Thanks, Folks. We don't have slugs, squirrels, or ground hogs (nor any critters, other than a few neighborhood cats that are left outdoors now and then), and I hadn't seen any evidence whatsoever of any cutworms in the garden before, so my first assumption would be birds. I just put a bunch of netting up over the beds, so hopefully this won't happen again. And hopefully the little stalk will recover and grow, since as Dave said, it's still small and young. Yep: A normal but annoying part of gardening. ;-) Thanks again, Jodi

Spring Treat shouls be ready about 10 days before the Ambrosia. The stalk should be a foot or so shorter. It is a yellow corn, but may show some white kernals if cross pollinated by a bi-color. It will also have smaller ears than Ambrosia.

I planted Early SunGlow a month ago and it is now about 8-12 inches tall. It ought to be taller but the 6" of rain that fell in two separate rainstorms after it had emerged was hard on it and its growth stalled for a little while. My soil temps are at 70 now but were in the 60s when I planted it. grn grl, I'd pre-soak it like Mulberryknob and Jcatblum did and plant it. When you pre-soak it, that initiates germination quickly and I think even a supersweet would germinate fine in these temps if it is pre-soaked. I am getting ready to pre-soak and plant my main season corn varieties now. Like Cat, I want to beat the heat. If it gets too hot too early you won't get good fertilization and the ears will be poorly filled. I always plant my early corn in March and my main crop in early April. Waiting any longer is just asking for trouble with sweet corn. I've also found that corn planted earlier has a better chance of maturing before the corn earworms and European corn borers arrive in vast hordes like an invading army. There are no guarantees with anything in gardening. If you're adamantly opposed to sowing the corn seed now, why not compromise with your DH and plant half now and save the other half to plant when temperatures are warmer. That will spread out your harvest too....maybe. Sometimes corn planted later still catches up with the earlier corn because it is planted in warmer conditions and grows faster. Dawn

dave, I always look forward to reading your posts. Regarding the cost effectiveness of the EarthTainer, you are absolutely correct, that a raised bed or traditional in ground planting is far more inexpensive. Here is Silicon Valley square footage for gardening is almost non-existent. I literally have a 5' by 18' raised bed - - and that was all the tillable space I had. Last year I was able to grow a grand total of 13 tomato plants in this space. With the 'Tainers this year, I am able to use sunny deck space, and other locations in the yard that wouldn't support in-ground planting. So I am now growing 46 tomato plants plus 4 'Tainers filled with corn. As I travel sometimes for 2 weeks at a time, I needed a "hands-free" watering solution and the Automated Watering System from the folks at the EarthBox Company fit the bill perfectly. I haven't touched a hose since March 22 when I planted out. As this part of California is about to be put under mandatory water rationing, the closed eco-system of the 'Tainer has got to be the most water stingy approach I could think of. I have found other benefits such as spinning the 'Tainer 180 degrees every 30 days, as this has encouraged a more symmetrical plant with better yield. Also, I haven't had a squirrel or gopher attack the plants this year - perhaps they don't want to scale the container walls. The soil temperature of the 'Tainer warmed about a month earlier than the temp of my in-ground bed, so I have been harvesting tomatoes since May 25 - something I have never been able to do previously. In terms of cost, the cages and staking are a wash when compared to in-ground planting. So the $23.00 for the base container system is the issue. As the "innards" of the 'Tainer are not exposed to UV, I am estimating a 15 year service life for it. I so anticipate that the Rubbermaid outer shell should last 7 years with careful use like rotation from the sun, etc. The Rubbermaid costs $9.97 at Lowes this week so that would work out to be about $1.50 per year amortization expense. The (optional) AWS worked out to be $6.25 per plant - - and in my view, saving me hours of weekly watering, this is the best $6.25 that I have ever spent in the garden!! Everyone has to weigh their priorities and tradeoffs with land availability, ROI horizon, and so forth. Yes, I did go a bit overboard in building 28 of them but I am quite happy I did so. Alley Cat, Yes, I agree and would love to find a basket of 3" by 6" with a depth of 5", as my ideal size, but exhaustive searches at houseware stores, the Internet, Amazon, etc. have not turned up such a size. joytwo, I experimented with "extreme pruning" on my early Stupice and as you can see, the tomatoes were both early and prolific. Not a pretty photograph, but as one said in another thread "Do you eat the leaves....or the tomatoes??" Raybo