The cob should fill out the shuck in a well rounded, firm but not hard fashion assuming the corn has had all the nutrients and water it needs. The size of the ear and the kernels will vary from variety to variety. If the silk are "just starting to turn brown" I'd give it a couple more days but that it hard to say without actually seeing it. So where is it DTM-wise and what size ears is your variety supposed to produce? When inexperienced the best way may be to peel an ear and look at it. Dave

As Dave stated, eggplant are used as immature fruit. They can used at anytime up till they lose their sheen. As they ripen, they get pithy and seedy. You need to know the cultivar, they range in size from golfball to football size. This is Slim Jim, the smallest cultivar that I have grown but there are samller ones.

OSUEngineer, I generally have the same experience except when the weather is wildly fluctuating from too hot to too cold weekly. When that happens, often the bigger ones bolt. It is that whole biennial thing that happens once they're a certain size and then exposed to a week of very cold weather. It really doesn't happen that often though. The smallest ones usually aren't worth planting---I mean the really tiny ones. I usually just drop them into the path to blend in with the mulch. I like the medium-sized plants since they are the easiest to keep happy, but this year even th great big ones stayed happy. You know, if the onions are happy, I'm happy. Since we haven't had that erratic weather down here this year, our onions are way ahead of their usual schedule. It is sort of astonishing to see what happens when the onions haven't had to deal with much cold weather at all since they were planted. I rarely have had onions reach the 15-16 leaf stage in May, when they reach it at all, and this year all the larger ones just about have hit that point. I feel like I walk through a forest of onions every day, but I'm not complaining. I'm so glad to hear that buying direct from Dixondale is working out so well for you. It was a gentleman from Texas, now deceased, who used to post here on GW as GoneFishin' who convinced me to try ordering from Dixondale many years ago. He always had the most beautiful onions and so I decided to try ordering direct to see if I could get onions as nice as his. I think maybe this year I finally have onions as big and as happy and as healthy as his always were, but it has taken me the better part of 2 decades to get there. See how nice it can be when the weather cooperates? When a few of mine have died like yours did, I always assume they might have had a disease or got too dried out after being pulled or whatever. It happens. I think Dixondale overpacks to account for that. Kim, Normally, if you cut off the necks instead of curing the onions properly, the onions will not store as well, but much depends on the varieties too. With all the sweet southern type varieties (most short day and intermediate day length types fall in this category), they really don't store for a real long time anyway so it might not hurt to cut off their leaves. Would I do it? No. But, these are your onions and you're the Queen of your garden so you should feel free to do whatever you choose. To understand why curing them with the leaves on is important, I'll just say that as the onions cure, the necks dry and shrink down. During this process the onion skins/wrappers are drying and sort of shriveling and pulling tight. Allowing this to happen naturally takes a while but is important---there's more to gardening than just the growing---you want to maximize your harvest's usage via proper curing and storing. The wrappers/scales/skins (whatever you choose to call them) will help protect the onions in storage. If you cut off the leaves before the drying process finishes up, the skins may not dry properly and pull tight to protect the onions from bacteria. Normally, once the skins pull tight and dry out, then you can cut the leaves off about 1" above the bulb. The reason you don't cut closer is because cutting too close can allow bacteria to infiltrate. If you prefer and if your leaves have dried down really well without getting mildew or fungi or anything, you can braid the onions together like you do with garlic. With storage onions (generally the long day length types and a few of the intermediate types), it is very important to let them cure properly. If cured properly they can last in storage from 4 to 10 months, which is just awesome. Imagine never having to buy an onion at the grocery store all year. Cutting off the leaves too early without curing properly could interfere in the curing process and cause them to sprout really early instead of storing for months. So, weigh your options. If you're wanting to cut some to use the greens, try it with a few and see how they store and then you can determine if you want to try it with more of them. The best way to learn is to experiment to see what works for you in your particular conditions and circumstances. I learned how important proper curing was early in my adult gardening life by not curing properly----that is why I feel like it is so important. When I slowed down and stopped being so impatient and allowed them to cure properly on their schedule as they needed instead of on/by my schedule, my storage time of all varieties pretty much doubled. For me, there was a huge lesson in that. You know, I helped my dad all the time when I was a kid--toddler-sized, really, through young adulthood and I never really thought much about what he did or how he did it. I just did things the way he'd shown me or told me and that was that. I didn't question his methods. They worked. I might not have understood why they worked, but I knew they did. Later on, as an adult with my own garden and with Alzheimer's Disease stealing his mind, I wish I previously had asked a lot more questions and written down his answers while he still could provide those answers. By the time I wanted/needed to ask questions to learn why we did things a certain way, he no longer could answer those questions. It took me another 10 years on my own to develop a good understanding of it all---not so much an understanding of what he did, but of why he did it and why it mattered and why I needed to do it too. I always try to explain the why's when I can because he didn't explain them to me and that caused me, eventually, to have a much longer learning curve. Dawn

Oh suzie2003's post reminds me! One June, years ago, we had our wood floors refinished. Because of the humidity, it was too tacky for the guy to finish them for days. It didn't bother me but it drove my DH crazy. Every day the flooring guy would show up, crawl across the floor on his hands and knees and then say, no, it's still too tacky for the next coat. The guy even came to the house on a Sunday morning, clearly looking like he rolled out of bed, his hair all sticking up, slapped a tool belt over his cut off sweats, and came to our house to touch the floor. The floors look great and, to me, it was worth it so when we added hardwood to the kitchen we called the same guy back. He seemed to be the poster child of what can happen if you breath in too many fumes. But we also suspected it might have been more a result of a misspent youth.