I had a bad corn year also. Part of my problem was that I planted later than normal, due to very wet soil, impossible to till until several weeks later than normal. Then, I had very hot temperatures during my normal growing season.

My early (cooler season) corn made almost nothing for me (did not germinate or pollinate well, and the damn rabbits chewed off a lot of my tender plants, and I had to replant a lot and shoot a bunch of bunnies). My late season corn matured way sooner than expected (65-70 days) instead of the standard 90 days. It produced at most only one good ear per stalk, where I have usually got two good ears per stalk.

Oh well, I still froze 10% more corn than I did last year (we ate way less fresh corn than last year, as the harvest season was very compressed). Not a big problem, as we still have leftover frozen corn from last year, in spite of having given away a bunch.

Honey bees do nothing to pollinate corn. Corn is totally wind pollinated.

Tom

Joel, having grown corn successfully for as many years as you have, and if you are satisfied that the seed were o.k., I would have to guess that it is the season as Tom observed. I do not know why some years are like that, we have also had a very strange year weather wise here, but I have managed to get some pretty good produce. I did not plant any corn though.

In the past, I have always planted corn in a single, straight row(s), thinned it after it was 6 inches to a foot tall and never had any pollination problems at all.

Beyond that, being experienced, you know that corn likes a lot of nitrogen and usually responds well to being side dressed when the ears begin to form. I kinda think that plants may have something inside that governs what they think that they can carry to maturity. I have seen many kinds of plants that start shedding or aborting fruits and /or leaves if the weather gets too dry. Your corn may be doing what it somehow thinks is best. Just a thought.

Good luck with what you do get Joel.
Bill P.

Thanks, Tom & Bill.

Bill, I can't say that I controlled everything in the garden scientifically. There may have been some variations - water, the amount of available soil nutrients... hard to say, you know.

I just put the question out because I did not think water or soil nutrients were the factors, necessarily. So I just wanted to see if other were noticing a reduced corn-ear yield. Pollination came to mind, but I dunno. Could be heat - but a lot of corn varieties, of course, do very well in heat as long as water is supplied. ?????

Joel

joel,

i had a similar experience here in NY. i planted "spring treat", new seed, and grew it the same way i do every year. the stalks seemed thinner (tho this might be my imagination, as i remember thinking this other years.) the ears were very small, and few plants produced more than one ear. i commented on this to my husband the other day. glad to know it wasn't just me....

debbie

I had 8 plantings of corn. The last one is just now ready. All have been splendid. #4 bi-color was a bit milky but otherwise they were all normal.

I have planted sweet corn for close to 50 years and helped in the garden well before that. I have only gotten one nice ear per stalk 90% of the time through dozens of varieties.

I agree with Wayne_5, any more than 1 ear per plant is the exception, not the rule.

I live in pa east of pittsburgh and planted corn for the first time a hybrid from gurneys the plants themselves were huge 2 inches in diameter and 8 to 9 ft. tall they developed 2 ears on every stalk the ears were mostly small and only filled out about 2/3s the length of the ear it was really dry for a month then had a lot of rain

I plant corn in single row and hand pollinate.Every plant will produce one nice ear.But this year ears were shorter and some were with chewie seeds.Pollen from the tassels were not enough compared to past years.The diffrence this year was less of rain and the hotter days.Could this be due to lack of normal rain (not ebough moisture) and excessive hot days?

chaman: maybe your situation is similar. Yes, some of my corn ears were shorter than usual, too. And I'm thinking that if you hadn't hand pollinated, maybe your yield would have been lower too.

We broke some 100-year heat records around this general region. I selected my seed was in terms of what our "normal" year's temps are (in fact, that's what the farmers' and garden supply places stock around here), so even though corn/maize descends from very hot-climate ancestors, my varieties may have been bred for the shorter season and slightly cooler climate that is more the norm here. That's what I'm speculating, anyway.

Joel

Joel

stevei48 What was the variety you planted from Gurney's? And how was the taste? I started my first planting under the lights and would not bother doing it again. Although most of the plants survived transplanting they were small and the second planting almost caught up to them.

I planted GurneyÂs gota have it again this year. Did great last year with a majority of stalks having two good ears. It is too sweet for me and not enough good old corn taste but the family requested it so it went in.

I am in Raleigh, NC area and the crop was non-existent this year. Even with good soil and watering it all turned brown and died as it was growing ears. Only reason I can see was the heat. 76 days of 90 or above and lots of triple digit days with weeks of nights in the 80Âs. I noticed that no other gardens in the area (that I can see from driving by) had any either, they all burned up.

Tomatoes and peppers are still going strong so we do have something to eat. Fall planting will be going in this weekend.

Okay, but if weather is changing for the warmer in a lot of localities (even if it's just a degree or two, over the summer average), how soon will the seed companies who distribute to local retail suppliers respond? If this IS the main factor (and I'm not certain, yet, that it is), then many of us may have to change to some other variety than we're used to growing.

Anybody have a sense of what the seed houses will do? Any info?

Joel

joel,
In my understanding this warmer temperature phenomenon is a long term process.It will be difficult to suggest any scienitific guide line at this time.But abnormal crop production remains a fact for all of us and not only that we all are eager to know the solution as soon as possible.
Let us consider a simple example that may be the consequence for higher rain fall next year or later due to execsscive evaporation from sea and land water due to higher temptures of this year .I hope we get the answer sooner than later.
This has not happened to corn ears only but it affected my cucumbers and sweet potatoes also.I am posting the pic. of a distorted cucumber.Out of 25 sweet potatoe plants I could not get a single usable tuber and only one good cucumber from three plants.

Pic. cucumber-2007

{{gwi:102571}}

I planted Celestial this year and lost nearly half of it to smut. I plant really densely and usually water a lot. This was a "perfect storm" of conditions for smut, as it prefers white corn, moist conditions and low air circulation. I'll fix that next year.

On the upside, smut soup isn't bad and I read that you can make a really good taco with it.

As for ears on corn, in my limited (three years) experience growing corn, I only get one ear per stalk and have 20% of my stalks not produce ears (though they do produce pollen and I haven't had any pollination problems). I had figured that if I lose 20% of the stalks but have better pollination on the rest, then that was fine. Next year I'll space them out more and try hand-pollinating to see if that increases yield, or only increases work.

Few ears get covered by the corn leaves which do not get pollinated by nature's way.Hand pollination does work for such ears.Simply remove this leaf on the side and hand pollinate the ear.