starting to tassle and is pretty as a picture, tall too!

No rain in the past few days so I got out and plowed the southern peas. Ran out of energy and will finish them up late this afternoon.

Shot

Hope ya feel like getting some more pics up Shot ... sounds like it is purdy!
Pat, understand about the rain. Just got run back in by it yet again. Under severe t-storm warning til 8.
We did finally get 8 rows of HK planted yesterday just ahead of a little shower. Maybe it will come up running.

Well my hope for rain in June now appears to have been tempting fate. Rain nearly every day since. Maybe I'll wish for a pot of gold next.

The HK germinated fantastic, about 100%. Other varieties planted later in the endless rain have been terrible, 30-50%. Went over yesterday to start hoeing the HK. Doggone, that's a lot of work! Took an hour to do 150 foot of double-row and that was enough for one go(be another six visits at that rate). If the field had been plowed down in the fall instead of spring it would be much easier going - dealing with torn up and re-sprouting roots of bittersweet and endless clods of soggy sod is a bit discouraging. So far the corn is thriving in it though, amazingly. About 6-8 inches high.

Hi Pat & Cozy,

Another nice, hot day in the neighborhood.

Well, my first little batch of sweet corn made and did fairly well what the worms didn't eat up! My second field is ready now and my HK is making. At least it will give me/us a break between pickings.

Pat, you mentioned the rain, we have been getting an ample supply here, but not over abundance. Peas (white acre & purple hulls) are doing well. That is the second round that my wife and I planted. Purple hulls are blooming and setting peas. The first batch that #1 son planted, didn't do so well. Most got washed out, but enough to pick. What I noticed about the wash out, the HK held fast while the peas washed and they all had just been planted.

Glad to hear both of yalls HK germinated so well. I am fixing to ride around the garden and will try to remember to take the camera with me and post some pics later. Hope the knee is better. When I was a member of the Young Farmers Association and we built a barn or shelter for someone, it was always me and another guy that did the roof (us older guys, of course) and that required a lot of kneeling, so I can feel you pain.

My HK should be ready to start pulling (for cream corn) in another week, then have wife make a big pot of it with some biscuit and ice tea. yumm yumm

See yall later on today.

Shot

Okay, here are a couple of pics I took a little bit ago.

Path between HK & sweet corn.

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Peas (pinkeye purple hulls & white acres)

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Shot

Well my corn looks pretty sad next to all those photos! - I think there is 7 plants all together... planted by my 4yr old. ; )
I'm sad to read you all are not doing the potato bin thing this year... any news from sinfonian? I got mine planted late but with the right kind of spuds this year (russets) We'll see I guess.

Boy that sure is some fine lookin corn Mr Shot! How tall is the HK right now? My Silver Queen is about 7 ft I am guessing & tasseled about all it`s going to do I think. Seeing a few ears on it.

How close is your spacing between the HK plants also?

i love this thread, thanks for letting us eavesdrop.

Rain again last night! If we didn't have light soil here, all the crops would be rotted. There was some blue sky on the horizon this morning.......

Fabulous as usual, Mr Shot sir. You must have frozen peas still left from last year, with such a vast amount as you grow. I'm thinking on getting a chest freezer soon, and put up a bunch of the HK at the milk stage. Even though it isn't sweet, I like it in chili and chowder and so on.

The knee is a lot better, thanks; only slightly a cripple now......

Hi all!

MxBarbie, keep in mind that I have an ample supply of real estate to plant. Won't show you the pitiful pics of the first planting of peas... :( Funny how the field corn didn't wash as the peas did.

Hobbiest, that is tall for Silver Queen. Even though mine is Peaches & Cream sweet corn, most of it did not get that high. The worms sure love that sweet corn... lots of protein.... The HK has really done well with some of it being 10 - 12 feet high. Seems funny to have to reach up to grasp some of the ears. The sweet corn is ready now, but he HK will be another week or two. It was all planted with the planters behind the tractor so I imagine the spacing is 10 - 12 inches apart. Thanks for the flowers... :)

Mauirose, thanks! I love commuicating with other gardeners on subjects that I know a little about. Ain't no use in ease dropping. Just come on in....

Pat, we still have peas & corn in the freezers from last season. We have two chest freezers in the garage and a side by side in the kitchen. We actually give away most of our crop. Have a friend coming over this morning to get a mess of sweet corn before if gets too hard. I'm looking forward to gathering some HK in about a week or so. A big pot of creamed HK, biscuits & ice tea... man, it don't get no better than that. After it has matured I will pull some ears to shell for next season. I just save the center flat kernels and not the round ones on the end. Looking forward to grinding some up for grits & meal, too.
We have had an ample supply of rain so enough to pull us through the season. I think the peas do better when it is dry.
Glad to hear the knee is better.

Gotta get dressed and do the weekend chores. All have a great weekend.

Shot

Do you reckon the center kernels make better plants? I'll bear that in mind for next year...

Well, we got it about all hoed now. Today we broadcast field beans and raked them in down the wide rows, my idea being that a dense growth of beans will hold down the weeds and maybe give a little nitrogen to the corn late at the filling out stage. Then after we harvest the corn I hope to till in the beans and plant winter wheat in november. The root-mass of the beans perhaps will provide a good wheat crop next year. Heavy rain this afternoon just perfect to set those beans up for a fast sprout. Brought the camera but forgot to take pics of the chain-gang at work - gotta remember next time!

Hi Pat,

The reason I only use the center kernels is because I have old wore out Cole planters and the corn plates won't pick up the round kernels. My nephew one year found a good price on seed corn. Turned out most were round and he had a poor crop of corn. Don't always pay to economize... The way I get my center flat kernels is to break the ear in half and shell from the center or else beat the ear against something to knock off the end kernels.

Fine business on the hoeing and broadcasting the beans. Hoeing is a lot of work - no matter how you cut it. Don't know if you will benefit from the nitrogen or not as I always thought that it was an after thing.

Pat, I drove my cart alongside the HK field this morning and pulled enough from the cart to give to my sister. Sure she will have it for supper. Just not sure if she will invite me over. :(

This weekend am planning to mow down the rest of the sweet corn as everyone has all they want. Pinkeyes are making and should be about another week on them.

I can relate to forgeting the camera as I was going to take a picture of an ear of HK shucked and post it. A mind is a terrible thing to waste......

Shot

Shot

My cowpeas are about as tall as they'll get though they don't have many blossoms. The pea-sheller I ordered arrived Tuesday, and it took a few minutes to figure out how it works -- got the small one since I couldn't swing $200 for the electric one. But I'm hoping the cowpeas will shell quicker with the sheller using my mixer as the driver than trying to shell them with my arthritic hands. The literature swears it will shell limas, and I have those growing, too, Willow Leaf Poles, which have small beans. So I'm hoping if I blanch them in the pods first as recommended, they'll shell without mushing.

Glad you're staying busy. We've got the heat in Georgia now, don't we! I'm hoping my main crop of maters straightens out now that summer's here -- they look pretty scraggly and badly need water. All that Spring rain just stopped, and now the soil's drying out. Got my soaker hose cut and fixed and ready to go out later today to soak them good!

I'm a few miles from Pat. We've had plenty of moisture this spring, to put it mildly. With our well-drained soil (again, putting it mildly) we can't have too much moisture.

Over the past week we've had some sun to go with the moisture. Not much heat but some nice sunshine. As a result the corn, and nearly everything else, has put on a growth spurt. Here is a pic of the RI White Cap (aka Narraganset). Tillers (suckers) which you can see sprouting from the base are supposed to be a sign of vigor. It's looking like it will make "knee high by the 4th of July). I don't have much info on the ultimate height. One source says 4 to 6 feet, which seems short for a field corn. We shall see.

Jim

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Hi Anney,

Glad to hear that you got a pea sheller. Did you get it from Moultrie, Georgia? As soon as I retired and moved back to Georgia my wife ordered her one. We have really got our money's worth out of it! No telling how many bushes of peas have been run through it. Reminds me of the old wringer type washing maching. Same principle. Don't know about running butterbeans through it as we have never done it. My wife enjoys shelling them by hand while watching tv. (she is 9 years younger than me) I know you will enjoy yours and it is a life saver! I have enclosed a photo of ours at the end of this post.

Sorry to hear about your arthiritis. Guess that is one thing I have been blessed not to have.

We have certainly have had the heat! I try to get out early and do what I can before it gets too hot. We need rain also very badly. My wife has 3 raised beds with tomatoes in them. They are maturing and she is hoping enough will come off at the same time so she can can some to can. They are off limits to me...

Jim, I see on the weather channel where you have been getting a lot of rain in that area. Funny how it never seems to balance out... either too much or too little. That is some pretty corn even though not a whole lot of it. Don't know anything about the variety. I keep my "library" small so I can concentrate on it. Wonder if it is raining up there now.

Shot

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Shot

No, I ordered my pea sheller from a place in Dothan AL. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the one I got will do the job -- yours looks twice as large! And I must say, THAT's the way to shell beans! Outside in the shade where you can toss the hulls back into the soil or a compost heap. I have a wooden table set up outside right by the garden, where I suppose I could shell beans if I run an extension cord out there, and shuck corn. It will be nice not to have the vegetable leavings in the house!

But I am very discouraged about the plants in my garden. It's only the first of July, and many of them look like they usually do in late August, yellowing leaves, not much new growth (tomatoes), only a few ripe ones, beans yellowing at the bottom. I think the heavy rain in May and early June has triggered all kind of problems. Now it's too dry. The cowpeas look the healthiest.

Well, I'll keep my fingers crossed that things will improve now that I have the soaker system set up.

I also took the Weed Wacker to trim the field weeds (all kinds of plants that aren't on the lawn) between the rows, and it certainly works well!

Our corn is younger than yours or Jimster's, which sure looks nice! We're growing all Sugar Dots this year, since it was so delicious last year.

Anyway, that's a good-looking young man feeding the beans into that sheller, and the other guy ain't bad either! Take care of yourself.

Not only did it rain like all get out here today - across the water from Jimster - we had a romping hail storm! First summer hail I've ever seen here, and 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Just pounding down, thought it was going to break the new greenhouse roof, lucky I used laminated glass. I just heard somebody had some of their roof panes broken. All the squash leaves look like they were blasted with a celestial shotgun.

Went over to the corn patch, damage was less than I expected - about one out of ten plants flattened and some leaves shredded. Fortunately it wasn't like out west where the corn fields get flattened. Could of made ice cream if I had known and put out a tarp to catch the ice!

What's next?

The previous pic of my corn shows one hill of the 3 sisters garden I'm trying this year. There are 24 hills all together. Stupidly, I did not over plant and thin to 5 or 6 per hill. So, out of the 6 seeds I planted in each hill, I ended up with 2 to 5 per hill. Oh, well. Fortunately I don't depend on this for my food supply. If I get enough to play with, trying to make meal, I'll be happy. I just kick myself for not being smarter.

How long does corn seed remain viable? I have several pounds and hope some can be sown next year. If not, I will grind it. It won't be wasted.

Squash was planted a week ago and emerged in 4 days. Beans were planted yesterday.

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How often have we heard, "The weather is strange this year"? Well, this year it really is strange. For about 2 1/2 months now the temperature has been stuck in about a ten degree range between mid 50's and mid 60's night and day. Only about 4 or 5 days were without rain. I'm glad we escaped the hail Pat had. Hail storms are really rough on gardens.

Jim

Anney, probably wouldn't have any peas if it were not for the pea sheller. I am sure your's will work fine. Keep me posted for future reference. I made a bench and we sit the pea sheller on it and a tub to catch the hulls, all in the shade of two large pecan (peecan) trees. Off season I keep it in the barn wrapped up in two large trash bags.

Thanks for the compliments on the kin folk running the pea sheller. The one on the left is my niece's husband and the one on the right is my wife's brother and is single. He lives in Jacksonville, Florida and is double retired, Air Born Army Ranger and mail carrier. He and his ex-wife and best of friends and she will keep his OLD dog when he comes up this season to pick & shell peas. Hot weather don't bother him like it does me.... guess being a mail carrier helped out.

Pat, sorry to hear about the hail storm. That must have been something! Such can be disaterous to veggies and personal property. My wife has a Toyota Highlander that she keeps in the garage.
Pat, gonna mow down the remainder of the sweet corn tomorrow. This morning my sister and her boyfriend (she is in mid 70's and he is in early 80's) came over and got some HK. She phoned earlier and said some of the corn was too hard. See how bad we need rain??? I took a ride around the garden late today and the HK looks pretty bad. In the morning, the wife and I are planning on pulling some. Peas (southern) are doing pretty good.

Jim, that is a fine looking garden you have there! I don't really know how long corn will last stored. I use mine (HK) the next year. Shell it in a 5 gallon bucket and sprinkle a little malathion in with it.

It hasn't rained down here in I don't remember when. Monday there is about a 50% chance, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Hope everyone has a super 4th of July and appreciate that we are able to grow our gardens.

Shot

Great thread! Love the pictures and the discussion on weather and corn types. Reminds me of going to my uncle's farm to pull Silver Queen when it was ready.

As for the swelling on the knee, the best remedy is an ice massage. Freeze a Dixie cup of water, then peel the paper back about halfway (leave the bottom on to insulate your fingers) and slide the ice pop around over the top and front of the knee until the skin is bright pepto-bismal pink and numbish. It will sting and burn for a bit in the process but once you hit the pink and numb phase it really does cut the pain and swelling. Be sure to wrap the calf with a towel or the ice water running down your leg will get sloppy and irritating!

I don't have the kind of production you guys do...just an "L" of raised beds for herbs, beans, squash, tomatoes, okra, onions, etc, etc, etc. I gave up on corn because I just don't have the room and the one time I tried it here the wind flattened it out. Right now everything is doing fine except my okra is just sitting there looking tiny. I'm ready for it to shoot up and produce!!.

"...the one time I tried it here the wind flattened it out."

I wish you hadn't said that. It's the thing I am most concerned about because the light soil here doesn't provide good anchorage and we do get high winds at times.

Jim

WOW! Fantastic job Shot! Gorgeous Mate!
Sorry to hear about the hail Pat but glad it did no more damage than 10 percent on the corn ... could have been nastier. Hope the rest recovers too.
jimster Thanks for sharing the description/time frame. I have always meant to 3 sisters but never can 'member :( Please post progress updates.
In the same boat aground as Anney and Shot rain wise as somebody done put the plug in the clouds and turned the heat up :( I don't think that it has rained in close to 3 weeks now. Fifty percent chance tomorrow ahead of Monday for Shot.
Seems that the only things growing around here require the use of a weedeater or a hoe. Getting some good stuff out of the beds and mater patch that I have been watering but the corn in the fields are just sitting there plum mad.

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It sure is sad to see the corn sitting in cozie's beautiful field waiting for rain. Anyone know a rain dance?

I would trade weather with him if I could. After all, I can water my little plot with a hose if need be.

Hey, there's an idea! Weather trading. Sounds like something Al Gore might be interested in.

Jim

Cozy, even too dry that is great looking dirt. Yeah, Jim's idea would be a great boon to agriculture (though I have a strong hunch Jim that we aren't going to be getting too much rain for the rest of the summer).

Finished the last of the hoeing yesterday, and sowing all the beans for the cover between rows. I hope it works well to suppress the weeds for the season because I don't think I'm going to be able to muster the gang again until next year. It looks real good now, field is very clean, corn is growing strong and has recovered pretty well from the hailing, and we are getting good sunshine now. Amazingly good growth considering how wet the ground has been, luckily the soil in that area is a nice silty loam that drains excess water but also stays moist in hot weather.

Here is a shot I took about an hour after the hail-storm:

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Hey Granite! Glad to see you joined us in the thread. We are just an ole bunch of garderners that love what we do. Feel free to chime right in.

Cozy, that is some good looking dirt, maybe needs some water, but who doesn't. With them long rows I ASSUME that you have a tractor. Pigweed took over my original pea patch so mowed most of it down Saturday. The new batch seems to be doing fine. What's left I will pick and shell for seed next year.

Weather trading......... hmmmmm.... that is a thought!

Pat, thought everyone (except Texas) was getting plenty of rain....... see how vain I am.

I mowed all the sweet corn down and yesterday my wife picked all the HK she wanted. After her getting it pulled, shucked, creamed, blanched and put up, she decided that enough was enough, so I will turn the family and friends loose in it. There is about 2 acres of it, so not worried they will not be any left for seed or some for grinding grits & corn meal. That is what I am looking forward to.

Pat, you sound like I do with mustering up help. When the peas mature (about an acre) I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding family and friends to help pick them. About time to break out and clean up the ole pea sheller. Had some pretty Ford Hook Limas if we just get some rain to finish them off. Have 4 rows about a 1000 feet long each. As pointed out, we have a 50% chance of rain and right now the yard needs the water worse than anything. My wife has been gathering tomatoes and maybe she will have enough for canning.

Hope all had a great 4th. We just stayed home and wife gathered corn & tomatoes.

Shot

My goodness, 4000' of limas! I've got a few starting to flower in the greenhouse - lucky I did some in there because this year there was little chance of getting a crop outdoors. I sowed some in the corn patch about a week ago, havn't sprouted yet.

Mr Shot, having the advantage of observing one locale over a good period of time, would you say that summers are drier there than when you were a kid? Is the climate drier in general?

Pat, summers have been dry for as long as I remember. I remember the dirt was so dry that it was like powder.
BTW: my sister sent me over a pot of HK cooked like I love it. We had some for dinner and I finished it off as a snack a few minutes ago. :) It don't get any better than that!

Shot

Sure am looking forward to some creamed corn.

How do y'all cut the kernels off the cob, especially when doing large quantities for freezing? Is there some specialty gadget for that? I suppose I could freeze them on the cob, too. Takes up more space but maybe the quality would be better....

pnbrown

I've tried a lot of gadgets for getting corn off the cob for freezing and found that an electric knife using just one blade does the best job for me. You can quickly turn it around and scrape the cob with the non-cutting side.

I also freeze the unblanched corn on the cob with the husks still on to protect them from freezer burn. You can cut off the tops and the bottoms to size them. Then I pack them into gallon-sized baggies and put those in larger plastic garbage bags, easy to find in the chest freezer.

Pat, the local church sells a potato peeler that works fine, but all you can use it for is cutting corn off the cob (potatoes will dull it). My wife also has slicer with rechangeable plates for different depts. A friend of mine has something like a fish scraper that she uses and get it all in one pass, but it rips the corn and makes look like mush. Lots of different ways and gadgets. My niece takes a knife and cuts it off the cob.

Anney, have never tried your method, but it sounds great. We have an electric knife which I generally use to cut up pork ribs. Photo attached.

Shot

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I'm looking at that picture, with the yellow handles of the tongs inviting me to grab them and help myself to a rib, or two, or three, or....

Jim

Jim, I will take that as a compliment sir. They were deicious. The ones on the right has Sonny's sweet bbq sauce and the ones on the left were plain. I like hot bbq sauce on mine. I use to could eat half of that plate full, but now about 1 rib is all I can muster. :(

Shot

You took my meaning as intended, Shot. I can tell from the picture that those were mighty good ribs, just the way I like them.

Jim

cozy & shot

You gettin' rain today? We've had about a half-inch so far and I'm wondering about the rest of the state.

shot

Those ribs look delicious! Ever been to a North Carolina pig-pickin'? Not just ribs but the whole hog is served! I'll take the ribs if nobody's havin' a pig-pickin' though. Real high on my list of cravings is also some boiled peanuts, don't like 'em hot, just salty. Gotta find a farmer's market nearby that sells the peanuts raw...

My three sisters experiment this year has been a success so far. Better than expected. Corn is knee high, squash is up, beans are emerging today. Everything looks nice.

Today I found eel grass and rock weed washed up at a boat landing and scooped up four barrels of it for mulch. This stuff is the best because there is nothing in it which grows on land, no weeds whatsoever, and it contains every mineral there is. I sprayed it well with fresh water to rinse off excess salt water, then distributed it around the garden. Wet weather seems to be abating and this mulch will help keep the garden moist. Later it will add nutrients and tilth to my poor soil.

Jim

Anney, the rain has missed us completely! As the old saying goes, "dry as a powder house". I am really glad that you got some rain. Hopefully, mine will pull through as my corn is done and just leaves my peas which can handle a lot of dry weather.

Jim, sounds like you are on top of dry season with the eel grass and such. Have never had any experience with it, but then we live a long ways from salt water, but we moved here from Neptune Beach, Florida and 3 blocks from the ocean, but no room to garden there.
Glad to hear the experiment went good. We will expect some pictures of your success.

Shot

Good deal, Jim. Been having a heck of time here getting squash to germinate. Also I guess I planted some of the beans around corn to early as some are higher than the corn now....

Started raining here yesterday around 4pm and continued steady until 6am. Must have been an inch or more. The ground was just starting to dry out so it's not completely unwelcome. What a season! Peas are just past peak whereas in a normal year they'd be gone by. Potato vines are five or six feet long, really thriving and few beetles. Looks to be a super potato harvest. Cabbage moth population is low and late, should have grown a lot more brassicas. I started and put out about 30-40 pepper plants this year, they are struggling. Tomato plants are growing surprisingly well, setting a lot of fruit. If it will get warm for a month or two we won't know what to do with all the food.....

Perhaps you folks would like to know a little about the corn I am growing. I only know a little myself but what I know is interesting. Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite garden books.

"Many superb varieties are not readily available because they have narrow adaptations to particular regions. 'Narragansett Indian Flint', for example, is said to be the corn that was given to the Pilgrims by the Indians, the corn that made the jonnycakes that were eaten at the first Thanksgiving. However, 'Narrangansett Indian Flint' (also known as 'Rhode Island White Cap') has a narrow ecological adaptation. It likes the quasi-Mediterranean climate of Southern New England. It is too long-season for Northern New England and too heat intolerant for the Southeast or Midwest. It is not widely enough adapted and not popular enough to warrant its production as a seed crop via normal channels.

'Narragansett' makes wonderful jonnycakes -- the very best, I'm told. I don't know if they are the best possible, but I've tried them and they are truly delicious. 'Narragansett' also makes rich, full-bodied cereal and polenta. But you can't buy the seed from commercial suppliers. If you garden in the Midwest, of course, you don't care, because you can't grow the corn anyway. But, given our current system for mass-producing food and seed crops, the fact that you can't grow the corn in the Midwest now means that you can't grow it in southern New England, either -- unless you can save your own seed."

Carol Depp, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties

Jim, sounds like you have some unique corn. From the article it is too hot down in Georgia to grow it. Some pics would always be nice.

Shot

Jim, I've got 30 or 40 plants of the RI going. The late planting time coincided with the unfavorable weather to produce poor germination. Hopefully it'll be enough to produce a good seed stock for next year (plus the rest of what you sent me), as well as a bit to try out for eating quality.

Looks like more rain now.

Ladies & Gentlemen....... just got 7/10 inch of rain!
woot woot

Shot

That's good news, Shot. I'm happy to hear it.

I'm thinking now is the time to go mushroom hunting, the way the weather is here. Seriously. There are lots of good mushrooms in the woods around here and wet weather brings them out.

Jim

AWWW MAN! I missed the ribs :(
I agree with Jim, those yellow handles look mighty tempting indeed! Empty plate, iced tea ... looks lovely!
Congrats on the rain Anney and Shot! I know that it was welcomed.
I reckon I know what it is like to look up into the eye of a storm for it rumbled all around today, flood warnings were posted and I finally got less than a tenth of an inch. And I think that was where it splashed from just up the road. LOL
Rain does some strange dancing here but there is still a 70 percent chance tonight so just maybe ...

"Rain does some strange dancing here..."

Here too. I drove no more than 10 miles up the road for dinner and went from dry road to sprinkles to hard rain and then back again. It happens all the time.

Seventy percent chance is not bad. Here's to a good rain for 'ya.

Jim

The corn is still growing at an impressive rate. I feel lucky. Rain is predicted for tomorrow but, when I think a crop needs water, I don't take the risk. I watered today. I applied some nitrogen too, in the form of dissolved calcium nitrate, because the color of the large, new leaves is on the pale side.

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Has there been rain in Georgia?

Jim

Hello Jim! That is looking FANTASTIC!
There ain't never did been no rain here yet! I tell ya, the deer are eating my okra leaves ( planted a patch across the road just for seed) and everything else is eating any tomato they can get to.
It is sad. I have given up on the field stuff and am trying to just pick a spot or 2 to try and tend to.
Funny that this little patch of Silver King was planted in the mud while it was raining but hasn't seen any since :(

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Then there is this bed. I know, it is impossible ... but it is doable ;) 4x8 bed. Silver Queen planted 4/sq ft with cucumbers planted 2/sq ft on each end ( taking up 8 of the 32 sq ft) = 24 * 4 = 96 7 ft tall stalks of Silver Queen ;)
It amazes me what you can grow in the space of a sheet of plywood.

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Looks like my corn crop for the year. Except for another little patch that I need to go water :(
Please keep updating!!

Morning, folks.

Cozy, that is mighty densely planted corn! I've got some asian corn in the home garden almost that tightly planted.

I went over to the big field yesterday (forgot to take the camera, as usual). It's doing very well, the live cover of beans germinated good and looks to beat out the next crop of weeds. Rained all last night, just as needed. The stalks are about the same hight as Jim's, not surprisingly.

Part of the idea for this crop is to have a fall corn festival for families and school-kids. I was thinking about building a masonry outdoor bread oven, but I now realize that is way too much work for something that will hardly get used (going to build it at home, though). Instead, for baking the cornbread outdoors, I was thinking of having a big bonfire to create a big pit of coals and then if I can find a metal drum and cut one end out, put it in the pit and some coals on top and bake the corn bread in there.

Y'all suppose that would work?

Mornin' all!
That is some purty pictures! All my corn (except HK) has made and mowed down. I'm leaving the HK alone to mature and dry on the stalk then I'm gonna gather some and try my hand at grinding some grits & meal. Finally I'm gonna gather some ears for shelling for seeds.

A few days ago we got over ½ inch of needed rain. Not too worried about it as just my peas has to finish up. The pinkeyes are making and some been picked. The white acres are blooming now.

Remember corn loves nitrogen & water. Hard to buy pure (34%) nitrogen anymore since the bombing out in Oklahoma.

The deer are getting brave as they are coming out before dark for supper. Guess I'm gonna have to break out the guns... even a wild turkey was out back of the house a few daya ago. It was a hen so I let her go as she may have eggs somewhere. Didn't see any little ones with her.

Love this thread, but I'm thinking that we may have to start a new one as this one is getting quite lenghty.

Thanks all for posting and keeping us up to date on your gardens.

Shot

Hey Folks!
Wondering how all are making out. Still under a quarter inch of rain here as a total for the past 4+ weeks so not much good stuff to show.
The bed of corn is ... unreal and still growing.

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And I 'membered what we are missing from last year. Shot's sunflowers! I did plant a patch this year because of his pics last year but they are not doing much either. Just a few here and there in the beds.

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Hope you folks are fairing much better!

COZY, that is some fine looking corn you have there and a nice sunflower too. I did not plant any sunflowers this year, mostly on account of my health. Guess you will have to pick up the slack. There are some nice fields around me, but those are mostly to attract doves as the season opens the 1st Saturday in September at high noon.

Shot