Thanks for the useful information. Telling exactly when your corn is prime is a difficult process ( for a dummy like me anyway ).

Hope you dont mind, but I posted this to my FB as I have quite a few gardening friends on there.

makete - No I don't mind at all that you shared to facebook. I am glad you found the information helpful. I don't know if you used it or not, but I think there is a "Share to facebook" button below each post to make posting to facebook easier. Thanks.

LOL. Found it, used it, and posted it.

Thanks again.

This info will come in handy soon. My corn is just now doing the pollinating thing.

Cant wait for fresh, home grown, corn!!!!

Kris,

Thanks. That was very useful, especially the pictures.

Question: Do you hand pollinate the silks, or just let the Wind do it alone? If you hand pollinate, when, how, and how often do you do it?

thanks,

Raybo

Raybo - Thanks for the feedback and excellent question. It just so happens that I posted a how to on my blog on hand pollination a few weeks ago. See the link below and let me know if you have any more questions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand Pollinating Corn

makete - Good deal, there is nothing like fresh grown corn. The taste is so much better than the grocery store. Good luck and let us know how yours does.

Kris,

What is the "window" you have found to be most effective when doing the hand pollination? Then from your start date. how often and for how many consecutive days do you perform this manual procedure?

thanks,

Raybo

Raybo - I normally start hand pollinating when the silks are fully emerged and the tassels have plenty of pollen anthers. I continue hand pollinating every evening for about a week. I don't try and grab all the anthers at one time, I might grab a handful from one stalk and then sprinkle that on 4 to 5 ears at a time.

I can't really say if what I am doing is overkill or if it is more effective than just shaking the stalks. It is what I have always done and I have had pretty good luck this way. Keep in mind I am only growing 50 to 100 stalks at a time so this is manageable for me. Obviously nature does a pretty good job of pollinating with wind. When you have acres of corn planted wind will work because no matter where the pollen blows it will hit a silk. Hope this helps.

From the time you pollinate the silks, about how long til the corn is ready to harvest?

Nice step by step demo of your technique of hand pollinating corn. Much thanks.

makete - I don't have an exact time frame, but if I had to guess I would say somewhere between 2-3 weeks after I hand pollinate. There could be huge variation in this depending on your growing climate, rain, sun, etc. This is just roughly what I experience.