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Oklahoma Gardening

Recycle corn husks?

11 years ago

This morning we shucked a large bushel of fresh corn. Was really pleased to find very few worms! Now I've got a large can full of husks & silks. Can I/Should I put them in the compost bin? DH suggested we use them as mulch, but I'm hesitant to move any of the surviving worms to a new "buffet"

Or should I just put them in the trash? Any suggestions?

Paula

Featured Answer

mbat

10 years ago

This is an ancient thread, but just in case anyone is there, I wondered if there was anything wrong with using corn husks for mulch. There are hardly any bits of corn in the husks -- just the husks and stalks: so I am not worried about attracting insects or critturs.

I can pick up bags and bags of husks from the grocery store -- and it seems worth using to stop the weeds under by blueberry bushes.

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Comments (7)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
I usually just compost them. If your compost pile needs an infusion of nitrogen, I'd put them on it. I feel kind of iffy about using them as mulch because it might attract grasshoppers and other pests that find corn tasty. If you don't have a lot of insects, I suppose they'd work ok as mulch, but I haven't tried it. I have so much trouble with grasshoppers eating corn plants that I bury corn refuse inside the compost pile where they cannot find it...unless they take up digging.

You know, you could make corn husk jelly from those husks.

Alright, I was just making up that last part.

Dawn
soonergrandmom
11 years ago
Oh no Dawn, you are just asking for it. Now she will blame you because you never told her that before. LOL Actually I saw a post over on the Harvest forum where they talked about corn cob jelly. They said it tasted like sweet jelled water.
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Wow Anney! You must have a large freezer to accomodate all that. We have three, 2 chest in the garage and a side by side in the kitchen for quick use items. My cowpeas did very well even in the drought which took most of my sweet corn. The cowpeas have already come and gone as I mowed the vines down the other day. We did manage to cream some Peaches & Cream and Silver Queen. We still have some on the cob from last year which was a good year for the corn. One year I got real 'smart' and loaded up the back of my truck with corn and spent the day... of course, cleaning and creaming. My wife was up until after midnight blanching it for the freezer, this after working her regular job all day. She promised me bodily harm if I ever pulled this again. :( It is really nice to have company coming over for dinner and being able to open up the freezer and trying to decide the menu. Enjoy all that good stuff, Anney. Shot
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I think corn husks are a bit like leaves. If they are tender and green when harvested as corn on the cob for dinner, perhaps they are 'greens'. The corn I scavenge from my meighborhood's fall decorations is grown to hard dry maturity, and the plant tissues become 'woody', right down to the husks. Like a tree moves nutrients out of fall leaves to conserve energy, corn must do this as well. putting everything it's got into those precious kernals. The husks I have are definately browns. They're tough and papery. Likewise, take straw for another example. A young wheat plant would be a 'green', but left to maturity all the nutrients go to the seedhead and the plants turn brown in the ground before harvest. What's left is dead straw-a brown. disclaimer--this is what I personally think, from my own occasionally tenuous logic and experience. I'm pretty smart, but I was wrong once in 1988, so bear that in mind.
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I'm not an expert, but I can think of no reason why not. Well, in theory it could be advantageous to bury green husks thus composting and releasing the nutrition into the soil, rather than leaving on the top where the nitrogen will go atmospheric as your greens turn brown. But that is really nitpicking.
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Fresh husks are food. I snip mine to make the fibers shorter. Dry husks are browns. I'd still snip them up. So if you have room to dry them out go for it. I haven't been able have any corn this year. The corn in the garden hasn't done well at all. Went to tassel at 18" high. And the local stores still haven't gotten anything but a few ears that they are selling pre-shucked at an unbelievable price. Not to mention its all white corn. Never liked white corn myself.
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
Carol, I was thinking of corn cob jelly when I said corn husk jelly. I bet it would taste the same, and yes I was remembering the pinkeye purplehull pea hull jelly conversation Paula and I had a couple of years ago. And all the ones since then too. I think that with commercial pectin, a person could can anything and get it to gel, including water.

I neglected to suggest you can use the husks to make tamales, or anything that needs to be wrapped in parchment paper for cooking. Or, you can dry them and make corn husk dolls or corn husk wreaths. Some herbalists use corn husks for medicinal purposes, but I don't remember which ones.

You also can pickle pig's feet but I wasn't about to suggest that here. I expect it would require the use of a pressure canner since it is a meat. During the Dust Bowl days they even canned food we think of as weeds because subsistence farmers didn't have much else of a crop to can. I believe they canned thistles, among other stuff. I'd have to look it up in "The Worst Hard Time".

Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers probably could have listed a bunch of uses for corn husks. Folks didn't waste anything back then.

Dawn
p_mac
Original Author
11 years ago
LOL!!! I had ALREADY dug up a recipe for corn cobb jelly! I've learned to be on my toes with you guys! Some say it taste like honey, others say it taste like corn syrup. One batch and I can decides from there.

I did consider drying the husks to use in making tamales...but who am I kiddin'? Like I'm gonna have time for THAT!

Glad to know I wasn't too off base about using them for mulch. Into the compost pile they go....well, under a few inches.

Thanks for the feed-back! Sorry I've been so quiet but life, it sometimes gets just a bit too crazy. Thank GOD for my gardening...or there might be too many fresh piles of dirt. heh....just kiddin'....sorta. LOL!
soonergrandmom
11 years ago
Paula, Thy shall not kill.....however I did like Larry's idea of rounding them up and dumping them across town. LOL
biradarcm
11 years ago
Paula,
I chapped the corn stock including the husk with large shear and used it for mulching. I used same technique for other early harvested stuff. Our small compost pit (4x6) will not hold all the plant materials. Last year stuff is still siting. I have decided to chap all plant residue after final harvest and mulch it. -Chandra

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